Surrealism aims to revolutionise human experience. It balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams. The movement's artists find magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional.
Surrealism was a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself.[1] Its aim was, according to leader André Breton, to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality", or surreality.[2][3][4] It produced works of painting, writing, theatre, filmmaking, photography, and other media.
Works of Surrealism feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur. However, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost (for instance, of the "pure psychic automatism" Breton speaks of in the first Surrealist Manifesto), with the works themselves being secondary, i.e. artifacts of surrealist experimentation.[5] Leader Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement. At the time, the movement was associated with political causes such as communism and anarchism. It was influenced by the Dada movement of the 1910s.[6]
The term "Surrealism" originated with Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917.[7][8] However, the Surrealist movement was not officially established until after October 1924, when the Surrealist Manifesto published by French poet and critic André Breton succeeded in claiming the term for his group over a rival faction led by Yvan Goll, who had published his own surrealist manifesto two weeks prior.[9] The most important center of the movement was Paris, France. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, impacting the visual arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy, and social theory.
超现实主义是一种现代西方文艺流派。两次世界大战之间盛行于欧洲，在视觉艺术领域中其影响最为深远。致力于探索人类的潜意识心理，主张突破合乎逻辑与实际的现实观，彻底放弃以逻辑和有序经验记忆为基础的现实形象，将现实观念与本能、潜意识及梦的经验相融合展现人类深层心理中的形象世界。认为，现实世界受理性的控制，人的许多本能和欲望受到压抑，能够真正展示人心理真实和本来面目的是现实之外那绝对而超然的彼岸世界，即超现实的世界，这就是人的深层心理或梦境。打破理性与意识的樊篱，追求原始冲动和意念的自由释放，将文艺创作视为纯个人的自发心理过程，这些都是其基本特点。第一次世界大战后在法国兴起的在文艺及其他文化领域里对资本主义传统文化思想的反叛运动，其影响波及欧美其他国家。20世纪30年代是几乎没有舒心新闻的时代——至少在那些艺术家的眼中是这样的，他们目睹了30年代初希特勒在德国的崛起，1939年民主进步势力在西班牙的溃败，以及另一场世界大战的爆发。超现实主义, 其实就是战争掩埋的人性.
它的内容不仅限于文学，也涉及绘画、音乐等艺术领域。它提出了创作源泉、创作方法、创作目的等问题，以及关于资本主义社会制度和人们的生存条件等社会问题。超现实主义者自称他们进行的是一场“精神革命”。运动是由一群参加过第一次世界大战的法国青年发起的，他们目睹战争的荒谬与破坏，对以理性为核心的传统的理想、文化、道德产生怀疑。旧的信念失去了魅力，需要有一种新的理想来代替。超现实主义就是他们在探索道路上的尝试。超现实主义为现代派文学开创了道路。超现实主义作为一个文学流派，实际存在的时间并不很长，作为一种文艺思潮，作为一种美学观点，其影响却十分深远。超现实主义者的宗旨是离开现实，返回原始，否认理性的作用，强调人们的下意识或无意识活动。法国的主观唯心主义哲学家柏格林的直觉主义与奥地利精神病理家弗洛伊德的"下意识"学说奠定了超现实主义的哲学和理论基础。超现实主义文艺思潮的出现，反映了第一次世界大战后欧洲资产阶级青年一代对现实的恐惧心理和狂乱不安的精神状态。参加超现实主义集团的作家有布洛东、苏波、查拉，画家阿尔普、马松等等
