ABSTRACT
None of the Modernist or avant-garde art movements can provide a more successful habitat for the grotesque than can Surrealism, inasmuch as many of the tenets of Surrealism are applicable to the grotesque: the fascination with dreams, the destruction of logic and reason, the (con)fusion of incongruous forms, the unfettered play of the imagination, the pursuit of the marvellous, and so forth. Some Surrealist grotesque images, such as those born of automatic writing/drawing, indeed appear to be little threatening and thus allow the playful to gain prominence; as such, they effectively attract the reader or viewer to what Freud calls 'pleasure in nonsense', which can be traced back to the learning of a child who assimilates words or objects 'without regard to the condition that they should make sense'. This chapter summarizes Freudian psychoanalysis, Nietzsche's philosophy of language, and Breton's poetics of the Surrealist image, to offer a comprehensive discussion of Magritte's grotesque objects.
