- Tristan Tzara
Infobox Writer
name = Tristan Tzara
Samuel (Samy) Rosenstock
imagesize = 210px
caption = 1927 portrait of Tzara, byLajos Tihanyi
pseudonym = S. Samyro, Tristan, Tristan Ruia, Tristan Ţara, Tr. Tzara
birthdate = April 4 or April 16, 1896
birthplace =Moineşti
deathdate = death date and age|mf=yes|1963|12|25|1896|4|4
deathplace =Paris
occupation = poet, essayist, journalist, playwright, performance artist, composer, film director, politician, diplomat
nationality =Romania n, French
period = 1912–1963
genre =lyric poetry ,epic poetry ,free verse ,prose poetry ,parody ,satire
subject =art criticism ,literary criticism ,social criticism
movement = SymbolismAvant-garde Dada Surrealism
influences =Guillaume Apollinaire ,Henri Barzun ,Fernand Divoire ,Alfred Jarry ,Jules Laforgue ,Comte de Lautréamont ,Maurice Maeterlinck ,Adrian Maniu ,Filippo Tommaso Marinetti ,Ion Minulescu ,Christian Morgenstern ,Francis Picabia ,Arthur Rimbaud ,Urmuz ,François Villon ,Walt Whitman
influenced =Louis Aragon , Marcel Avramescu,Samuel Beckett ,André Breton ,William S. Burroughs ,Andrei Codrescu ,Jacques G. Costin ,Paul Éluard ,Julius Evola ,Allen Ginsberg ,Brion Gysin ,Vicente Huidobro ,Eugène Ionesco ,Isidore Isou ,Bruno Jasieński ,Moldov ,Valery Oişteanu ,Saşa Pană ,Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes ,Claude Rivière ,Jerome Rothenberg ,Alberto Savinio ,Philippe Soupault ,Takahashi Shinkichi ,Giuseppe Ungaretti ,Ilarie Voronca
website =Tristan Tzara (born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; April 4 or April 16, 1896 [http://www.enotes.com/poetry-criticism/tzara-tristan "Tristan Tzara 1896–1963"] , in Susan Salas, Laura Wisner-Broyles, "Poetry Criticism", Vol. 27, Gale Group Inc., 2000, [http://www.enotes.com/ eNotes.com] ; retrieved April 23, 2008] –December 25, 1963) was a
Romania n and Frenchavant-garde poet, essayist andperformance art ist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of theanti-establishment Dada movement. A Symbolist influenced by the work ofAdrian Maniu , the adolescent Tzara co-founded the magazines "Simbolul " together withIon Vinea , with whom he also wrote experimental poetry, and painterMarcel Janco . DuringWorld War I , after briefly collaborating on Vinea's "Chemarea ", he joined Janco inSwitzerland . There, Tzara's shows at the Cabaret Voltaire and Züntfhaus zür Waag, as well as his poetry andart manifesto s, became a main feature of early Dadaism. A main promoter of Dada culture, he represented its nihilistic side, in contrast with the more moderate approach favored byHugo Ball .After moving to Paris in 1919, Tzara, by then one of the "presidents of Dada", joined the staff of "
Littérature " magazine, which marked the first step in the movement's evolution towardSurrealism . Subsequently, he was involved in the major polemics which led to Dada's split, defending his principles againstAndré Breton andFrancis Picabia , and, in Romania, against the eclecticmodernism of Vinea and Janco. This personal vision on art defined his plays "Le Cœur à gaz " ("The Gas Heart") and "Mouchoir de nuages " ("Handkerchief of Clouds"). A forerunner of automatist techniques, Tzara eventually rallied with Breton's Surrealism, and, under its influence, wrote his celebratedutopia n poem "L'Homme approximatif " ("The Approximate Man").During the final part of his career, Tzara combined his humanist and anti-fascist perspective with a communist vision, joining the Republicans in the
Spanish Civil War and theFrench Resistance duringWorld War II , and serving a term in the National Assembly. Having spoken in favor ofliberalization in thePeople's Republic of Hungary just before the Revolution of 1956, he distanced himself from theFrench Communist Party , of which he was by then a member. In 1960, he was among the intellectuals who protested against French actions in theAlgerian War .Tristan Tzara was an influential author and performer, whose contribution is credited with having created a connection from
Cubism andFuturism to theBeat Generation , Situationism and various currents inrock music . The friend and collaborator of many modernist figures, he was the lover of dancerMaja Kruscek in his early youth, and was later married to Swedish artist and poetGreta Knutson .Name
"S. Samyro", a partial
anagram of "Samy Rosenstock", was used by Tzara from his debut and throughout the early 1910s. [Cernat, p.108-109] A number of undated writings, which he probably authored as early as 1913, bear the signature "Tristan Ruia", and, in summer of 1915, he was signing his pieces with the name "Tristan".Cernat, p.109] fr icon Jacques-Yves Conrad, [http://melusine.univ-paris3.fr/Association/Conrad.htm "Promenade surréaliste sur la colline de Montmartre"] , at the [http://melusine.univ-paris3.fr/ Center for the Study of Surrealism] ; retrieved April 23, 2008]In the 1960s, Rosenstock's collaborator and later rival Ion Vinea claimed that he was responsible for coining the "Tzara" part of his pseudonym in 1915. Vinea also stated that Tzara wanted to keep "Tristan" as his adopted first name, and that this choice had later attracted him the "infamous pun" "Triste Âne Tzara" (French for "Sad Donkey Tzara"). This version of events is uncertain, as manuscripts show that the writer may have already been using the full name, as well as the variations "Tristan Ţara" and "Tr. Tzara", in 1913-1914 (although there is a possibility that he was signing his texts long after committing them to paper). [Cernat, p.109-110]
