Salvador Dali, one of the fathers of Surrealism, is one of the most influential artists of the century who embodied “the epitome of the Surrealist ideal” (Salcman 2011). Defined by André Breton, Surrealism is, “the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association heretofore neglected, in the omnipotence of the dream, and in the disinterested play of thought…[it] literally means above or beyond reality” (Salcman 2011, emphasis added). Therefore, it is no question that Dali’s art was aimed toward portraying and embodying a type of sub-reality that is unexperienced by the conscious mind. Looking at a children’s fantasy like “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and assuming her wonderland is a figment of her imagination, it is no surprise that the bread-winged butterflies, the magical potions, and the talking caterpillar all embody a similar sub-reality or imaginary realm championed by Dali.

In the “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” 150th Anniversary Edition from 2015 Mark Burstein states in the Introduction that Lewis’s story is “A work of art incorporating rebelliousness, revolution, paradox; distortions of space and time, logic, size and proportion; disbelief in conversational reality; assimilations of dreams, wordplay, and ineffable nature of childhood” (Burstein VII, emphasis added). Reminiscing Breton’s definition of Surrealism allows parallels to be drawn between Lewis’s imaginative fantasy and Dali’s sub-reality-focused surrealist art. Burstein himself states, “..the creative processes of Carroll and the surrealists were similar” (VIII) therefore creating an unprecedented, yet unparalleled author-illustrator match.

Works Cited

Carroll, Lewis, and Salvador Dali. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. 150th Anniversary Edition ed. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2015. Print.

Salcmann, Michael. “The Persistence of Memory (1931) by Salvador Dali.” World Neurosurgery75.5 (2011): n. pag. Web.