--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Surrealism is a bourgeois disaffection…" description: "\"Surrealism is a bourgeois disaffection; that its militants thought it universal is only one of the signs that it is typically bourgeois.\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/susan-sontag-332_bourgeois_surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-t_1674631.jpg" --- # Surrealism is a bourgeois disaffection; that its militants… ![“Surrealism is a bourgeois disaffection; that its militants thought it universal is only one of the signs that it is typically bourgeois.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/susan-sontag-332_bourgeois_surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-t_1674631.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/susan-sontag-332_bourgeois_surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-t_1674631.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/susan-sontag-332_bourgeois_surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-t_1674631.jpg) > “Surrealism is a bourgeois disaffection; that its militants thought it universal is only one of the signs that it is typically bourgeois.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Sontag critiques how Surrealism, despite its avant‑garde claims, often reflects middle‑class values and pretensions, revealing a gap between its revolutionary rhetoric and its bourgeois roots. **In simple terms:** Surrealism claims universality but often stays bourgeois. Key Takeaway Question the class bias behind artistic movements. Themes art criticism class analysis modernism Mood critical introspective Type analytical philosophical When to use this quote - art exhibitions - academic curricula - media reviews - political activism Key Concepts bourgeoisie cultural hegemony artistic authenticity Questions to Reflect On - How does class shape artistic narratives? - Can Surrealism be truly universal? A Different Perspective Surrealism also includes genuine radical voices, so not all is bourgeois. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Bourgeois](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bourgeois/) [Bourgeois Disaffection](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bourgeois-disaffection-894420/) [Disaffection Militants](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/disaffection-militants-894423/) [Surrealism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/surrealism/) [Surrealism Bourgeois](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/surrealism-bourgeois-894421/) [Typically Bourgeois](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/typically-bourgeois-894422/) [Universal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/universal/) ## Related quotes > [Surrealism in painting amounted to little more than the contents of a meagerly stocked dream world: a few witty fantasies, mostly wet dreams and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/surrealism-in-painting-amounted-to-little-more-than-the-contents-of-a/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Surrealism can only deliver a reactionary judgment; can make out of history only an accumulation of oddities, a joke, a death trip.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/surrealism-can-only-deliver-a-reactionary-judgment-can-make-out-of/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The culture-heroes of our liberal bourgeois civilisation are ant-liberal and ant-bourgeois . . .](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-culture-heroes-of-our-liberal-bourgeois-civilisation-are-ant/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [American art in general... takes to surreal exaggerations and metaphors; but its Puritan work ethic has little use for the playful self-indulgence behind Parisian…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-updike/american-art-in-general-takes-to-surreal-exaggerations-and-metaphors/) [John Updike](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-updike/) > [People have the idea that an image must stand for something else, that the real meaning needs to be described with language. 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But…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alejandro-jodorowsky/surrealism-was-necessary-essential-even-in-the-1920s-to-bridge-the/) [Alejandro Jodorowsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alejandro-jodorowsky/) > [Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/salvador-dali/instead-of-stubbornly-attempting-to-use-surrealism-for-purposes-of/) [Salvador Dali](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/salvador-dali/) > [Surrealism is the magical surprise of finding a lion in a wardrobe, where you were 'sure' of finding shirts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frida-kahlo/surrealism-is-the-magical-surprise-of-finding-a-lion-in-a-wardrobe/) [Frida Kahlo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frida-kahlo/) > [“The plants in the garden - the aloes, the almond tree, the rose tree and the iris - were afraid of her. The flowers…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hendrik-cramer/the-plants-in-the-garden-the-aloes-the-almond-tree-the-rose-tree-and/) [Hendrik Cramer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hendrik-cramer/) > [“André Breton (who fled Nazi dominated Europe)told poets of this Caribbean country: 'Surrealism is allied with peoples of colour, first because it has sided…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-craven/andr-breton-who-fled-nazi-dominated-europe-told-poets-of-this/) [David Craven](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-craven/) > [“The ultimate aim of reality is to become science fiction!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eli-of-kittim/the-ultimate-aim-of-reality-is-to-become-science-fiction/) [Eli Of Kittim](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eli-of-kittim/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. 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The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Bourgeois quotes > [“Economists have a singular method of procedure. 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That is why there has so often been amazing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-lippmann/where-there-is-no-danger-of-overt-action-there-is-rarely-any/) [Walter Lippmann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-lippmann/) > [Advancing bourgeois society liquidates memory, time, recollection as irrational leftovers of the past.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodor-adorno/advancing-bourgeois-society-liquidates-memory-time-recollection-as/) [Theodor Adorno](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodor-adorno/) > [ Avant-garde theatre, with its distrust of the individual (that bourgeois invention), tends to go beyond \[character\] and the psychological approach in search of a… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patrice-pavis/avant-garde-theatre-with-its-distrust-of-the-individual-that/) [Patrice Pavis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patrice-pavis/) > [One's existence should be in two parts: one should live like a bourgeois and think like a demigod.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gustave-flaubert/one-s-existence-should-be-in-two-parts-one-should-live-like-a/) [Gustave Flaubert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gustave-flaubert/) > [I think of myself as being a bit of a wimp deep down - a bourgeois wimp - and I'm fighting that. 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We have allowed petty, bourgeois regimes in which everything is average, mediocre.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tahar-ben-jelloun/what-have-we-achieved-since-the-end-of-the-second-world-war-we-have/) [Tahar Ben Jelloun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tahar-ben-jelloun/) [Browse all 304 Bourgeois quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bourgeois/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Surrealism is a bourgeois disaffection; that its militants thought it universal is only one of the signs that it is typically bourgeois.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-that-its-militants-thought-it/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Bourgeois" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-that-its-militants-thought-it/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/susan-sontag-332_bourgeois_surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-t_1674631.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/susan-sontag-332_bourgeois_surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-t_1674631.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2e/susan-sontag-332_bourgeois_surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-t_1674631.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Surrealism is a bourgeois disaffection; that its militants thought it universal is only one of the signs…” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Susan Sontag", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Surrealism is a bourgeois disaffection; that...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-that-its-militants-thought-it/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/surrealism-is-a-bourgeois-disaffection-that-its-militants-thought-it/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```