In 1972, art historian
Serge Fauchereau , based on information received from Colomba, the wife of avant-garde poetIlarie Voronca , recounted that Tzara himself had explained his chosen name was a pun on the Romanian-language "trist în ţară" ("sad in one's country"); Colomba Voronca was also dismissing rumors that Tzara had selected "Tristan" as a tribute to poetTristan Corbière or toRichard Wagner 's "Tristan und Isolde " opera.Cernat, p.110] Samy Rosenstock legally adopted his new name in 1925, after filing a request with Romania's Ministry of the Interior.Biography
Early life and "Simbolul" years
Tzara was born in
Moineşti ,Bacău County , in the historical region ofMoldavia . His parents were Jewish Romanians who reportedly spoke Yiddish as their first language; [Cernat, p.35] his father and grandfather were entrepreneurs in the forestry business.Livezeanu, p.241] Owing to the Romanian Kingdom's discrimination laws, the Rosenstocks were not emancipated, and thus Tzara was not a full citizen of the country until after 1918. He moved toBucharest at the age of eleven, and attended the Schemitz-Tierinboarding school . It is believed that the young Tzara completed his secondary education at a state-run high school, which is identified as theSaint Sava National College or as the Sfântul Gheorghe High School. [Cernat, p.48-51]In October 1912, when Tzara was aged sixteen, he joined his friends Vinea and Marcel Janco in editing "
Simbolul ". Reputedly, Janco and Vinea provided the funds.Cernat, p.99] Like Vinea, Tzara was also close to their young colleagueJacques G. Costin , who was later his self-declared promoter and admirer. [Cernat, p.186-194]Despite their young age, the three editors were able to attract collaborations from established Symbolist authors. Alongside their close friend and mentor
Adrian Maniu (an Imagist who had been Vinea's tutor), [Cernat, p.51] they includedN. Davidescu ,Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo ,Emil Isac ,Claudia Millian ,Ion Minulescu ,I. M. Raşcu ,Eugeniu Sperantia ,Al. T. Stamatiad ,Eugeniu Ştefănescu-Est ,Constantin T. Stoika , as well as from journalist and lawyerPoldi Chapier .Cernat, p.49] In its inaugural issue, the journal even printed a poem by one of the leading figures in Romanian Symbolism,Alexandru Macedonski . "Simbolul" also featured illustrations by Maniu, Millian andIosif Iser . [Cernat, p.50, 100]Although the magazine ceased print in December 1912, it played an important part in shaping Romanian literature of the period. Literary historian
Paul Cernat sees "Simbolul" as a main stage in Romania'smodernism , and credits it with having brought about the first changes from Symbolism to the radical avant-garde. [Cernat, p.49-54, 397-398, 412] Also according to Cernat, the collaboration between Samyro, Vinea and Janco was an early instance of literature becoming "an interface between arts", which had for its contemporary equivalent the collaboration between Iser and writers such asIon Minulescu andTudor Arghezi . [Cernat, p.47] Although Maniu parted with the group and sought a change in style which brought him closer to traditionalist tenets, Tzara, Janco and Vinea continued their collaboration. Between 1913 and 1915, they were frequently vacationing together, either on theBlack Sea coast or at the Rosenstock family property inGârceni ,Vaslui County ; during this time, Vinea and Samyro wrote poems with similar themes and alluding to one another. [Cernat, p.116-121]"Chemarea" and 1915 departure
Tzara's career changed course between 1914 and 1916, during a period when the Romanian Kingdom kept out of
World War I . In autumn 1915, as founder and editor of the short-lived journal "Chemarea ", Vinea published two poems by his friend, the first printed works to bear the signature "Tristan Tzara". [Cernat, p.97, 106, 108-109] At the time, the young poet and many of his friends were adherents of ananti-war and anti-nationalist current, which progressively accommodatedanti-establishment messages. [Cernat, p.99, 100-108] "Chemarea", which was a platform for this agenda and again attracted collaborations from Chapier, may also have been financed by Tzara and Vinea. According to Romanian avant-garde writerClaude Sernet , the journal was "totally different from everything that had been printed in Romania before that moment." [Cernat, p.100] During the period, Tzara's works were sporadically published in Hefter-Hidalgo's "Versuri şi Proză ", and, in June 1915,Constantin Rădulescu-Motru 's "Noua Revistă Română " published Samyro's known poem "Verişoară, fată de pension" ("Little Cousin, Boarding School Girl"). [Cernat, p.108-109]Tzara had enrolled at the
