The Surreal World

The cultural movement of Dada began in Zurich, Switzerland in response to the outbreak and violence of World War I. Those artists "scoffed at the conventions of artistic media," using anything from food wrappers to foil to newspaper to create new art. While considered an escape by some critics, the Dada movement actually sought to "make visible the violence, chaos, and hypocrisies of contemporary life" (NGA).

In the mid 1920's Dada eventually dwindled, but left in its place the Surrealism movement. As opposed to Zurich, Surrealism found its epicenter in post war Paris. Now, can anyone find a connection between that fact and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises? If you said that both were products of post war modernism then you would be correct. Another correct correlation would be that of the the expatriate writers like Hemingway living in France and Spain and the tabula rasa that Surrealism presented. Writers were given a new landscape from which to explore even the most nominal of life's experiences.

Considering just Hemingway's trademark writing style, where so much goes unwritten, I find it particularly easy to draws comparisons between his work (as well as the Modernist movement) and Surrealism. One line that sticks out to me comes from chapter two of The Sun Also Rises where Jake and Robert head to a cafe and go back and forth about what it means to live. "Listen, Robert, going to another country doesn't make any difference. I've tried all that. You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There's nothing to that" (19). While Jake's words seem a little disgruntled, windy, and a bit general, the essence of what he is saying speaks volumes. It is almost as though Hemingway is using Jake to communicate to his fellow expatriates, or maybe its inclusion is a big middle finger to critics of the Modernist movement. The symbolism is undeniable, and the way in which Hemingway is able to pack so much detail into simple, direct sentences shows not just his ability as a writer, but as a figurative avant-garde of the Modernist movement in American literature.

One final example that I want to use to connect the Surrealist movement in Modernist art to the new face of American Literature in the 1920's is the character of Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises. "One must not be confused by the exotica of expatriation: bullfights, French whores, and thesdansants. Like the American East, Paris in Hemingway's book stands for the world of women and work, for "civilization" with all its moral complexity, and it is presided over quite properly by the bitch-goddess Brett Ashley" (355) She represents a lingering androgyny that lays dormant in a lot of Hemingway's other works. It is further testament to Hemingway's role as an experimental writer, a trait that Surrealism celebrated.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner, 2006. Print.

Martin, Wendy. "Brett Ashley as New Woman." In New Essays On The Sun Also Rises. Ed. Linda Wagner- Martin. New York; Cambridge UP, 1987.

Information on Dada can be found at http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/cities/index.shtm