Surrealism is Back! And We Have the Internet to Thank

Earlier this month, before the coronavirus shut everything down, I traveled to St. Petersburg for a freelance writing conference. Besides teaching at a state college in Fort Myers, I also make ends meet by writing for clients. A few hours before the conference started, I had the unique experience of visiting the Salvador Dalí Museum.

Not that I’m an expert in fine art or possess the ability to paint something absolutely earth-shattering, but when I have time in a new city I like to visit an art gallery. Why do I do this? Because art in all of its forms — literature, photography, painting, music or performing arts —  is about expanding your mind and looking at a subject from a different perspective.

Visiting the Dalí in downtown St. Petersburg is an education in the surrealist art of the 1920s to 1950s, and some of the artist’s most famous pieces are on display, including “Daddy Longlegs of the Evening-Hope!” and “Nature Morte Vivante.”

Surrealists like Dalí sought to release the unconscious mind by demonstrating the contradictions between dream and reality. Besides the iconic paintings produced over this period, many notable writings were also published by Dalí and his colleagues including André Breton (often called “the father” of surrealism).

What is Surrealist Writing?

Dalí is famous for his bizarre paintings, outlandish personality and impressive mustache, but he also wrote a number of poems and books in his lifetime. In 1928 he wrote an art theory book called The Yellow Manifesto, in 1942 an autobiography called The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, in 1944 a novel called Hidden Faces, and many lines of poetry inspired by his own paintings.

In 1929 Dalí read Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams and described it as “one of the capital discoveries of my life. I was seized with the real vice of self-interpretation; not only of my dreams, but of everything that happened to me…” He grew interested in psychoanalysis and studying the unconscious mind through dreams. This became his artistic focus and he officially joined the surrealist movement.

Literary surrealism — like its visual art counterpart — is meant to be strange and shocking with contrasting images or ideas to force a reader into questioning their own beliefs or perceived reality. Surrealist writings predominantly focus on imagery and they aren’t as concerned with truth. In the case of Dalí’s autobiography, for instance, his pursuit of the perfect imagery was far more important than the accuracy of events.

Five Surrealist Writing Techniques to Try at Home

There are a variety of exercises writers of prose or poetry can do to reduce the space between the conscious and unconscious mind, and jumpstart their imagination. In a May 2016 blog post, poet Ann Yu Huang listed five of these techniques:

1. Exquisite corpse game: Players take turns writing down words on a piece of paper, folding the paper and passing it on to the next person.
2. Palindrome poem: Writing poetry that reads the same way forwards and backwards.
3. Echo poem: One or more poets write on a piece of paper divided into two columns. In the left column is a line of poetry and in the right is its phonetic “echo.”
4. Cut-up technique: A writer cuts strips of text on paper and rearranges the words to create a new work.
5. Automatism: A writer puts down on paper whatever comes to mind without filtering, shaping or editing. Although originally developed as a surrealist writing technique, automatism is a common technique used today by all kinds of writers. Teachers across the world also use this strategy, typically called free writing.

Is “Fake News” Fueling a Resurgence of Surrealism?

When surrealism first came on the scene in 1917 humanity was reeling from the horrors of World War I. The surrealist movement originated from Dada, where artists were expressing their disgust with war and a desire to establish a new social order. People were overwhelmed and craved an escape. This marked the birth of surrealism.

Many parallels from that time period can be drawn to today: a distaste for seemingly “endless wars” or violence, a technological revolution that leaves some behind, anger at the mass media and a rejection of the establishment. These similarities lead many to think that surrealism is now making a resurgence.

Joel Achenbach wrote a blog for The Washington Post in 2016 called “Fake news and creeping surrealism” where he argued that misinformation on the Internet and social media is reviving surrealism, and how we now live in a world where people are no longer concerned with what is real or fake. “Now the machinery of bunk is far more sophisticated. The Internet has been leveraged by social media and smartphones, and we’re in a whole new world,” he wrote.

With the overwhelming prospect of not knowing who or what to trust, will people start to embrace more surrealist art and literature? If you glance across bookshelves nationwide you’ll notice that many of the best sellers are fantasy or speculative fiction, and it’s possible that in the age of too-much-information we’re choosing imagination over the cold, hard facts.

In the meantime, as writers, we can use some of these surrealist techniques to expand our imaginations and improve the imagery in our own writing.