University of Bucharest in 1914, studying Mathematics and Philosophy, but did not graduate.it icon [http://www.unifi.it/letrum/CMpro-v-p-1020.html "Tristan Tzara"] , biographical note in [http://www.unifi.it/letrum/ "Cronologia della letteratura rumena moderna (1780-1914)" database] , at theUniversity of Florence 's Department of Neo-Latin Languages and Literatures; retrieved April 23, 2008] In autumn 1915, he left Romania for the city ofZürich , in neutralSwitzerland . Janco, together with his brother Jules, had settled there a few months before, and was later joined by his other brother Georges. [Cernat, p.110-111] Tzara, who may have applied for the Faculty of Philosophy at the local university,Marta Ragozzino, "Tristan Tzara", in "Art e Dossier", March 1994, Giunti, p.48] shared lodging with Marcel Janco, who was a student at the "Technische Hochschule", in the Altinger Guest House [Cernat, p.111] (by 1918, Tzara had moved to the Limmatquai Hotel). [Richter, p.137] His departure from Romania, like that of the Janco brothers, may have been in part a pacifist political statement. [Cernat, p.132; Livezeanu, p.241, 249] After settling in Switzerland, the young poet almost completely discarded Romanian as his language of expression, writing most of his subsequent works in French. [Răileanu & Carassou, p.13] The poems he had written before, which were the result of poetic dialogs between him and his friend, were left in Vinea's care.Cernat, p.116] Most of these pieces were first printed only in theinterwar period . [Cernat, p.116, 130, 138, 153]It was in Zürich that the Romanian group met with the German
Hugo Ball , an anarchist poet and pianist, and his young wifeEmmy Hennings , amusic hall performer. In February 1916, Ball had rented the Cabaret Voltaire from its owner, Jan Ephraim, and intended to use the venue forperformance art and exhibits. [Cernat, p.110-111; Hofman, p.2; Richter, p.12-14] Hugo Ball recorded this period, noting that Tzara and Marcel Janco, likeHans Arp ,Arthur Segal ,Otto van Rees ,Max Oppenheimer , andMarcel Slodki , "readily agreed to take part in the cabaret." [Cernat, p.111; Richter, p.14] According to Ball, among the performances of songs mimicking or taking inspiration from various nationalfolklore s, "Herr Tristan Tzara recited Rumanian poetry ." [Cernat, p.111; Gendron, p.73; Richter, p.14] In late March, Ball recounted, the group was joined by German writer and drummerRichard Huelsenbeck . [Cernat, p.111; Richter, p.14] He was soon after involved in Tzara's "simultaneist verse" performance, "the first in Zürich and in the world", also including renditions of poems by two promoters ofCubism ,Fernand Divoire andHenri Barzun . [Cernat, p.111; Richter, p.14, 28-30]Birth of Dada
It was in this milieu that
Dada was born, at some point before May 1916, when a publication of the same name first saw print. The story of its establishment was the subject of a disagreement between Tzara and his fellow writers. Cernat believes that the first Dadaist performance took place as early as February, when the nineteen-year old Tzara, wearing amonocle , entered the Cabaret Voltaire stage singing sentimental melodies and handing paper wads to his "scandalized spectators", leaving the stage to allow room for masked actors onstilts , and returning in clown attire.Cernat, p.112] The same type of performances took place at the Züntfhaus zür Waag beginning in summer 1916, after the Cabaret Voltaire was forced to close down. [Cernat, p.115; Gendron, p.73-75; Hofman, p.3; Richter, p.39, 41-44, 48] According to music historian Bernard Gendron, for at long as it lasted, "the Cabaret Voltaire was dada. There was no alternative institution or site that could disentangle 'pure' dada from its mere accompaniment [...] nor was any such site desired." [Gendron, p.75] Other opinions link Dada's beginnings with much earlier events, including the experiments ofAlfred Jarry ,André Gide ,Christian Morgenstern ,Jean-Pierre Brisset ,Guillaume Apollinaire ,Jacques Vaché ,Marcel Duchamp orFrancis Picabia . [Richter, p.11, 71-72, 81-100, 168-173]In the first of the movement's manifestos, Ball wrote: " [The booklet] is intended to present to the Public the activities and interests of the Cabaret Voltaire, which has as its sole purpose to draw attention, across the barriers of war and nationalism, to the few independent spirits who live for other ideals. The next objective of the artists who are assembled here is to publish a "revue internationale" [French for "international magazine"] ."Richter, p.14] Ball completed his message in French, and the paragraph translates as: "The magazine shall be published in Zürich and shall carry the name 'Dada' ('Dada'). Dada Dada Dada Dada." The view according to which Ball had created the movement was notably supported by writer
Walter Serner , who directly accused Tzara of having abused Ball's initiative.Richter, p.123]A secondary point of contention between the founders of Dada regarded the paternity for the movement's name, which, according to visual artist and essayist Hans Richter, was first adopted in print in June 1916.Richter, p.32] Ball, who claimed authorship and stated that he picked the word randomly from a dictionary, indicated that it stood for both the French-language equivalent of "
hobby horse " and a German-language term reflecting the joy of children being rocked to sleep. [Cernat, p.115-116; Richter, p.31-32] Tzara himself declined interest in the matter, but Marcel Janco credited him with having coined the term. [Cernat, p.115-116] Dada manifestos, written or co-authored by Tzara, record that the name shares its form with various other terms, including a word used in theKru languages ofWest Africa to designate the tail of a sacred cow; a toy and the name for "mother" in an unspecified Italian dialect; and the double affirmative in Romanian and in variousSlavic languages . [Cernat, p.116; Londré, p.397; Richter, p.31-32]Dadaist promoter
