The surreal literature It is the set of literary works that were produced at the beginning of the 20th century and that, with the invention of new procedures and techniques, sought to reflect unconscious thought, since they established a free association between ideas and elements that did not have a logical relationship. For example: “The factories”, by André Breton and Philippe Soupault.
The objective of surrealism was to break with the literary and ideological tradition of the bourgeoisie, that is, with the artistic rules and with the rational representation of reality and society that were in force at that time and that had been the pillars of realism and of naturalism.
In addition, the surrealists considered that the truth of the human being does not come from reason, but from his unconscious, his desires, his dreams and his imagination. For this reason, these authors modified the notion of literary work by incorporating themes, forms and uses of language that represented the dream world and irrational thought.
Although novels and stories were written in this movement, poetry had more predominance, because creative freedom, new techniques, and literary images formed from illogical relationships between ideas and concepts were better developed in this type of text.
Origin and history of surrealism
The term “surrealism” was coined in 1917 by Guillaume Apollinaire, a French poet, to refer to what is above or beyond realism, that is, the unconscious, the magical and the irrational.
However, surrealism emerged as a movement in 1920, since in that year André Breton and Philippe Soupault, two French writers, began to experiment with new techniques, such as collective writing and composition under hypnosis.
A few years later, in 1924, Breton took up Apollinaire’s concept and published the surreal manifesto to define the general guidelines that would allow the creation of a completely new and different literature. As it happened with the rest of the avant-gardes, over time this movement spread to other arts and to other countries and continents.
In 1930 many of the surrealists proclaimed themselves communists, since their objective was not only to change literature, but also the world, life and the conception of the human being.
Finally, because of World War II, fascism and Nazism, most of the Surrealists left Europe and the movement dissolved.
Characteristics of surrealist literature
- influences. The main influences of surrealism are:
- Dadaism. It is the artistic current initiated by Tristan Tzara and its objective was to produce anti-poetry, that is, poetry that was illogical and difficult to understand.
- psychoanalysis. It is a psychological theory initiated by Sigmund Freud, who maintained that the psychic apparatus was composed of three systems, the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. The surrealists took up this idea, because they believed that the true identity of the human being was in the unconscious. For this reason, in their works they wanted to reflect the functioning of this non-rational instance.
- Topics. The themes were free, but the aim was to deal with shocking themes or those related to myths, the unconscious, the illogical, the unknown, the irrational and the contradictory.
- Form. The form was not previously determined, therefore, in poetry free verse was used, that is, one that does not have a specific number of syllables or rhyme. In addition, generally, it was sought to juxtapose two words or ideas that did not have a logical connection.
- Language. According to the surrealist authors, everyday language was useless to communicate reality, therefore it was necessary to renew it to express the absurd, imagination, dreams and the irrationality of the unconscious.
- Techniques. The techniques of surrealist literature were not exclusive, therefore, to compose a poetry more than one could be applied:
- psychic automatism. It consisted of writing using free association, that is, including all the thoughts that appeared in the mind spontaneously.
- Imagination. It consisted of creating a poetic image relating two elements that did not have a logical connection, that is, they could not be elaborated with rational thought.
- Use of dream material. It consisted of creating a poetic image with elements from dreams, since these are illogical and are formed in the unconscious.
- paranoid method. It consisted of writing in a state of delirium or hypnosis.
- Random. It consisted of writing using games or similar procedures to create random images. For example, the exquisite corpse was a method in which different authors participated in consecutive turns; each one wrote a part, but could only see the last sentence or word that the previous one had written down.
- lyrical exaltation. It consisted of writing expressing feelings in a hyperbolic way.
- Humor. It consisted of satirizing bourgeois values, parodying other literary texts or including jokes, puns or phrases with a double meaning or ambiguity.
Main authors and examples of surrealist literature
Andre Breton (1896-1966)
He was a French writer who took up the ideas of psychoanalysis and Dadaism to found Surrealism and who mainly produced poetry.
