This term was first put forward by Andre Breton in his first surrealist manifesto (1924), which is intended to express the real thinking process of people in purely spontaneous psychological activities by oral, written or other means. Bleton declared that the main interest of surrealism is to realize a revolution of emancipating human thoughts, and its highest purpose is to realize the unity of people's external world and inner world. Therefore, surrealism was completely divorced from literature at first. However, Brittany and his companions made surrealism a major trend in poetry and art in the first half of the 20th century.
Surrealists believe that studying people's dreams, psychedelic States and their automatic writing under the control of the subconscious is the real means to explore knowledge. They attach great importance to the analysis of people's ideological activities in Wake Up. They believe that people's psychedelic state, whether natural or induced, can reveal people's ideological activities without rational control and aesthetic and moral influence. Similarly, automatic writing, which is not influenced by aesthetics or morality, can reveal people's subconscious activities.
Surrealists believe that all these methods can help people get rid of the shackles brought by habits, social customs and education. Only by getting rid of this bondage can they freely experience life in the surreal world. Only the surreal world can reveal the true relationship between man and the universe.
Bleton published his second surrealist manifesto in the magazine Surrealist Revolution published in February 1929, which further expanded the definition of surrealism. He wrote: "Surrealism means completely restoring our psychological strength by sneaking into our hearts, systematically illuminating the original hidden places and gradually darkening the original bright places, and constantly exploring the depths of the original forbidden zone ... All this makes people believe that there is a combination point in people's minds. At this juncture, the phenomena of life and death, reality and imagination, past and future, communication and impassability, and high-level and low-level are all connected, and there is no longer contradiction. The only goal of surrealism is to find and determine such a combination point in people's minds. "
In the eyes of surrealists, surreal poetry is mainly a means to explore knowledge; In this way, the poet can have a clearer understanding of the world he knows through his feelings. It is precisely because surrealist poets can solve the main problems in life that they become revolutionary figures who are committed to changing the present situation of mankind. Surrealism poetry doesn't need to follow the traditional poetic techniques or create new ones. Surrealist poetry is usually indistinguishable from prose. In the poems of some surrealist masters such as Brittany and Ai Lvya, we can find a certain rhythm. Surrealist poets believe that vocabulary is an image with its own vitality. They combined different "words-images" and created many shining poetic images. It is this image, rather than the metaphor commonly used in traditional poetry, that forms the basis of the image system of surrealist poetry.
The themes of surreal poetry include love, rebellion, strangeness, freedom, "high desire", "black humor" and the world of subconscious thoughts. Their so-called love refers to the love for women with obvious colors. Their so-called rebellion mainly refers to the rebellion against logical principles, social ethics and customary norms. What they call strangeness refers to all strange behaviors that replace rational logic, social morality and customary norms in daily life, especially in urban civilization. The "black humor" they created refers to a form of rebellion with explosive force and self-liberation effect. They advocate "high desire" because they believe that all human emotional desires represent the ultimate value of life.
The main French surrealist writers are: louis aragon (born in 1897), Anttonen Atto (born in 1895- 1948), Andre Brittany (born in 1896) and Aimee sezer (born in1896). René Crever (1900- 1935), Robert Desnos (1900- 1945), Paul éluard (1895- 1952). Benjamin Paley (born in 1899), Francis Picabia (born in 1878), Raymond Knohl (born in 1903), Philip Subo (born in 1897), Tristan Zara.
It is difficult to determine the exact time when the surrealist movement began. As Bleton pointed out, surrealism first appeared to express a mental state of human beings. In fact, this mentality has long been scattered in the long history of various countries. However, the writer who first used the word "surrealism" was guillaume apollinaire (1880- 19 18), and the subtitle of his farce Tiresias' * *( 19 17) was ". The word "surrealism" gained a new meaning and an accurate definition in Brittany's Surrealism Manifesto published in 1924. In the same year, this word appeared in the book Surrealism Revolution, the title of Surrealism Movement. The first editors of this magazine (1924) were Pierre Naville and Benjamin Pere, who was succeeded by Brittany (1925- 1930). The first work of surrealism was Magnetic Field written by Brittany and Su Bo, which was published in Literature magazine edited by 19 19 and Aragon. This work is an attempt by two authors to "subconsciously write automatically". Brittany's first surrealist manifesto published in 1924 is a summary of surrealism's creative experience in its so-called "heroic period".
1922 Brittany and his friends broke with Dadaism, and Brittany took over as editor-in-chief of Literary Review. From 1922 to 1924, surrealists explored and discovered their experimental surrealism fields-dreams caused by hypnosis and subconscious states that can write automatically. 192 1 year, Brittany was accepted by Freud. Freud was a master of bretons's fanaticism. Freud's theory later had an important influence on the development of surrealist creative methods.