Before the end of the war, Tzara had assumed a position as Dada's main promoter and manager, helping the Swiss group establish branches in other European countries. [Cardinal, p.529; Hofman, p.3-4; Cernat, p.115; Livezeanu, p.249-251; Londré, p.396; Richter, p.33] This period also saw the first conflict within the group: citing irreconcilable differences with Tzara, Ball left the group. [Cernat, p.115; Richter, p.43, 59] With his departure, Gendron argues, Tzara was able to move Dada
vaudeville -like performances into more of "an incendiary and yet jocularly provocative theater."Gendron, p.77]He is often credited with having inspired many young modernist authors from outside Switzerland to affiliate with the group, in particular the Frenchmen
Louis Aragon ,André Breton ,Paul Éluard ,Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes andPhilippe Soupault .Richter, p.33] Richter, who also came into contact with Dada at this stage in its history, notes that these intellectuals often had a "very cool and distant attitude to this new movement" before being approached by the Romanian author. In June 1916, he began editing and managing the periodical "Dada" as a successor of the short-lived magazine "Cabaret Voltaire"—Richter describes his "energy, passion and talent for the job", which he claims satisfied all Dadaists. [Hofman, p.4; Richter, p.33] He was at the time the lover ofMaja Kruscek , who was a student ofRudolf Laban ; in Richter's account, their relationship was always tottering. [Richter, p.45, 69-70]As early as 1916, Tristan Tzara took distance from the Italian Futurists, rejecting the militarist and proto-fascist stance of their leader
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti . [Cernat, p.193] Richter notes that, by then, Dada had replaced Futurism as the leader of modernism, while continuing to build on its influence: "we had swallowed Futurism—bones, feathers and all. It is true that in the process of digestion all sorts of bones and feathers had been regurgitated." Despite this and the fact that Dada did not make any gains in Italy, Tzara could count poetsGiuseppe Ungaretti andAlberto Savinio , paintersGino Cantarelli andAldo Fiozzi , as well as a few other Italian Futurists, among the Dadaists. [Richter, p.199, 201 (Haftmann, in Richter, p.217)] Among the Italian authors supporting Dadaist manifestos and rallying with the Dada group was the poet, painter and in the future a fascist racial theoristJulius Evola , who became a personal friend of Tzara.S. Batchelor, "Existence, Enlightenment and Suicide: The Dilemma of Nanavira Thera", in Tadeusz Skorupski (ed.), "The Buddhist Forum", Vol. IV (Seminar Papers 1994-1996),Routledge , London, 1996, p.11-13. ISBN 0728602555]The next year, Tzara and Ball opened the "Galerie Dada" permanent exhibit, through which they set contacts with the independent Italian visual artist
Giorgio de Chirico and with the German Expressionist journal "Der Sturm ", all of whom were described as "fathers of Dada". [Richter, p.39-40, 46] During the same months, and probably owing to Tzara's intervention, the Dada group organized a performance of "Sphinx and Strawman", a puppet play by the Austro-Hungarian ExpressionistOskar Kokoschka , whom he advertised as an example of "Dada theater". [Grigorescu, p.173-174] He was also in touch with "Nord-Sud ", the magazine of French poetPierre Reverdy (who sought to unify all avant-garde trends), and contributed articles onAfrican art to both "Nord-Sud" andPierre Albert-Birot 's "SIC" magazine.Richter, p.167] In early 1918, through Huelsenbeck, Zürich Dadaists established contacts with their more explicitlyleft-wing disciples inBerlin —George Grosz ,John Heartfield ,Johannes Baader ,Kurt Schwitters ,Walter Mehring ,Raoul Hausmann ,Carl Einstein ,Franz Jung , and Heartfield's brotherWieland Herzfelde . [Hofman, p.7-8; Richter, p.102-114] With Breton, Soupault and Aragon, Tzara traveledCologne , where he became familiarized with the elaboratecollage works of Schwitters andMax Ernst , whom he showed to his colleagues in Switzerland. [Richter, p.137, 155, 159] Huelsenbeck nonetheless declined to Schwitters membership in Berlin Dada. [Londré, p.397; Richter, p.137-138]As e result of his campaigning, Tzara created a list of so-called "Dada presidents", who represented various regions of Europe. According to Hans Richter, it included, alongside Tzara himself, figures ranging from Ernst, Arp, Baader, Breton and Aragon to Kruscek, Evola,
Rafael Lasso de la Vega ,Igor Stravinsky ,Vicente Huidobro ,Francesco Meriano andThéodore Fraenkel . [Richter, p.201] Richter notes: "I'm not sure if all the names who appear here would agree with the description." [Richter, p.200-201]End of World War I
The shows Tzara staged in Zürich often turned into scandals or riots, and he was in permanent conflict with the Swiss law enforcers. [Cernat, p.115; Richter, p.16, 19, 39] Hans Richter speaks of a "pleasure of letting fly at the bourgeois, which in Tristan Tzara took the form of coldly (or hotly) calculated insolence" ("see
Épater la bourgeoisie "). [Richter, p.24] In one instance, as part of a series of events in which Dadaists mocked established authors, Tzara and Arp falsely publicized that they were going to fight aduel in Rehalp, near Zürich, and that they were going to have the popular novelistJakob Christoph Heer for their witness. [Richter, p.66-67] Richter also reports that his Romanian colleague profited from Swiss neutrality to play the Allies andCentral Powers against each other, obtaining art works and funds from both, making use of their need to stimulate their respectivepropaganda efforts. [Richter, p.47-48] While active as a promoter, Tzara also published his first volume of collected poetry, the 1918 "Vingt-cinq poèmes" ("Twenty-five poems").Cardinal, p.530]A major event took place in autumn 1918, when
