épater les bourgeois

épater les bourgeois [ay‐pat‐ay lay boor‐zhwah], a French phrase that can be translated only rather clumsily, as ‘to shock the (respectable) middle‐class citizens’. This has often been the conscious aim of the literary and artistic avant‐garde in Europe since the late 19th century, especially in the movements of decadence, Dada, and Surrealism.