ABSTRACT
Nature has taken on a multifaceted role in Surrealist art and thought. Surrealists have lauded numerous animals, plants, and stones as evidence that there is a rich poetry immanent in reality, modeled Surrealist poetics on natural processes of growth and change, and likened the unconscious with a dense vegetation teeming with animalistic instincts. This entry explores these varied conceptions of nature in the works of Surrealists situated in a broadly international host of contexts. It considers the role of Romantic precedents and looks to Surrealism’s anticipation of recent critiques of the alleged “hyperseparation” between humans and the natural world.
