Language in Surrealist Thought

Abstract

Surrealism arose in Western Europe at a moment in history that was pivotal and convulsive in different ways. The First World War, the Marxist revolution in Russia, mass education, the first elements of state welfare, the rise of trade unionism into political party representation, moves towards women’s suffrage, the final consolidations of European colonial empires, the development of wireless radio technology, the rise of cinema, powered flight, the factory assembly line, the shift from horse-power to motorised vehicle – all of these formed the social background to the first few decades of the new century. Whatever their participants’ geographical origins, surrealism was also an urban phenomenon, and the culture of Paris, Berlin, Zurich, Madrid, and London was modern, technologically advanced, and thoroughly industrialised. From a historical perspective, in order to understand how surrealism foregrounded abnormality, irrationality, and the marvellous, it would be important to understand what in their surroundings was regarded as normal and current. Such a dense cultural description is larger than the scope of this book, but here in this chapter I would like to consider more specifically what was the surrealists’ contemporary thinking on the study of language.