This blog is part of an assignment for the paper 110 A History of English Literature – From 1900 to 2000 (Assignment Details)
Personal Information:-
Name:- Krishna Vala
Batch:- M.A. Sem 2 (2024-2026)
Enrollment Number:- 5108240037
E-mail Address:-krishnavala2005@gmail.com
Roll Number:- 13
Assignment Details:-
Topic:- Dadaism and Surrealism
Paper:- 22403 Paper 110A: History of English Literature – From 1900 to 2000
Submitted to:- Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar.
Date of Submission:- 17 April,2025
Words : 1786
Table of contents:-
Dadaism and Surrealism
Introduction
Dadaism
Meaning of Dadaism
Background
Prominent Figure
Influence
Surrealism
Meaning of Dadaism
Background
Prominent Figure
Influence
Conclusion
Dadaism and Surrealism
Abstract: Dadaism and Surrealism
Dadaism and Surrealism emerged as revolutionary artistic and literary movements in the early 20th century, both reacting to the chaos and disillusionment caused by World War I. Dadaism, originating in Zurich around 1916, rejected traditional artistic norms, emphasizing absurdity, randomness, and anti-establishment sentiment. It sought to challenge logic and bourgeois sensibilities through collage, readymades, and provocative performances. Surrealism, evolving from Dada in the 1920s under the influence of André Breton, embraced the unconscious mind, dreams, and automatic writing to explore deeper psychological realities. While Dada was anarchic and nihilistic, Surrealism aimed for a higher form of truth through irrational juxtapositions and Freudian imagery. Both movements significantly influenced modern art, literature, and film, fostering a legacy of creative rebellion that continues to shape contemporary expression.
Introduction:
Dadaism and Surrealism were two avant-garde movements that redefined the boundaries of art and literature in the early 20th century. Born out of the turmoil of World War I, Dadaism emerged as a radical rejection of traditional artistic conventions, embracing absurdity, randomness, and anti-establishment ideals. It sought to dismantle meaning itself, using collage, assemblage, and unconventional performances to challenge societal norms. Surrealism, which grew from Dadaism in the 1920s under the leadership of André Breton, shifted its focus toward exploring the subconscious mind, dreams, and irrational juxtapositions. Heavily influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis, Surrealist artists and writers sought to unlock deeper truths beyond the constraints of reason and logic. While Dadaism was marked by its anarchic spirit, Surrealism aimed to construct a new reality by blending imagination with subconscious desires. Together, these movements left an indelible mark on modern art, literature, and culture, inspiring generations of creators to break free from conventional thought and embrace the unexpected.
Dadaism
Meaning of Dadaism
What does this word mean? Nothing. It means the tail of a holy cow to the Kru Negroes, a cube to the Italians, mother to the Rumanians, a hobby horse to the French, a nurse to the Russians, father to the Americans, and everything to an incoherent babbling baby of any nationality. In other words, it means nothing. The word became the symbolic representative of a movement whose ultimate goal was its own destruction, a movement which represented not a new school, but the repudiation of all schools, a movement which was not a movement at all but a protest, a state of mind, a gesture of the soul. This movement was "Dadaism."
Background
Dadaism began in 1915 and died in 1924 with a play by its most ardent advocator, Tristan Tzara, entitled DADA in the Operw Air. The quick, staggering success and decline of the movement, the violent exhibitions and "manifestations" at cabarets, parks, and theatres, the wild incoherent manifestoes, the anarchist-staged campaigns against everything and everyone, the Communistic overtones, the effects on futurism, cubism, and surrealism, although an inherent part of the almost fairy-book story of Dadaism.
Dadaism is opposed to everything that exists.
Prominent Figure
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1.Marcel Duchamp (1887 - 1968) was a French artist who broke down the boundaries between works of art and everyday objects. After the sensation caused by Nude Descending a Staircase (1912), he painted few other pictures. His irreverence for conventional aesthetic standards led him to devise his famous ready-mades and heralded an artistic revolution. Duchamp was friendly with the Dadaists, and in the 1930s he helped to organize Surrealist exhibitions. He became a U.S. citizen in 1955.
2.Tristan Tzara (1896 - 1963) was a Romanian-born French poet and essayist known mainly as the founder of Dada, a nihilistic revolutionary movement in the arts, the purpose of which was the demolition of all the values of modern civilization.
The Dadaist movement originated in Zürich during World War I, with the participation of the artists Jean Arp, Francis Picabia, and Marcel Duchamp. Tzara wrote the first Dada texts—La Première Aventure céleste de Monsieur Antipyrine (1916; “The First Heavenly Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine”) and Vingtcinq poèmes (1918; “Twenty-Five Poems”)—and the movement’s manifestos, Sept Manifestes Dada (1924; “Seven Dada Manifestos”).
3.Hugo Ball (1886 - 1927) was a foundational figure in the Dada movement, known for founding the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, which became a hub for Dadaist artists. His major contribution was the creation of sound poetry, such as "Karawane," which used nonsensical syllables and rhythmic patterns to reject traditional language and meaning. Through performances that combined absurd costumes, experimental sounds, and chaotic visuals, Ball challenged conventional art forms and helped define Dada’s anti-art, anti-bourgeois, and anti-nationalist ethos. His "Dada Manifesto" (1916) articulated the movement’s rejection of logic and reason, making him a pivotal figure in the evolution of avant-garde art.
