The Surrealist theory is used to examine human animal relationships because Surrealism seeks to revolutionize human thoughts and actions. The theory advocates for human understanding of consciousness in the perspective of human-animal commonalities in the period between the First and the Second World Wars, Surrealism was at its highest peak. The proponents of the theory critiqued the Whites’s supremacy and centrality over their colonies of Asia, Africa, and America. In the contemporary world, animal studies have changed the human thinking by critiquing the supremacy of humanity over other animal species as in the thought of the Western culture. It is against this backdrop that surrealists appreciated the position of animal species as significant as the position of human beings According to Conley, Breton compared human beings and other animal species because he was inspired by the capability of a recording instrument to talk back to the human subject that manipulated it.
Therefore, surrealists describe the destabilization of the Cartesian subject by ascribing animalistic qualities to objects. For example, Breton‘s fish was used by surrealists to demonstrate the talismanic characteristics of animals as totemst Breton’s Pacific Northwest Coast masks mixed human and animal features, therefore, creating a blend of human and animal livelinesst The objects made by the surrealists were elevated from simply scientific ethnographic interest to works of art, thus moved from ethnographic to museums of art. Surrealists believed in not only equality between sexes but also between human beings and animals The surrealists criticize the superiority tendencies that human beings take over other animal species Katharine Conley points to the following statement of Breton “dansnosteuvres les sourdsreceptacles de tant d‘ ’echos, les modestes’ appareilsenregistreurs” from the first manifesto of surrealism as establishing a “significant equivalence between human beings and things based on the shared property of receptivity” and marking the beginning of “an ongoing examination of what makes humans human and whether objects could have sentience.
The Surrealist Theory is closely related to the ethical component of animal studies. The surrealists develop a relationship between human and animal species through the use of fully human-based characteristics on animal metaphors. Nevertheless, surrealists differentiate between human beings, animals, and material things on the basis of brain functionality, Breton defined surrealism as pure psychic automatism upon which an individual intends to express verbally, in writing, or any other method the real functioning of the mind. The contemporary world’s theoretical thought and aesthetic practice draws a boundary between psyche and thing, therefore, between human and non-human Human beings have the ability to express their real mind in form of am. Central to human expression of the mind is the real mind filled with a myriad dreams and undirected thoughts.
The thoughts are the real meaning of psychic automatism and these are inherent to human beings Despite the fact that animals have the ability to think as human beings, they do not have the capacity to express their thoughts as human beings. Similarly, materials are differentiated from human beings and animals in terms of having an expressive mind. Surrealism has no aesthetic preoccupations. Therefore, the anti-aesthetic manifestation is that artists give up the conscious control of their artwork, making the material things speak the mind of the artist rather than theirs. There were two directions to Surrealism; art in everything and anti»art in everything. An example is given of a poetic visionary form of a painting; that it expresses either the illusionistic or dream strategies of surreal art. This feature is an automatist element adopted by unplanned compositions of artists such as Andre Masson and Joan Miro Surrealists contemplate upon the hierarchy of human beings and other modes of existence. Since millennia before Classical
Antiquity, thought structures of human populations have made a conscientious study of the similarities and differences of their members. In most cases these demarcations have been utilized for the construction of the group’s identity, as well as the individual’s identity in relationship to the group and others in the universe Since millennia before classical antiquity human thought have attributed a distinctive worth to the condition of being human The level of humanness has determined a subjects worth. This is evident the scope for human application of ethics, morality, concern and consideration in interactions with others. The scope of human concern for the moment is limited to humans (with notable exceptions) though certainly not all humans. In this respect, therefore, the attribution of intrinsic worth to human identity is a product of utilitarian need rather than the consistent universal application of the concept of fairness that happens to attribute value to the human condition.
