n. 1. A literary and artistic movement of the 1900s that attempts to express the workings of the subconscious and is characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject matter. 2. Literature or art produced in this style. [French surréalisme : sur-, beyond (from Old French; see SUR-) + réalisme, realism (from réalité, realism, from Medieval Latin reālitās, from reālis, real; see REAL1).] sur·real·ist n. |
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