Thursday 1 December 2022

An introduction to surrealism

The following session is a collection of research activities designed to help you to get to grips with surrealism ass a concept. The two surrealist films we are studying are both being studied through the prism of surrealism. Examples of questions you may be asked included 'explore the ways in which the combination of cinematography and editing constructs a surrealistic aesthetic' or 'to what extent are the films you have studied for this unit typical of surrealist cinema? Make reference to elements of narrative  to support your answer'. So, very frankly, it's important to learn what surrealism is before we continue!

Defining surrealism

When we looked at postmodernism, we had to conclude that it didn't really have an easy to come to definition. The idea 'postmodernism is a theory that cannot be defined' seems pretentious, but it reflects a world in which we live in that frankly doesn't make sense any more. 

However, while there is some overlap between postmodernism and surrealism (though not much to be honest), one of the biggest differences is that surrealism has a very definite, absolute and clear definition. Ant here it is:

Surrealism - an art movement that seeks to recreate the logic of dreams

There we go!

Surrealism is an art movement that focuses on ‘the unconscious mind’ So any conscious meaning is largely absent from surrealist art. Surrealism is highly influenced by the work of the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, particularly his writing on the interpretation of dreams.

Task 1 - researching Freud

Spend exactly seven minutes researching Sigmund Freud, and everything you can find out about him. His most important work is probably 'Dreams And Their Relation To The Unconscious', so this is a good place to start. You do not need to be an expert in Freud and we'll be looking at him in more detail later on, but some basic knowledge will be very useful indeed!

What is surrealism and what isn't surrealism?

You've probably referred to something as 'surreal' before. Sorry to break this to you, but you've probably used this term incorrectly. Don't worry, it's one of the most widely misused terms out there. This is because 'surrealism' is often used as a catch-all term for ‘weird’, ‘random’, ‘odd’ or ‘strange’. But this is not true at all.


This dog is weird. But it's not surreal. It actually makes perfect sense. Someone dressed up their dog. It happens!


The Lovers (1928) by Rene Magritte IS an example of surreal art. It presents an uncomfortable and dreamlike narrative to the spectator. We are forced to confront our attitude to sex and sexuality in a strange new context.


Dunno what's going on here. But again, it's weird, not necessarily surreal. 


The Doll (193x) by Hans Bellmer. This is an example of surrealism. It takes obsessive, dream like images, and repositions them in a way that perhaps the conscious mind would never do.

Exploring the unconscious mind


Surrealism has a very strict definition then. It is art that follows the logic of dreams. And only art that follows the logic of the unconscious mind can be classed as surrealism. But what is the unconscious mind? What happens when we dream?

The unconscious mind is everything that is happening beneath the surface of our mind that we can't normally get hold of. The issue is that we can't get hold of this stuff. It's normally completely hidden. The only time when our unconscious mind truly is revealed is when we dream.

Task 2 - write down the last thing you dreamt of


Try and write down, in as much detail as possible, the last thing you dreamt of. There are lots of issues with this task. Can you clearly remember your last dream? Are you sure you recently dreamt it, or did you dream it years ago? Do your dreams blur in to one? And perhaps the contents of your dreams are not something you wish to share? If so, why not?

This is an important task, so take it seriously. Write down your last dream in as much detail as possible.

Here are a couple of VERY BORING EXAMPLES to get you started:

Michael's first dream


I started a masters degree in cultural sociology at Cambridge, but then a nice man in an auditorium announced that 'we are being attacked next week'. So even though my wife was moaning about me spending all my money on a qualification I didn’t actually need we all got access to Cambridge uni’s secret bunker complex. That is me, my wife and my daughter. Everyone else in the entire world died, but I wasn’t bothered at all. It was a bit like the start of Fallout 4 but no one seemed to care. I didn’t care. So we climbed down all these stairs and it was pretty good. Everything was clean and nice. But I had to share shelf space for my records and CDs with all these undergraduates. I kind of wanted to see how life went in the bunker and the end of the world but I just drank grape soda by myself for a long time. Then I woke up. 

Michael's second dream (later that night)


There was a huge black rose made of wood and metal. His name was Talmud Peter. I laughed at this, it was very funny. Then everything was golden cubes, forever, and ever. 



But seriously, what is surrealism?


If you want a little more definition to your definitions, I identify the following four points as being absolutely essential to surrealist art. Something that is surrealist may not tick off all four of these points, but it should definitely tick off a few

Surrealist art follows the logic of dreams. This can include


  1. Presenting a confusing, non-linear progression of space and time
  2. Themes of wish fulfilment and hidden desires
  3. An exploration of deep and hidden anxieties
  4. Themes of sexual obsession and sexual fetishism

Task three - watch this documentary


It's only five minutes long, and will help you to outline the many things that make surrealism... surrealism. Make notes on it. Again, you are going to have to write an essay response on this very soon indeed!

A history of surrealist cinema


Task four - watch this documentary too


This documentary is specifically on surrealist cinema, especially early surrealist cinema. It covers several points we'll go into in more detail later on. This one's a bit longer (half an hour!!!!!!!!!) so make even more notes this time.