Abstract
The research seeks to provide a clear vision of the contribution of David Gascoyne (1916-2001) to British surrealism, the main surrealist elements, and the psychological scope of this movement; more precisely to expose the enigmatic allure of the unconscious. It presents Gascoyne's surrealist phase as a creative breakthrough in poetry. The selected poems from his volume Man's Life Is This Meat (1936) will be discussed in this research through the lens of Freud's theories of dreams and the unconscious. This approach helps to unravel the mysterious nature of the poems, which parallels the enigmatic qualities of the dreams. Surrealism, as a trend of the20th century, arose as a response to the trails of an era stained by war. It beckoned readers to download the world through a dreamy perspective as dreams function outside the constraints of logical thinking and societal norms, allowing for unusual and unconventional combinations of thoughts and emotions. The research focuses on the illogical threads of reality and the surreal tapestry of imagination contrasting with a more traditional or realistic approach
Keywords
dream, enigmatic, Freud, surrealism, unconscious
Article Type
Article
First Page
48
Last Page
73
Publication Date
6-15-2025
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Abd zaid, Hanan and Ismael, Nadia Ali
(2025)
"The Echo of Surrealism: Introspecting the Enigma in Selected Poems of David Gascoyne,"
Alustath Journal for Human and Social Sciences: Vol. 64:
Iss.
2, Article 4.
DOI: 10.36473/3dpmrp19
Available at:
https://alustath.researchcommons.org/journal/vol64/iss2/4