Francis Picabia , who was then publisher of "391" magazine and a distant Dada affiliate, visited Zürich and introduced his colleagues there to his nihilistic views on art and reason. [Richter, p.70-74] In theUnited States , Picabia,Man Ray andMarcel Duchamp had earlier set up their own version of Dada. This circle, based inNew York City , sought affiliation with Tzara's only in 1921, when they jokingly asked him to grant them permission to use "Dada" as their own name (to which Tzara replied: "Dada belongs to everybody"). [Hofman, p.12] The visit was credited by Richter with boosting the Romanian author's status, but also with making Tzara himself "switch suddenly from a position of balance between art and anti-art into the stratospheric regions of pure and joyful nothingness." [Richter, p.71] The movement subsequently organized its last major Swiss show, held at the Saal zur Kaufleutern, with choreography bySusanne Perrottet ,Sophie Taeuber-Arp , and with the participation ofKäthe Wulff ,Hans Heusser , Tzara, Hans Richter andWalter Serner . [Richter, p.74-78] It was there that Serner read from his 1918 essay, whose very title advocated "Letzte Lockerung" ("Final Dissolution"): this part is believed to have caused the subsequent mêlée, during which the public attacked the performers and succeeded in interrupting, but not canceling, the show. [Richter, p.78-80]Following the November 1918 Armistice with Germany, Dada's evolution was marked by political developments. In October 1919, Tzara, Arp and
Otto Flake began publishing "Der Zeltweg ", a journal aimed at further popularizing Dada in a post-war world were the borders were again accessible. [Richter, p.80] Richter, who admits that the magazine was "rather tame", also notes that Tzara and his colleagues were dealing with the impact ofcommunist revolution s, in particular theOctober Revolution and the German revolts of 1918, which "had stirred men's minds, divided men's interests and diverted energies in the direction of political change." [Richter, p.80] The same commentator however dismisses those accounts which, he believes, led readers to believe that "Der Zeltweg" was "an association of revolutionary artists." [Richter, p.80] According to one account rendered by historian Robert Levy, Tzara shared company with a group of Romanian communist students, and, as such, may have met withAna Pauker , who was later one of theRomanian Communist Party 's most prominent activists. [Robert Levy, "Ana Pauker: The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Communist",University of California Press , Berkeley, p.37. ISBN 0520223950]Arp and Janco drifted away from the movement ca. 1919, when they created the Constructivist-inspired workshop "
Das Neue Leben ".Cernat, p.115] In Romania, Dada was awarded an ambiguous reception from Tzara's former associate Vinea. Although he was sympathetic to its goals, treasured Hugo Ball and Hennings and promised to adapt his own writings to its requirements, Vinea cautioned Tzara and the Jancos in favor of lucidity. [Cernat, p.121-123, 181-183] When Vinea submitted his poem "Doleanţe" ("Grievances") to be published by Tzara and his associates, he was turned down, an incident which critics attribute to a contrast between the reserved tone of the piece and the revolutionary tenets of Dada. [Cernat, p.123-124]Paris Dada
In late 1919, Tristan Tzara left Switzerland to join Breton, Soupault and
Claude Rivière in editing theParis -based magazine "Littérature ". [Cardinal, p.529-530; Hofman, p.12-14; Richter, p.167, 173] Already a mentor for the French avant-garde, he was, according to Hans Richter, perceived as an "Anti-Messiah " and a "prophet".Richter, p.168] Reportedly, Dada mythology had it that he entered the French capital in a snow-white or lilac-colored car, passing downBoulevard Raspail through atriumphal arch made from his own pamphlets, being greeted by cheering crowds and a fireworks display. Richter dismisses this account, indicating that Tzara actually walked fromGare de l'Est to Picabia's home, without anyone expecting him to arrive.He is often described as the main figure in the "Littérature" circle, and credited with having more firmly set its artistic principles in the line of Dada. [Hofman, p.13; Richter, p.167] When Picabia began publishing a new series of "391" in Paris, Tzara seconded him and, Richter says, produced issues of the magazine "decked out [...] in all the colors of Dada." He was also issuing his "Dada" magazine, printed in Paris but using the same format, renaming it "Bulletin Dada" and later "Dadaphone". [Hofman, p.13-14; Richter, p.173, 179-180] At around that time, he met American author
Gertrude Stein , who wrote about him in "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas ", ["Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas", in "The Cambridge Handbook of American Literature",Cambridge University Press , Cambridge, 1986 p.13. ISBN 0521307031; Armstrong, p.496] and the artist couple Robert andSonia Delaunay (with whom he worked in tandem for "poem-dresses" and other simultaneist literary pieces).Tag Gronberg, "Sonia Delaunay's Simultaneous Fashions and the Modern Woman", in Whitney Chadwick, Tirza True Latimer (eds.), "The Modern Woman Revisited: Paris between the Wars",Rutgers University Press , Piscataway, p.114-115. ISBN 0813532922]Tzara became involved in a number of Dada experiments, on which he collaborated with Breton, Aragon, Soupault, Picabia or
