2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

when it was created exterior to the movement. This is another complicated discussion this investigation will attempt to address.

Main Body In order to determine the answer to this question there are a number of important terms which first require definition. This section will focus on defining Surrealism as a creative ideology and analysing its development. As such, it is important to understand the foundations from which it evolved. Breton and Artaud were not historical anomalies; they were shaped by the artists to come before them, and were inspired by many of the same figures. Guillaume Apollinaire and Alfred Jarry were both hugely influential on Breton and Artaud separately (Wellwarth, 1962), and played an important part in shaping the surrealist aesthetic. Though it is a commonly accepted idea that Surrealism evolved from the earlier movement Dada, the two have less in common than seems the case at first glance. Dada emerged during the First World War as a response to the horror, corruption and violence rampant during the period, and its main weapons were satire and the rejection of convention. Contrasting to Surrealism, performance and theatre were commonly embraced formats (Melzer, 1973). Although it holds true that the aesthetic of Surrealism (with respect to the rejection of convention and authority) grew from Dada, at their cores, the movements differed greatly. In contrast to Surrealism, Dada was firmly rooted in reality. It existed to criticise the establishment of the time and in an artistic sense was geared towards destruction – hoping to dismantle the status quo of imbalance and elite. The spirit of the art was Nihilistic, satirical, and seeped in iconoclasm (Frey, 1936). In contrast, Surrealism was a much more personal venture. It sought to find and examine deeper truths of human psychology and imagination. Breton was fascinated with the function of dreams, and one of his main intentions was to

3