Surrealism in Refusal of the Shadow

Refusal of the Shadow is a collection of caribbean surrealist essays, many from the Martiniquan journal Tropiques. Surrealism, in Refusal of the Shadow, takes several forms. Primarily it is a way of understanding human behavior. Surrealists think that people tend to put blind faith in society's rules and views, and are unaware that they are doing so. The beliefs and behaviors that society prescribes and that individuals adhere to tend to be very far removed from what is true or appropriate. Sometimes, individuals have experiences of insight that allow them to realign their beliefs or actions with what is true or appropriate to the World, as opposed to society. These realignments are called “shocks”, and they are precious.

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Surrealism is also an attempt to systematize the production of such shocks so that they can be triggered regularly and participants can frequently clear away the limitations that would otherwise accrue. Surrealism is thus a sort of mental hygiene. The methods of Surrealism include playing games and creating art in which the subconscious serves as inspiration. The works created often put familiar objects into unfamiliar situations in order to free the artist and audience from their preconceptions.

Finally, Surrealism is a genre of art that resulted from individual applications of the Surrealist methods. According to some Surrealists, the works themselves are worthless—merely waste products. What matters is the transformation that takes place in the individual creating them, and possibly in other individuals who experience the works. Once this type of art becomes common it loses whatever transformative power it had and become merely another one of society's burdens on the individual. Thus artwork that was originally called “surrealist” nay no longer be “surreal” because it is no longer appropriate to the times.

Surrealism in the first two senses has much in common with spiritual paths, in that they are devoted to liberation. The idea that we are not really conscious most of the time and act only out of mental conditioning, but that through certain practices that conditioning can be transcended is very similar to my understanding of Buddhism, although of course the techniques for achieving that transcendence are quite different.

I am working on a real essay that examines texts from Refusal of the Shadow in much more depth. Hopefully I’ll have time to finish it soon.