Surreality

Surreality is the quality or state of being surreal, characterized by dreamlike or fantastical elements that violate ordinary expectations of logic, time, or space. It describes phenomena, experiences, or works of art and culture that feel irrational, uncanny, or barely tethered to ordinary reality.

While the term is related to surrealism, the 20th-century artistic movement, surreality is not restricted to that school. Surreality refers more broadly to the perceived or created atmosphere of dreamlike impossibility, and it can apply to individual works, moments in daily life, or media that intentionally destabilize conventional reality.

Common features include unlikely juxtapositions, metamorphosis of objects, or dream logic that disregards ordinary cause-and-effect. In visual art, artists such as Salvador Dalí and René Magritte are often cited for their contribution to surreality through uncanny, irrational imagery; in literature and film, non-linear narratives and surreal sequences recur, prompting a sense of otherworldliness or disorientation.

Because the term is descriptive rather than a formal theory, surreality is used variably by critics and viewers. It overlaps with the language of surrealism but is also employed to discuss dream experiences, psychological states, or media that evoke the sublime or the unsettling. The concept invites examination of how perception negotiates reality.