Paul Éluard . [Hofman, p.13; Richter, p.173-176] Other authors who came into contact with Dada at that stage wereJean Cocteau ,Paul Dermée andRaymond Radiguet . [Richter, p.173-174] The performances staged by Dada were often meant to popularize its principles, and Dada continued to draw attention on itself byhoax es andfalse advertising , announcing that the Hollywood film starCharlie Chaplin was going to appear on stage at its show, or that its members were going to have their heads shaved or their hair cut off on stage. [Gendron, p.77; Richter, p.181] In another instance, Tzara and his associates lectured at the "Université populaire " in front of industrial workers, who were reportedly less than impressed. [Richter, p.175-176] Richter believes that, ideologically, Tzara was still in tribute to Picabia's nihilistic and anarchic views (which made the Dadaists attack all political and cultural ideologies), but that it had a measure of sympathy for theworking class . [Richter, p.175-176]Dada activities in Paris culminated in the March 1920
variety show at theThéâtre de l'Œuvre , which featured readings from Breton, Picabia, Dermée and Tzara's earlier work, "La Première aventure céleste de M. Antipyrine" ("The First Heavenly Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine"). [Londré, p.398; Richter, p.179-183] Tzara's melody, "Vaseline symphonique" ("Symphonic Vaseline"), which required ten or twenty people to shout "cra" and "cri" on a rising scale, was also performed. [Gendron, p.77; Richter, p.182] A scandal erupted when Breton read Picabia's "Manifeste cannibale" ("Cannibal Manifesto"), lashing out at the audience and mocking them, to which they answered by aiming rotten fruit at the stage. [Richter, p.180-182]The Dada phenomenon was only noticed in Romania beginning in 1920, and its overall reception was negative. Traditionalist historian
Nicolae Iorga , Symbolist promoterOvid Densusianu , the more reserved modernistsCamil Petrescu andBenjamin Fondane all refused to accept it as a valid artistic manifestation. [Cernat, p.125] Although he rallied with tradition, Vinea defended the subversive current in front of more serious criticism, and rejected the widespread rumor that Tzara had acted as anagent of influence for theCentral Powers during the war. [Cernat, p.127]Eugen Lovinescu , editor of "Sburătorul " and one of Vinea's rivals on the modernist scene, acknowledged the influence exercised by Tzara on the younger avant-garde authors, but analyzed his work only briefly, using as an example one of his pre-Dada poems, and depicting him as an advocate of literary "extremism". [Cernat, p.126-127, 299]Dada stagnation
By 1921, Tzara was by then involved in conflicts with other figures in the movement, whom he claimed had parted with spirit of Dada. [Cernat, p.127-128; Richter, p.122-123] He was targeted by the Berlin-based Dadaists, in particular by Huelsenbeck and Serner, the former of whom was also involved in a conflict with
Raoul Hausmann over leadership status. According to Richter, tensions between Breton and Tzara had surfaced in 1920, when Breton first made known his wish to do away with musical performances altogether, and alleged that the Romanian was merely repeating himself. [Richter, p.182-183, 192-193] The Dada shows themselves were by then such common occurrences that audiences expected to be insulted by the performers.In April 1921, through a booklet proclaiming the "new interpretation of nature applied this time not to art, but to life", Dada called on the Parisian public join them on a trip to
Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre church. As they distributed copies of the document, the authors shouted insulting or provocative slogans to passers-by. This "Dada excursion", conceived as a manner of avoiding stagnation, failed to gain needed attention, and other members of the Parisian group came to share Breton's feelings. [Richter, p.183-184]A more serious crisis occurred in May, when Dada organized a mock trial of
Maurice Barrès , whose early affiliation with the Symbolists had been shadowed by hisantisemitism andreactionary stance:Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes was the prosecutor, Aragon and Soupault the defense attorneys, with Tzara, Ungaretti,Benjamin Péret and others as witnesses (amannequin stood in for Barrès). [Richter, p.184-186] Péret immediately upset Picabia and Tzara by refusing to make the trial an absurd one, and by introducing a political subtext with which Breton nevertheless agreed. [Richter, p.184, 186] In June, Tzara and Picabia clashed with each other, after Tzara expressed an opinion that his former mentor was becoming too radical. [Richter, p.184-185] During the same season, Breton, Arp, Ernst,Maja Kruschek and Tzara were inAustria , atImst , where they published their last manifesto as a group, "Dada au grand air" ("Dada in the Open Air") or "Der Sängerkrieg in Tirol" ("The Battle of the Singers inTyrol "). [Richter, p.186 (illustration 96)] Tzara also visited Czechoslovakia, where he reportedly hoped to gain adherents to his cause. [Cernat, p.128]Also in 1921, Ion Vinea wrote an article for the Romanian newspaper "
