“Miraculous”, “objective chance”, “convulsive beauty” - what unites these concepts-talismans of surrealism? And what connects them with the diverse practices and interests of the surrealists themselves - automatic writing, metaphysical painting, symbolic objects, collage novels and modern mannequins? The famous American critic and art historian Hal Foster decides to move away from the traditional way of analyzing the aesthetics of surrealism through the prism of dreams and automatism. Instead, as a key, the author introduces the concept of “otherworldly,” which not only helps to problematize this movement in a new way, but also to connect it with the leading philosophical ideas of the time, from Freudianism to Marxism. First published in 1995, Foster's book played an important role in redefining surrealism as one of the seminal phenomena in the history of modernist art.