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.

Sources

André Breton

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• André Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism containing the 1^st, 2^nd and introduction to a possible 3^rd Manifesto, and in addition the novel The Soluble Fish and political aspects of the Surrealist movement. ISBN 0472179004.
• What is Surrealism?: Selected Writings of André Breton. ISBN 0873488229.
• André Breton, Conversations: The Autobiography of Surrealism (Gallimard 1952) (Paragon House English rev. ed. 1993). ISBN 1569249709.
• André Breton. The Abridged Dictionary of Surrealism, reprinted in:
• Marguerite Bonnet, ed. (1988). Oeuvres complètes, 1:328. Paris: Éditions Gallimard.

Other sources

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Guillaume Appollinaire (1917, 1991). Program note for Parade, printed in Oeuvres en prose complètes, 2:865-866, Pierre Caizergues and Michel Décaudin, eds. Paris: Éditions Gallimard.
• Gerard Durozoi, History of the Surrealist Movement (translated by Alison Anderson, University of Chicago Press). 2004. ISBN 0226174115.
• Rosemont, Franklin, Surrealism and Its Popular Accomplices San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books (1980). ISBN 087286121X.
• Brotchie, Alastair and Gooding, Mel, eds. A Book of Surrealist Games Berkeley, CA: Shambhala (1995). ISBN 1570620849.
• Moebius, Stephan. Die Zauberlehrlinge. Soziologiegeschichte des Collège de Sociologie. Konstanz: UVK 2006. (About the College of Sociology, its members and sociological impacts).
• Maurice Nadeau, History of Surrealism (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1989). ISBN 0674403452.
• Alexandrian, Sarane. Surrealist Art London: Thames & Hudson, 1970.
• Melly, George Paris and the Surrealists Thames & Hudson. 1991.
• Lewis, Helena The Politics Of Surrealism 1988
• Caws, Mary Ann Surrealist Painters and Poets: An Anthology 2001 MIT Press