Adevărul ", arguing that the movement had exhausted itself (although, in his letters to Tzara, he continued to ask his friend to return home and spread his message there). [Cernat, p.127-128] After July 1922, Marcel Janco rallied with Vinea in editing "Contimporanul ", which published some of Tzara's earliest poems but never offered space to any Dadaist manifesto. [Cernat, p.130, 138, 153] Reportedly, the conflict between Tzara and Janco had a personal note: Janco later mentioned "some dramatic quarrels" between his colleague and him. [Răileanu & Carassou, p.151] They avoided each other for the rest of their lives, and Tzara even struck out the dedications to Janco from his early poems. [Cernat, p.115, 137]Julius Evola also grew disappointed by the movement's total rejection of tradition, and began his personal search for an alternative, pursuing a path which later led him toesotericism and fascism."Le Cœur à barbe"
Tzara was openly attacked by Breton in a February 1922 article for "
Le Journal de Peuple ", where the Romanian writer was denounced as "an impostor" avid for "publicity". [Cernat, p.114; Richter, p.188] In March, Breton initiated the "Congress for the Determination and Defense of the Modern Spirit". The French writer used the occasion to strike out Tzara's name from among the Dadaists, citing in his support Dada's Huelsenbeck, Serner, andChristian Schad .Cernat, p.114] Basing his statement on a note supposedly authored by Huelsenbeck, Breton also accused Tzara of opportunism, claiming that he had planned wartime editions of Dada works in such a manner as not to upset actors on the political stage, making sure that German Dadaists were not made available to the public in countries subject to theSupreme War Council 's control. Tzara, who attended the Congress only as a means to subvert it, [Richter, p.187] responded to the accusations the same month, arguing that Huelsenbeck's note was fabricated and that Schad had not been one of the original Dadaists. Rumors reported much later by American writerBrion Gysin had it that Breton's claims also depicted Tzara as an informer for thePrefecture of Police .Nicholas Zurbrugg , "Brion Gysin", in "Art, Performance, Media: 31 Interviews",University of Minnesota Press , Minneapolis, p.190. ISBN 0816638322]In parallel, Dada came to terms with its impending dissolution, and, in May 1922, staged its own funeral. [Londré, p.398; Richter, p.191] According to Hans Richter, the main part of this took place in
Weimar , where the Dadaists attended a festival of theBauhaus art school, during which Tzara proclaimed the elusive nature of his art: "Dada is useless, like everything else in life. [...] Dada is a virgin microbe which penetrates with the insistence of air into all those spaces that reason has failed to fill with words and conventions." [Richter, p.191]With "Le Cœur à barbe" ("The Bearded Heart"), a manifesto and public performance, a large group of modernists signed in favor of marginalizing Breton and supporting Tzara. Alongside Cocteau, Arp, Ribemont-Dessaignes, and Éluard, the pro-Tzara faction included
Erik Satie ,Theo van Doesburg ,Serge Charchoune ,Louis-Ferdinand Céline ,Marcel Duchamp ,Ossip Zadkine ,Jean Metzinger ,Ilia Zdanevich , andMan Ray . [Richter, p.188] It was during the group's soirée of July 1923 that Tristan Tzara first presented to the public his play "Le Cœur à gaz " (with costumes designed bySonia Delaunay ), but the show was just then interrupted by an angry Breton, who reportedly fought with several of his former associates and broke furniture, causing a riot that was only stopped by the intervention of authorities. [Richter, p.190-191] The scandal involving Breton and Tzara meant that Dada's vaudeville declined in importance, and disappeared altogether after that date. [Gendron, p.78]Picabia took Breton's side against Tzara, [Hofman, p.15; Richter, p.188, 190] and replaced the staff of his "391", enlisting collaborations from
Clément Pansaers andEzra Pound . [Richter, p.188, 190] Breton marked the end of Dada in 1924, when he issued the first "Surrealist Manifesto ". Richter indicates: "Surrealism devoured and digested Dada." [Londré, p.398; Richter, p.191] Tzara took distance from new trend, disagreeing with its methods and, progressively, with its politics. [Cernat, p.239-240] In 1923, he and a few other former Dadaists were collaborators of Richter and the Constructivist artistEl Lissitzky on the magazine "G", [Haftmann, in Richter, p.221] and, the following year, he wrote pieces for the Yugoslav-Slovenia n magazine "Tank" (edited byFerdinand Delak ). [Grigorescu, p.315]Transition to Surrealism
Tzara continued to write, becoming more seriously interested in the theater. In 1924, he published and staged the play "
Mouchoir de nuages ", which was soon after included as an additional piece in the repertoire ofSerge Diaghilev 's "Ballets Russes ". [Lynn Garafola, "Legacies of Twentieth-century Dance",Wesleyan University Press , Middletown, 2005, p.172. ISBN 0819566748] He also collected his his earlier Dada texts as "Sept manifestes Dada" ("Seven Dada Manifestos"). They were positively reviewed by Marxist thinkerHenri Lefebvre , who later became one of the author's friends. [Martin Jay , "Marxism and Totality: the Adventures of a Concept from Lukács to Habermas",University of California Press , Berkeley, 1984, p.293 ISBN 0520057422]In Romania, Tzara's work was partly recuperated by "Contimporanul", which notably staged public readings of his works during the international art exhibit it organized in 1924, and again during the "new art demonstration" of 1925. [Cernat, p.153, 156, 159, 186] In parallel, the short-lived magazine "Integral", where