- “Yves’s house”
Yves Tanguy’s house
Where you enter only at night
With the storm-lamp
Outside the transparent country
A fortune teller in his element
With the storm-lamp
With the sawmill so industrious that it is no longer seen
And the patterned fabric of the sky
-Come on, the supernatural to the ground
With the storm-lamp
With the sawmill so industrious that it is no longer seen
With all the stars in hell
Made of ties and platbands
crab color in the surf
With the storm-lamp
With the sawmill so industrious that it is no longer seen
With all the stars in hell
With the raving trams held back only by their cables
The chained space, the diminished time
Ariana in her room-chest
With the storm-lamp
With the sawmill so industrious that it is no longer seen
With all the stars in hell
With the raving trams held back only by their cables
With the endless manes of the Argonaut
The service is in charge of falenas
Who cover their eyes with cloth
With the storm-lamp
With the sawmill so industrious that it is no longer seen
With all the stars in hell
With the raving trams held back only by their cables
With the endless manes of the Argonaut
With the shining furniture of the desert
There it is killed there it is cured
And openly conspire
With the storm-lamp
With the sawmill so industrious that it is no longer seen
With all the stars in hell
With the raving trams held back only by their cables
With the endless manes of the Argonaut
With the shining furniture of the desert
With the signals that lovers exchange from afar
That is Yves Tanguy’s house.
Philippe Soupault (1897-1990)
He was a French writer who was initially part of the Dada movement and later founded Surrealism with André Breton.
- “Georgia”
I don’t sleep Georgia
I shoot arrows into the night Georgia
hope georgia
I think Georgia
fire is like snow georgia
the night is my neighbor georgia
I hear every noise without exception Georgia
I see the smoke go up and run away Georgia
trail to wolf’s pace in the shadow georgia
I run here is the street here are the neighborhoods Georgia
Here is a city always the same
and that I don’t know Georgia
I hurry here is the Georgia wind
and the cold and the silence and the fear Georgia
i ran away georgia
I run Georgia
the clouds are low they are about to fall Georgia
I extend my arm Georgia
I don’t close my eyes Georgia
I call Georgia
georgia scream
I call Georgia
I call you Georgia
maybe you come Georgia
Georgia soon
Georgia Georgia Georgia
Georgia
I can’t sleep Georgia
hope georgia
Benjamin Peret (1899-1959)
He was a French writer who believed that reality could be intervened with poetry and who used humor and irony in most of his literary productions.
- “White Nights”
Surpassed the camembert box
the little bumblebee is lost in the desert
where the ham almost starves
Run left and right
but to the right and left he sees only lime-blanched tomatoes
He looks up and sees a coat rack.
that makes fun of him
oh varnished coat rack polished by sea lobsters
have mercy on a little bumblebee that sticks out its tongue
because you can’t shoot with the rifle over your socks
they would make an excellent dinner
Have mercy on a little bumblebee who plays the flute
to try to charm you
because he thought you were a snake
If you weren’t a rattlesnake or a spectacled snake
the bumblebee would not have gnawed his flute
in his despair
and I would not have expected death
behind a tie
And death would not have come
like a glass rake
and death would not have picked it up
like a butt
Louis Aragon (1897-1982)
He was a French writer who considered that the world should be interpreted from a surreal perspective in order to discover the wonder of reality.
- Fragment of “Broceliande”
2
Prayer to make it rain that, on the edge of Brocélianda, is prayed once a year at the rim of the Bellenton fountain
Let the water from the sky stun
The dust of our hair
And the drought that is grazing
a burnt cattle
That the water of the sky expels the anguish
Whose weevils corrode
The great heart of the wheat fields
Say the water from the sky
Say the water from heaven I want
Waiting makes people nervous
time time stretches
And the night isn’t dark enough
and the dawn returns
The horror of the clear day
the world is an oven
There the stone desires the footsteps of the moon
There the stone splits under the knee of the sun
There the stone which heart in the terrible hand of the child
Then what could I say about my unfortunate heart of man
Times times are hard
To which gods would I pray with you supplicants who are sweating
under your fedoras
To what gods that were not deaf like our age-old incredulity
They are the gods that guard the locks
That facilitate the passage of the barges of misfortune when the boatmen call (…)
Paul Eluard (1895-1952)
He was a French writer who used the paranoid method to produce his texts and whose poems were mainly about love, loneliness and freedom.
- “The mirror of a moment”
dispel the day,
He shows men images detached from appearance,
Take away from men the possibility of distraction,
It’s hard as stone
the shapeless stone,
The stone of movement and sight,
And it has such a brilliance that all the armor and all the masks
they remain falsified
What the hand has taken does not even deign to take shape
hand in hand,
What has been understood no longer exists,
The bird has been confused with the wind,
Heaven with its truth
The man with his reality.
Rene Char (1907-1988)
He was a French poet whose poems mixed elements of reality with imaginary and dreamlike elements.
- Fragment of…