Surrealism In The Early Twenties

To begin, we will look at the ideals and influences that led to the formation of surrealist ideals,

The twenties is said to have been a unique era. It was full of constant excitement. It was known as the “Jazz Age”. It was a period where Americans took time to find joy in their new freedoms. The twenties was an age of thrills and success where music, art, and literature flourished and social norms began to change, however this time was actually accentuated by a certain violence and chaos due to conflicting American ideals on issues such as Prohibition, race, and immigration.

The 1920’s also known as “The Roaring Twenties” went through may drastic changes. The roaring twenties are remembered as a time of great technological advancement, prosperity, and social change. Women started standing up for themselves, alcohol was being banned, and technology was getting more advanced. This was the decade after world war 1 ended. More americans were living in cities than on farms because of all the business that started up north.

The 20s was a time of changing and reinventing. At this time some sports were just starting out, others were broadening their horizons, while others were simply becoming more popular. New heroes were emerging in sports, new teams, and even new leagues. In the 1920's, there were many famous movies and movie actors. This was a time when films really began to become a popular past time, to watch and to star in. Also a new music style came about in the roaring twenties called jazz.

They remind us that there are still many mysteries in life. Magic Realism helped to influence Surrealism, and later also influenced Contemporary Realism.

The twenties saw tons of changes in mindset and showed everyone in the world that nothing was impossible if you put your mind to it. Seemingly impossible feats were accomplished in the twenties like the first ever liquid fueled rocket launch and the invention of a miracle drug. But those were not the only things that were happening then. Fashion was changing, it was more acceptable for women to show skin. Rules changed, the 18th amendment made the drinking of beer illegal, sparking the widespread desire to do just that. And the movie world was flipped upside down, leaving the first ever cartoon synchronised with sound. All of these changes had big

The 1920s and 1930s were interesting years for education. The 1920s sparked a new time in the United States history. World War I had just ended and prohibition had begun. In addition, there were social changes coming about, such as the roaring twenties. It is interesting that the roaring twenties took place because at the same time, the 18th amendment had been passed, officially outlawing the sale, transport, and consumption of alcohol. Women also gained the right to vote with the passing of the 19th amendment. When the 1930s hit, the great depression impacted millions of Americans. Up until the beginning of WWII, unemployment rates were high in the country, and there were not relief programs until FDR took office.

The 1920s were characterized by economic prosperity and enormous social, artistic, and cultural enthusiasm. The twenties enhanced consumer demand and aspirations, and brought about significant changes in lifestyle and culture.

In the book the use of surrealism can be found in chapter 7, “ How to Tell a True War Story”. This chapter includes a story about death of Curt Lemon. Curt Lemon was Rat Kiley’s best friend and they would play catch with grenade often. Then one day while they were playing catch and Curt dies after accidentally stepping on the bouncing betty. The use of surrealism is shown when the Tim O’Brien explained how Curt Lemon

In many war stories, people become intrigued with the events that happened during the war and are very curious what happened. They become interested in it because the storyteller gives a very deep description about everything, whether it’s from violence or gory happenings. However, not all war stories are all true. The stories that some storytellers explain becomes surrealism. Surrealism is a mixture of fact and fantasy, where it will become unreal or bizarre. Some parts of the story will be real, and some will be unreal and over the top. Usually, surrealism is added to the story, because if they say the actual, true story of what happened during the war, then sometimes the people who are listening will get bored. Surrealism adds more of an

Surrealism was one of the most influential artistic movements of the 20th Century. André Breton consolidated Surrealism as a movement in the early 1920s, trying to achieve the “total liberation of the mind and of all that resembles it[1]” through innovative and varied ideas. Surrealism deeply influenced the world in the era between the two world wars and played a big role in the diffusion and adoption of psychology worldwide. Surrealism faded after World War II, but its revolutionary genius has influenced every artistic movement ever since.

The twenties brought new dances moves, slang, and music that many enjoyed, but a number of Americans were uncomfortable with this urban mass culture. For many, the twenties brought more conflict than good, but for a few the twenties were indeed roaring. Many americans, however, were just trying to forget the horror and destruction World War I brought. The war ended just two years before the twenties and brought many Americans a nihilistic point of view on life. Americans were incredibly skeptical, dissatisfied, and believed that life had no real meaning and nothing in the world had real existence.

The surrealist artists believed the dream state and subconscious mind to be an untapped and very fertile creative fount of inspiration. The symbolism of dreams and the expressive images generated by the subconscious were far more thought provoking than the representational, logical images of the conscious mind. The surrealist artists were creating art out of what others thought to be garbled and unintelligible. They were in effect taking a concept created to heal and using it to create art instead. They were on to something with this. No matter what the medium or the style used, a bit of the self becomes visible and evident in the result. Art therapy is one of the modern descendants of this movement.

The surrealist movement holds emotional authenticity and social activism as the highest ideals. Influenced by the work of Freud and Jung, the arts are viewed as psychic manifestations that go deeper than external reality. Spontaneous techniques, like psychic automatism (i.e. automatic writing and drawing), generate images from the unconscious and result in content similar to dream experiences and contemplating these images provides a new experience of reality (McNiff, 2009).

As mentioned surrealism, like Dadaism, tried to distance itself from contemporary culture and sought to shock the familiarity of reality. Hence, the unconscious has a centrepiece in surrealist art and the underlying theme was to create images of such unconscious situation or universes. This was primarily achieved with the use of symbolism and the placing of objects in unfamiliar settings. This would revitalize and redefine such objects outside the conventional reality that is the adversary in surrealist art and hence create the desired conflict between the conventional and the unconscious (Waldberg 1997; Martin 1987).