Surrealism

Surrealism is a revolution, a cultural, artistic, and intellectual movement oriented toward the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative faculties of the "unconscious mind" and the attainment of a state different from, "more than", and ultimately truer than everyday reality: the "sur-real", i.e. more than real. For many Surrealists, this orientation toward transcending everyday reality toward one that incorporates the imaginative and the unconscious has manifested itself in the intent to bring about personal, cultural, political and social revolution, sometimes conceived or described as a complete transformation of life by freedom, poetry, love, and sexuality. In the words of André Breton, generally regarded as the founder of surrealism: "beauty will be convulsive or not at all." At various times individual surrealists aligned themselves with communism and anarchism to advance radical political and social change, arguing that only transformed institutions of work, the family, and education could make possible a general participation in the surreal. More recently some surrealists have participated in feminist and radical environmentalist activities for similar reasons.

Philosophy

Surrealist philosophy emerged around 1920, partly as an outgrowth of Dada, with French writer Breton as its initial principal theorist.

Related Topics:
1920 - Dada - Breton

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In Breton's Surrealist Manifesto of 1924 he defines Surrealism as:

Related Topics:
Surrealist Manifesto - 1924

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: Dictionary: Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, or in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.

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: Encyclopedia: Surrealism. Philosophy. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of previously neglected associations, in the omnipotence of dream, in the disinterested play of thought. It tends to ruin once and for all all other psychic mechanisms and to substitute itself for them in solving all the principal problems of life."

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Breton would later qualify the first of these definitions by saying in the absence of conscious moral or aesthetic self-censorship, and by his admission, however, as well as by the subsequent developments, these definitions were capable of considerable expansion.

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Like those involved in Dada, Surrealism adherents thought the horrors of World War I were the culmination of the Industrial Revolution and the result of the rational mind. Consequently, irrational thought, or dream-states were seen as the natural antidote to those social problems.

Related Topics:
World War I - Industrial Revolution

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While Dada rejected categories and labels and was rooted in negative response to the First World War, Surrealism advocates the idea that ordinary and depictive expressions are vital and important, but that the sense of arrangement must be open to the full range of imagination according to the Hegelian Dialectic. Marxist dialectic and other theories, such as Freudian theory]] also played a significant role in some of the development of surrealist theory and, as in the work of such theorists as Walter Benjamin and Herbert Marcuse, surrealism contributed to the development of Marxian theory itself.

Related Topics:
Dada - First World War - Hegelian Dialectic - Freud - Walter Benjamin - Herbert Marcuse

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Surrealists diagnosis of the "problem" of the realism and capitalist civilisation is a restrictive overlay of false rationality, including social and academic convention, on the free functioning of the instinctual urges of the human mind.

Related Topics:
Realism - Capitalist

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Surrealist philosophy connects with the theories of psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. Freud asserted that unconscious thoughts (the thoughts one is not aware of) motivate human behavior, and he advocated free association (uncensored expression) and dream analysis to reveal unconscious thoughts.

Related Topics:
Sigmund Freud - Unconscious - Free association - Dream analysis

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It is through the practice of automatism, dream interpretation and numerous other surrealist methods, that Surrealists believe the wellspring of imagination and creativity can be accessed.

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Surrealism also embraces idiosyncrasy, while rejecting the idea of an underlying madness or darkness of the mind. Salvador Dalí, who was quite idiosycratic, explained it as, "The only difference between myself and a madman is I am not MAD!"

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Surrealists look to so-called "primitive art" as an example of expression that is not self-censored.

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The radical aim of Surrealism is to revolutionize human experience, including its personal, cultural, social, and political aspects, by freeing people from what is seen as false rationality, and restrictive customs and structures. As Breton proclaimed, the true aim of Surrealism is "long live the social revolution, and it alone!"

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To this goal, at at various times Surrealists have aligned with communism and anarchism.

Related Topics:
Communism - Anarchism

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Not all Surrealists subscribe to all facets of the philosophy. Historically many were not interested in politcal matters, and this lack of interest manifested rifts in the Surrealism movement.

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By the turn of the 21st century, Surrealist philosophy varied amongst Surrealist groups around the globe. Some surrealist theorists have stated that surrealism has somehow "gone beyond" or "superseded" philosophy, or that philosophy has been "outclassed" by surrealism.

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