Considering the afore-mentioned analysis, surrealists tend to agree on the notion that human beings and animals are at the same level of any given hierarchy. The two; human beings and animals, have life and conscious and, therefore, deserve to be treated as equal Surrealists appreciate a liberal society where madness does not override the fact that a particular individual is a human being, As surrealists argue, human beings have a mind that is expressed through ethnography and art. A mad person is capable of communicating their mind verbally, through writing or in any other form. Surrealists argue that the contemporary relationship and interactions of human beings with other species is comparable to the colonialism practices experienced in the 18’“ Century. They argue that animals such as cats, dogs and other pets suffer a lot in the hands of human beings.
In the theoretical context, it is possible to provide the most comfortable homes for the pets kept by human beings However, in reality, animals suffer cruelty, neglect, and abandonment. According to propositions by Breton, the relationship between human beings and domesticated animals is inherently flawed and humanity is unable to provide the full lives that the animals deserve. In the final section of his “prolegomena” Breton speaks of a large transparent myth — “Man is perhaps not the center, the focus of the universe There could be other beings—as tiny as a moth or as large as a whale~that make us question our place in the world”, he writes. Citing William James, he worries that humankind might turn out to be as insignificant as cats or dogs are in relation to yet-unknown invisible, “transparent,” yet huge beings. So while opening up the possibility of reconsidering the dominance of humankind in the world at midcentury, he is not doing so in relation to domestic animals, the way Jacques Derrida does in his foundational essay for animal studies, “L’animalquedonc je suis (\a suivre).”
In that essay prompted by an exchanged glance with his cat, Derrida evokes a coexistence of realities, in light of an in- between space, a concept dear to the surrealists, as Adamowicz argues with her emphasis on how the “site of the passage” between realities is where the essence of surrealism lies. Domestication serves to breed animals to be dependent on human beings; nevertheless, the difference in power makes the relationship flawed. The lives of domesticated animals like a cat are restricted to human homes where they are expected to obey commands, eat, drink, and even relieve themselves only when human beings allow them to Surrealists argue that because domesticated animals retain many of their basic instincts but are unable to survive on their own in the wilderness. It is argued that cats, dogs, and birds have the strongest desire to be free; nonetheless, they are confined to a cage, house, or yard for their safety.
The aspect associating domestication to colonialism is the fact that cats must relieve themselves in litter boxes designed by human beings More so, dogs are made to drink water that has stayed for long and in most instances they are hurried in walks and yelled at to remain quiet. Surrealism had studied sentience in all its forms from the beginning, asking what it means to think and feel as a human, as a thing, and as a thing like a mask that, as with Ernst’s dances with the masks he purchased in Arizona, links human beings with a larger natural landscape, much in the same way as humans perceive animals do. Through these studies that are similar to animal studies, concepts such as automatism and Cartesian notion of identity are raised The Cartesian notion of identity is based on Descartes’ claim of dualism.
The notion states that the distinctive human properties of selective intentionality and free volition, dramatically manifest in the creative freedom of language, mark human beings off from other animals as innately possessed of an immaterial soul or mind that is ontologically independent of matter, characterized by infinite moral freedom, susceptible of a distinct happiness, and capable of continued existence after the body’s demise. When Descartes was presented with objections to his metaphysics framed in terms of traditional categories and distinctions, a number of thorny problems became apparent; notably, concerning the substantiality and causal efficacy of his seemingly formless and inert corporeal things and concerning the union in man of a body and a soul, or mind, that is alleged to be really distinct from the body, He refused to accept the authority of previous philosophers, and refused to trust his own senses.
Descartes denied that animals had reason or intelligence, but did not lack sensations or perceptions, but these could be explained mechanistically Similarly, the notion of automatism is also rooted in the artistic movement of the same name founded by Montreal artist Paul-Emile Borduas in 1942; himself influenced by the Dadaist movement as well as André Breton. He, as well as a dozen other artists from Quebec’s artistic scene, very much under restrictive and authoritarian rule in that period, signed the Global Refusal manifesto, in which the artists called upon North American society (specifically in the culturally unique environment of Quebec), to take notice and act upon the societal evolution projected by these new cultural paradigms opened by the Automatist movement as well as other influences in the 19405. Automatism techniques suggest that artwork has bypassed rational thought; that the forms and images of art were generated by the subconscious mind without the artist’s control.