Influence
Dada is still an influence today. Its concern with the stifling aspect of texts and the worth of spontaneity influenced Antonin Artaud, whose book, The Theatre and Its Double, is hailed as a milestone in contemporary theatre. Many of the ideas of this book are basic tenets of Dadaism. Artaud's stress on the im- portance of the disordered, natural impulses of man, and his violent objections to psychological and rational theatre are extensions of the Dada theory of spontaneity. The techniques Artaud dreamed of using in his Theatre of Cruelty- the employment of music, lights, color, masks, and rhythmic, physical movement to attack the sensibilities of the spectator- are examples of the use of simultaneity and bruitism. Artaud's book vitalized these Dada theories; it made them provocative and influential.
Surrealism
Surrealism, movement in visual art and literature, flourishing in Europe between World Wars I and II. Surrealism grew principally out of the earlier Dada movement, which before World War I produced works of anti-art that deliberately defied reason; but Surrealism’s emphasis was not on negation but on positive expression. The movement represented a reaction against what its members saw as the destruction wrought by the “rationalism” that had guided European culture and politics in the past and that had culminated in the horrors of World War I. According to the major spokesman of the movement, the poet and critic André Breton, who published The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924, Surrealism was a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience so completely that the world of dream and fantasy would be joined to the everyday rational world in “an absolute reality, a surreality.” Drawing heavily on theories adapted from Sigmund Freud, Breton saw the unconscious as the wellspring of the imagination. He defined genius in terms of accessibility to this normally untapped realm, which, he believed, could be attained by poets and painters alike.
'Surrealism' (for 'surrogate realism')
Surrealism makes no commitment as to the actual deep structure of the world. It allows that the world has a deep structure, but declines to represent it. Theoretical language is to be read literally (we do not Ramsify science, just philosophy)
Prominent Figures
1.André Breton (1896–1966) was the leading figure of the Surrealist movement, often referred to as its founder and chief theorist. A French writer, poet, and critic, Breton was originally influenced by Dadaism but later sought a more structured artistic philosophy, leading to the birth of Surrealism in the 1920s.
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His most significant contribution was the Surrealist Manifesto (1924), in which he defined Surrealism as “pure psychic automatism” aimed at expressing the unconscious mind without rational interference. Drawing heavily from Sigmund Freud’s theories on dreams and the subconscious, Breton encouraged artists and writers to use techniques such as automatic writing and dream analysis to unlock deeper creative potential.
2.Salvador Dalí (1904 - 1989) was a Spanish artist and filmmaker, who was part of the Surrealist group in his early career and continued to build on the movement’s ideas and imagery throughout his life. His eccentric behavior and his eerie paintings made him the best known of the group .
3.René Magritte (1898 - 1967) was a Belgian artist, one of the most prominent Surrealist painters, whose bizarre flights of fancy blended horror, peril, comedy, and mystery. His works were characterized by particular symbols—the female torso, the bourgeois “little man,” the bowler hat, the apple, the castle, the rock, the window, and other ordinary objects, which were often set in unusual or unsettling situations.
Influence
Surrealism had a lasting impact on art, literature, film, psychology, and popular culture, shaping modern creative expression in profound ways:
Art and Visual Culture – Surrealist techniques, such as automatism and dreamlike imagery, influenced abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Contemporary artists, including Salvador Dalí’s successors, continue to explore surrealist aesthetics in digital and conceptual art.
Literature and Poetry – Surrealist automatic writing and dream-inspired narratives influenced writers like Samuel Beckett, Gabriel García Márquez (magical realism), and Haruki Murakami. The movement’s emphasis on the subconscious reshaped modernist and postmodernist literature.
Film and Theater – Surrealist cinema, pioneered by Luis Buñuel (Un Chien Andalou, 1929), inspired filmmakers like David Lynch (Mulholland Drive), Federico Fellini, and Terry Gilliam. Surrealist elements, such as dream logic and non-linear storytelling, are also seen in theater, including the plays of Samuel Beckett and Jean Genet.
Psychology and Philosophy – Surrealism was deeply influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories of the unconscious. Its focus on dreams and irrationality contributed to the study of creativity in psychology and influenced existentialist and postmodernist thought.
Popular Culture and Advertising – Surrealist imagery, with its strange juxtapositions and dreamlike scenarios, is widely used in fashion, music videos, and advertising. Brands and musicians often use surrealist aesthetics to create striking, unconventional visuals.
Political and Countercultural Movements – Surrealism’s revolutionary spirit influenced political art, feminism, and countercultural movements. It inspired radical artistic expressions that challenge authority and explore alternative realities.
Conclusion
Dadaism and Surrealism were groundbreaking movements that reshaped the artistic and literary landscape of the 20th century. While Dadaism emerged as a reaction to the absurdity of war, rejecting logic and embracing chaos, Surrealism sought to explore the subconscious mind, dreams, and deeper psychological realities. Despite their differences, both movements shared a commitment to challenging conventions and expanding the boundaries of creativity. Their influence extends beyond art and literature, shaping modern thought, film, and contemporary artistic expression. By rejecting traditional structures and embracing spontaneity, irrationality, and the unknown, Dadaism and Surrealism continue to inspire artists and thinkers to question reality and redefine artistic possibilities.
References
Kristiansen, Donna M. “What Is Dada?” Educational Theatre Journal, vol. 20, no. 3, 1968, pp. 457–62. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3205188. Accessed 29 Mar. 2025.
Leplin, Jarrett. “Surrealism.” Mind, vol. 96, no. 384, 1987, pp. 519–24. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2253847. Accessed 13 Apr. 2025.
“René Magritte.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Rene-Magritte. Accessed 29 Mar. 2025.
“Salvador Dalí.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 14 Feb. 2025, www.britannica.com/biography/Salvador-Dali.
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