What is a surreal/dreamlike narrative when used in literature?

Question

a basic description please

even just a definition would be nice

thanks

Answer 1

Surreal means that it has a dreamlike quality: not quite realistic. A narrative is a story.

So I would define a surreal narrative as a story that has a dreamlike quality to it. It's almost real, but seems unbelievable.

Answer 2

Surrealism is typically a style of writing where you just write thoughts as they come to you. This sentence from Wikipedia is a good summary: Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation. In other words, no logical control or adherence to any artistic vision, just writing as the thoughts come. Sometimes it's also called "automatism."

Used as a narrative in literature, it would probably be almost un-followable. Almost just like random thoughts put together. Narrative that is surreal-like would be a sort of train-of-thought telling. Events that are strung together as they occur to the teller rather than in some type of logical order.