The development of surrealism is also influenced by many other writers and schools. In the French literary world, the writers who have had obvious influence on surrealism are: Marquis de Sade (1740- 18 14), whose rebellion against reality and tradition has become a model of surrealism; Gé rard de Naival (1808-1855) was the first person to use the word "supernatural", who claimed that there was a joint between the external world and the inner world. Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) first described the morbidness and disorder of modern people's thoughts; Stefana Malaheim (1842-1898), who thinks that the main function of a poet is similar to that of a magician; Isidore Ducas (1846-1870) reveals people's mental pain and expresses his concern for people's situation in his work Song of Mardoro. Artie Rambo (1854- 189 1), who emphasizes the unity and innocence of life and advocates the creation of psychedelic state and other abnormal mental states; Alfred Jarry (1873— 1907), who created a violent and obscene humor; And guillaume apollinaire.
Among the writers in other countries, German Novalis and von Anim, British Blake, Coleridge, ann radcliffe and Horace walpole had an important influence on surrealists. In addition, the examples of Hegel's philosophy, Freudian psychology and Jacob Washer (1896- 19 19) all had obvious influences on the surrealist school. Brittany met a washing machine in a hospital on 19 16. 19 19 After Vachel committed suicide, he was regarded as a symbol of "rebellion" by surrealists. In addition, surrealists also get inspiration from primitive art in various countries.
1924 During the outbreak of World War II, the surrealist movement created many poems, such as The Eternal Movement by Aragon (1925) and Are you crazy by René Crever? (1929), Robert Desnos's Minotaur (1930), Paul éluard's Love and Poetry (1929), Brittany's The White-haired Flyer (1932), etc. These poems and a large number of prose works created by surrealists reflect the vitality of the surrealist movement.
Surrealism disapproved of the strict division of various arts from the beginning. Therefore, painters, sculptors and poets cooperate and learn from each other. 1933, salvador dali (born in 1904) put forward "paranoid analysis" on the basis of analyzing the state of insanity. This method put forward by him further promoted the development of surrealism. Using Dali's method, we can find the object of surrealism research, that is, the situation in the subconscious state or in the dream. 1938 held an international surrealist exhibition in Paris, and 18 countries sent representative works of surrealist art. This exhibition shows that the surrealist movement has expanded to a global scale.
1930, the surrealist periodical Surrealist Revolution was renamed Surrealist Serving the Revolution, indicating that surrealists attached importance to the social revolution after the Moroccan war in 1925. 1933 Surrealism movement broke with * * *, and surrealism serving the revolution stopped publishing. 1934 The magazine "Body and Wealth" became the main publication of surreal works. From 65438 to 0937, Bleton became one of the directors of the magazine.
During World War II, Bleton founded the magazine VVV in the United States. 1942, he delivered an important speech entitled Surrealism between the two world wars at Yale University. Later, he wrote the introduction of the Third Surrealism Declaration, which was published in 1946 together with the first two declarations. During World War II, most members of the surrealist movement stayed in France and took part in the anti-Nazi war. Aragon, who was expelled from the surrealist movement by Brittany in his early years, and Ai Lvya, who was expelled from the surrealist movement in 1942, both wrote poems full of patriotism, but still with obvious surrealism.
After World War II, surrealism attracted many young writers. Although surrealism, as a complete literary movement, no longer exists, its influence on literature and art is still enduring. 1949, the surrealism international exhibition was held in Paris, with 24 countries participating. Brittany's postwar works, Secret 17 (1945), Ode to Fourier (1947), Poetry (1948) and Selected Works of Black Humor (1950, 1st Edition, 6544). It is impossible for surrealists to publish publications as influential as the original surrealism in the process of serving the revolution, but Bleton continued to devote himself to editing publications. He first hosted Surrealism Magazine, but it didn't last long. Later, he co-authored Gap with Robert Benayoun (founded in March 1962). In addition to Brittany, other surrealist writers also created many attractive surrealist works after the Second World War, such as Dirty Years by Pierre de mundia (1948) and Poems by George Sheard (Volume II) (/kloc-).
Since 1930s, surrealism has had an undeniable influence on poetry. Contemporary poetry has not only aesthetic significance, but also metaphysical cognitive significance. This change in contemporary poetry is largely due to the influence of surrealism. In France and some other countries, the change of poetic language reflects the innovative experiment of surrealism in language application. Surrealism's ideas about * * *, freedom, humor and weird behavior have become an important part of modern western ideas. In addition to poetry, surrealism has a far-reaching impact on the development of modern drama, novels, movies, paintings and sculptures. The influence of surrealism on all kinds of literature and art is not limited to France, but all over the world, because in fact the surrealism movement has developed into an important international literary movement in the 20th century. Japan, Egypt, the former Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Britain, Spain, Italy, Argentina, Mexico, the United States and many other countries have produced their own surreal poets and painters and published surreal periodicals. In all these countries, the literary and art circles generally believe in surrealism, believing that poets and artists are a family and interdependent.