LITERARY SURREALISM: CHARACTERISTICS AND REPRESENTATIVES - LITERATURE - 2024

The literary surrealism was a literary movement that flourished in Europe in the period running time between the First and Second World War.

It is considered to have been born in 1920 with the surrealist manifesto published by André Bretón and lasted until the 1940s.

André Breton, 1924

Its main influence was Dadaism, which since before the First World War produced works of anti-art. However, the emphasis of Surrealism was not placed on the negation of art, as was the case with Dadaism, but on the construction of a positive expression of it.

This movement considered that rationalism had generated negative effects on society in the wrong way. In fact, they attributed to him the social, cultural and political phenomena that had led to the outbreak of the First World War.

According to the surrealist poet André Bretón, the movement's main spokesman, surrealism was a means of reuniting the conscious realm with the unconscious.

In this way, it would be possible to unite the rational world with the world of dreams and fantasies in an absolute reality or "surreality".

the beginning

Until the beginning of the First World War, art had been controlled and traversed by prevailing policies. In fact, it was a way of maintaining order and preventing revolutions from breaking out in Europe.

For this reason, the surrealists were interested in founding a movement that would free art from the limitations it had until that moment. However, his revolutionary interest sought to make extreme changes but in a positive and creative way.

On the other hand, although they were opposed to the political order of the time, their interests were of a purely artistic nature, not political.

This movement aimed to liberate people in the psychological and spiritual realm. However, World War II broke out and took surrealist writers as part of its political and military target.

For this reason, during the birth and development of Nazism and Fascism, Surrealist writers had to go into exile, seeking refuge in America. This fact allowed his ideas to spread and have transcendence in this continent.

For this reason, even though the movement itself ended, Surrealism survives in many later literary creations.

His ideas and poetic techniques continue to be used even today by authors who seek to free the mind and invite readers to transcendence and reflection.

characteristics

Literary surrealism sought to reunite reality with imagination. In this effort, the writers of this current sought to overcome the contradictions that arose between conscious and unconscious ideas, creating strange or unreal stories.

For this reason, the surrealist works were controversial and shocking. This is precisely because they intended to push people beyond the limits of their comfort to the point of creating conflict situations.

Surrealist literature offered contrasting images or ideas. This had the aim of leading readers to make new connections between different ideas and thus broaden the readers' conception of reality.

He also used images and metaphors to force the reader to make interpretations that would lead him to explore his own subconscious.

Surreal poetry

Surrealist poetry was characterized by the juxtaposition of words that were not related to each other by logical processes, but rather psychological and unconscious.

In this genre, the authors created images, dreamlike and fantastic stories that defied logic. They ignored all the established structures and promoted leaps in linearity and abstract ideas that would allow the creation of new associations of ideas.

Representatives

André Breton

André Bretón was born in France in February 1896 and died in September 1966. After the First World War he moved to Paris, where he joined the literary avant-gardes that were then developing in the city.

During the First World War he joined the artists of the Dada movement. However, over time he himself would be the founder of surrealism from the publication of his surrealist manifesto.

Based on the theories of Sigmund Freud, Breton understood the unconscious as a source of imagination and new ideas. Therefore, he defined genius according to the accessibility that people had to that kingdom that inhabits their unconscious.

Louis Aragon

Louis Aragon was born in Paris in 1897 and died in 1982. In 1917 he enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris where he met André Bretón.

In 1919 Bretón y Aragón published the first number of the magazine "Literatura", belonging to the current of Dadaist literature.

However, later Aragon focused his attention on surrealism, within which he was characterized by his defense of automatic writing. He explained that this was a way to put his thoughts on paper in a natural and fluid way.

Aragon was committed to communist ideas, which is visible in his series "Le Monde Reel". This was a series of books on surrealist politics that uses social realism in order to attack bourgeois literary and cultural norms.

After the war, Aragon wrote a series of non-fiction works, monographs, translations, and books on history, politics, art, and culture. In total he published more than 100 books throughout his life, apart from posthumous publications.

Philippe Soupault

Philippe Soupault was born in Chaville in 1897 and died in Paris in 1990. He participated in the Dada movement with Tristán Tzara and later, along with Breton and Aragon, was one of the founders of the Surrealist movement.

Together with Breton he participated in the creation of the Dada magazine “Literatura” in 1919. Later, together with this author, he wrote “Los Campos Magéticos”, a work that is considered the first experiment in automatic writing.

However, he broke his relationship with Breton in 1927 when the latter joined the Communist Party. Henceforth, his work distanced itself from surrealism.

His later publications were more related to literary and art criticism, as well as essay writing.

References

1. Licciardi, B. (SF). What is Surrealism in Literature? - Definition, Characteristics & Examples. Recovered from: study.com
2. Poetry Foundation. (SF). Louis Aragon. Recovered from: poetryfoundation.org
3. The Biography. (SF). Biography of Philippe Soupault. Recovered from: thebiography.us
4. The editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2016). Surrealism. Recovered from: britannica.com