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Surrealist style

Style
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Surrealist style is a dreamlike artistic approach that merges logic and fantasy, bypassing rational thought to access the unconscious; in poetry, it employs juxtaposition, automatism, and bizarre imagery to challenge perception.

Detailed Definition
Surrealist style accesses the unconscious through unexpected imagery. Poets use it to disrupt rational thought.
Example
Example in poetry:
André Breton’s Surrealist theory values unexpected encounters, often summarized by images that yoke unlike things together; Federico García Lorca’s surreal imagery in Poeta en Nueva York turns city experience into visionary distortion and dread; In David Lynch-like contemporary surrealism, “a fish answered the telephone inside my lung” suspends ordinary logic to evoke dream emotion; A Surrealist poem may let objects act independently—“the clock grew feathers and flew from the courtroom”—instead of explaining the scene rationally; Effective surrealism is not random: startling juxtapositions should create psychic, emotional, or political pressure
Additional Notes
Surrealist style seeks access to the unconscious through dream logic, startling juxtapositions, and images that bypass rational sequencing. Students should read for associative motion rather than plot, noting how the poem creates emotional coherence through image-chains and tonal consistency. It differs from deep image by often courting shock and illogic more overtly. In writing, use automatic writing or timed free association, then curate: keep the images that feel charged and discard the merely random. A useful revision question is “what desire or fear is driving these images?” If you can articulate that underlying impulse, the poem’s surreal surface will feel purposeful rather than arbitrary. Related concepts include automatism, collage, and the uncanny.
Also Known As
Surrealism Surrealist Mode Surrealist Poetics
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