The sleep of reason produces surreality : surrealism in the context of dreams

Article presents the way in which Surrealists understood the dream process. Author claims that avant-garde artists glorified the dream as it functioned in opposition to the reason; then she moves on to characterize the main aspects of Surrealists' critique of Cartesianism, as well as their attitude towards the sight and the concept of the "savage eye". Later on, the author compares Freud's ideas with Surrealists’ views on dreaming - paying close attention to the issue of psychoanalytic interpretation. She describes "surrealist dream" in relation to such artistic practices as écriture automa- tique or poème-objet and to experiments in film and photography. Author refers to Lyotard’s categories of 'discourse' and 'figure', arguing that Surrealists’ works, even literary ones, belong to the figural space, thus they are resistant to language and interpretation