Alice and Surrealism

Links:

With a partner discuss the following questions. Take notes that may help you for the final question which you will do on your own.
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For the final journal, pick a surrealist artist and use his style to paint a scene from Alice in Wonderland.

Readers and critics of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland point out that the girl’s experiences in the world at the bottom of the rabbit hole are similar to the dreams (sometimes, nightmares) that most human beings have.

Would you agree with readers and critics who compare Alice’s adventures to human dreams or nightmares? Why or why not?

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Leaving the novel….

Surrealism: A movement in art and literature that flourished in the early twentieth century. Surrealism aimed at expressing imaginative dreams and visions free from conscious rational control. Salvador Dali was an influential surrealist painter; Jean Cocteau was a master of surrealist film.
Note that certain painters in the early 20th century said their goal was to paint the “more real than real world behind the real.” Another way of putting this remark is to say that the painters wanted to capture that which is beyond reality, a super reality, or, in French, surréalité—hence, the English term surrealism.
Now look at the links of the artwork produced during this time period.

Which elements in these paintings are as bizarre as the events and juxtapositions in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?

What might these painters have been saying in their paintings about the society or culture they were living in?
Are the painters expecting these impossible possibilities to occur, or are they telling us that the world is simply impossible to fully understand because it’s not what it seems to be?

The writer Flannery O’Connor, said that distortion is often a way of leading people to see the truth.
What distortions does each painting focus on? What truth do these distortions lead you the viewer to find or think about?

Returning to the book Alice in Wonderland….

What distortions do you notice in the book? What truth do these distortions lead you the reader to find or think about?

Independently
Write one or two paragraphs to tell what you have learned about how both Carroll and the surrealist painters comment on reality.

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Use the rest of the class to search for a modern use of nonsense and absurdity to comment on reality. This can be in the form of a painting or drawing, a song, music video or any other art form that relates. This must be appropriate to share with the class, be prepared to explain in 1-2 minutes.