A fantastic way to be more adventurous in your writing is to try your hand at radical literary and artistic movements by following their principles and engaging in decades of creative conversation. Surrealism is a movement which has remained fresh and ever-evolving, and has always been politically and culturally subversive. A great example of its principles can be found here:
https://surrealismstudies.org/ – This is a terrific way to follow the surrealism community, look for events near you, and engage with creative content and academics.
https://lithub.com/your-surrealist-literature-starter-kit/ – This is a really great introduction to key figures when the movement began in the 1920’s.
“The Debutante,” A Short Story by Leonora Carrington – Biblioklept – My favourite and one of the most popular examples of a surrealist short story. It is whimsical, dark and very funny. A great structural example. Surrealist poets are also easy to look up, but their work is better read in context of each other. Andre Breton and Paul Desnos are a good start.
https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-alejandro-jodorowsky – Once you get more comfortable, surrealist cinema is a wonderful way to gain some visual and metaphorical inspiration. Jodorowsky is basically a surrealist polymath, and I would highly recommend learning about his take on psychomagic, his comic The Incal, and his YouTube tarot readings. I must advise however a trigger warning for almost everything in his films; they can be graphic and grotesque.
If you are further interested in this concept artistically, more can be found on the Tate website by clicking here, and on Artsy by clicking here.
Doriana Dyakova, Associate Editor
If this content has inspired you to create something brilliant, please don’t hesitate to submit your work for our upcoming issue here, but be sure to adhere to our submission guidelines, available to read here.
This blog post, along with many others, is also available to read on our Medium channel.
If you don’t follow us on social media already, you can find us on the following platforms:
Instagram
You can also listen to our seasonal issue inspired playlists on our Spotify channel.
Photo by Frank Cone: https://www.pexels.com/photo/cloth-with-artistic-design-3573555/