Surrealism

[Fantods1]

Hello,
I've read Nadja by Andre Breton and i am interested in reading more surrealist stuff but i'm having trouble finding other works. Any suggestions?

[Heteronym]

I'd recommend:

Dorothea Tanning: Chasm: A Weekend
Leonora Carrington: The Hearing Trumpet

They were excellent women artists, who found the time to write prose too.

[cafolini]

Nadja is not a surrealistic novel. It is a nihilistic novel. It's very opposed to the works of Dali and many others.
Read Robert Desnos.

[Fantods1]

Why wouldn't you define it as surrealist? I'm not disagreeing I'm just wondering...

[islandclimber]

Angela Carter's The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffmann has many surrealistic elements.

[cafolini]

Why wouldn't you define it as surrealist? I'm not disagreeing I'm just wondering...

He was a DADAIST, a very ill, reactionary man with multiple personalities.

[cacian]

I would say The Phantom of the Opera is a surrealist read but that is my interpretation of things.

[cacian]

He was a DADAIST, a very ill, reactionary man with multiple personalities.

and what a word DADAI never heard of it until thanks for mentioning it.:)

[islandclimber]

He was a DADAIST, a very ill, reactionary man with multiple personalities.

You could say Breton was a Dadaist become surrealist once he saw the former movement falling apart. He did, however, write the first Manifeste du Surrealisme, giving the definition of surrealism and placing him firmly as one of the founders (if not the founder) of the surrealist movement...

When I think of Dadaism, Tristan Tzara and Marcel Duchamp come to mind, not Breton...

[cafolini]

You could say Breton was a Dadaist become surrealist once he saw the former movement falling apart. He did, however, write the first Manifeste du Surrealisme, giving the definition of surrealism and placing him firmly as one of the founders (if not the founder) of the surrealist movement...

When I think of Dadaism, Tristan Tzara and Marcel Duchamp come to mind, not Breton...

Yes, the movement would have completely fallen apart in the hands of Dali and people like Desnos.
Breton saw Tzara fart, realized what was going to happen, labeled it and saved the movement.
ROFLMAO

[Desolation]

Of course Nadja is a surrealist novel...Even THE surrealist novel. The problem is, Breton's surrealism (as I gather from his Manifesto) is of a different nature than what we usually mean in colloquial language when we use the word "surreal."

It's not all that bizarre...There aren't roses growing out of skulls, or albino alligators whispering to abandoned sentient lightbulbs in the sewer. For Breton, surrealist writing was automatic writing, a term that has since been mixed up with stream-of-consciousness (the two are quite different...SOC is more intricately planned; you won't find a Joyce novel with words flowing right off the top of his head). Nadja was automatic writing.

[cafolini]

Une fourmi de dixhuit metres
pendant un cart
plein de penguins et de canards
...
ca n'exist pas
...
et pourquoi pas?

ROFLMAO

Breton wrote automatic because he didn't know better and was an extremely mentally ill man to ever learn. We call it automatic pilot, not surrealism

[Eiseabhal]

Surrealism existed before it got its label. "Alice in ..." is a surreal text.

[cafolini]

Surrealism existed before it got its label. "Alice in ..." is a surreal text.

Correct. And it was continued by people like Dali, Bunuel, etc. and Desnos. To defend it from fascist Breton and Tzara eventually cost Desnos his life.

[stlukesguild]

He was a DADAIST, a very ill, reactionary man with multiple personalities.

The "Pope of Surrealism" was a Dadaist? And Picasso was an Impressionist, no doubt.

[stlukesguild]

Comte de Lautréamont- Les Chants de Maldoror
Paul Eluard, Vincente Aliexandre, Rafael Alberti, Pablo Neruda all exhibit elements of Surrealism.

Personally I find the impact or influence of Surrealism to have been far greater than the actual works of Surrealist Art and Literature.

[cafolini]

He was a DADAIST, a very ill, reactionary man with multiple personalities.

The "Pope of Surrealism" was a Dadaist? And Picasso was an Impressionist, no doubt.

The Pope of surrealism. ROFLMAO
You have to go to The Vatican to sell that one.
And Picasso had many different periods. Trick the ignorant. Stick to collector.

[stlukesguild]

http://abriegrowsinbrooklyn.com/post/484894793/the-pope

[ennison]

Bunuel and Bergman my two favourites - when I was foolisher and even younger than I now am

[sm123]

Well um..Kafka.

Unless that's one of those things that doesn't even need to be said.

[Eiseabhal]

An robh thu a gabhail drama nuair a sgriobh thu siud a charaid? Bunuel was the first creative person who illustrated for me what surrealism was. He was something of an anarchist and funny in a way Bergman never was.

[cafolini]

One of the best of Bunuel's works was Exterminating Angel, which was a good kick in the arse of the great parricide, Sigmund Freud. Viridiana, The Forgotten Ones and Belle de Jour were also good works.