Ilarie Voronca andIon Călugăru were the main animators, took significant interest in Tzara's work. [Cernat, p.239-240, 277, 279, 287] In a 1927 interview with the publication, he voiced his opposition to the Surrealist group's adoption of communism, indicating that such politics could only result in a "new bourgeoisie" being created, and explaining that he had opted for a personal "permanent revolution ", which would preserve "the holiness of the ego". [Cernat, p.239]In 1925, Tristan Tzara was in
Stockholm , where he marriedGreta Knutson , with whom he had a son, Christophe (born 1927). A former student of painterAndré Lhote , she was known for her interest in phenomenology andabstract art ."Greta Knutson", inPenelope Rosemont , "Surrealist Women ",Continuum International Publishing Group , London & New York, 1998, p.69. ISBN 0485300885] Around the same period, with funds from Knutson's inheritance, Tzara commissionedAustria n architectAdolf Loos , a former representative of theVienna Secession whom he had met in Zürich, to build him a house in Paris. The rigidly functionalist "Maison Tristan Tzara", built inMontmartre , was designed following Tzara's specific requirements and decorated with samples ofAfrican art . It was Loos' only major contribution in his Parisian years.In 1929, he reconciled with Breton, and sporadically attended the Surrealists' meetings in Paris. The same year, he issued the poetry book "De nos oiseaux" ("Of Our Birds"). This period saw the publication of "
L'Homme approximatif " (1931), alongside the volumes "L'Arbre des voyageurs" ("The Travelers' Tree", 1930), "Oú boivent les loups" ("Where Wolves Drink", 1932), "L'Antitête" ("The Antihead", 1933) and "Grains et issues" ("Seed and Bran", 1935). By then, it was also announced that Tzara had started work on a screenplay.Cernat, p.277] In 1930, he directed and produced a cinematic version of "Le Cœur à barbe", starring Breton and other leading Surrealists.imdb|0879262] Five years later, he signed his name to "The Testimony againstGertrude Stein ", published byEugene Jolas ' magazine "transition" in reply to Stein's memoir "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas ", in which he accused his former friend of being amegalomania c. [Armstrong, p.496]The poet became involved in further developing
Surrealist techniques , and, together with Breton andValentine Hugo , drew one of the better-known examples of "exquisite corpse s". [Ion Biberi , "Arta suprarealistă",Editura Meridiane , Bucharest, 1973, p.53. OCLC|22905196] Tzara also prefaced a 1934 collection of Surrealist poems by his friendRené Char , and the following year he and Greta Knutson visited Char inL'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue . ["René Char Bio-Bibliography", in "Selected Poems of René Char" (edited byMary Ann Caws and Tina Jolas),New Directions Publishers , New York, 1992, p.xii. ISBN 0811211916] Tzara's wife was also affiliated with the Surrealist group at around the same time. This association ended when she parted with Tzara late in the 1930s.At home, Tzara's works were collected and edited by the Surrealist promoter
Saşa Pană , who corresponded with him over several years. [Cernat, p.49, 106, 109, 116; Răileanu & Carassou, p.154-155] The first such edition saw print in 1934, and featured the 1913-1915 poems Tzara had left in Vinea's care. In 1928-1929, Tzara exchanged letters with his friendJacques G. Costin , a "Contimporanul" affiliate who did not share all of Vinea's views on literature, who offered to organize his visit to Romania and asked him to translate his work into French. [Cernat, p.192-194]Affiliation with communism and Spanish Civil War
Alarmed by the establishment of
Adolf Hitler 's Nazi German regime, which also signified the end of Berlin's avant-garde, he merged his activities as an art promoter with the cause ofanti-fascism , and was close to theFrench Communist Party (PCF). In 1936, Richter recalled, he published a series of photographs secretly taken byKurt Schwitters inHanover , works which documented the destruction of Nazi propaganda by the locals,ration stamp with reduced quantities of food, and other hidden aspects of Hitler's rule. [Richter, p.153] After the outbreak of the Civil War in Spain, he briefly left France and joined the Republican forces. [Livezeanu, p.245-246] Alongside Soviet reporterIlya Ehrenburg , Tzara visitedMadrid , which was besieged by the Nationalists ("seeSiege of Madrid ").Livezeanu, p.246] Upon his return, he published the collection of poems "Midis gagnés" ("Conquered Southern Regions"). Some of them had previously been printed in the brochure "Les poètes du monde défendent le peuple espagnol" ("The Poets of the World Defend the Spanish People", 1937), which was edited by two prominent authors and activists,Nancy Cunard and theChile an poetPablo Neruda . [Susan Robin Suleiman, "Committed Painting", in Denis Hollier (ed.), "A New History of French Literature",Harvard University Press , Cambridge, 1994, p.938. ISBN 0674615662] Tzara had also signed Cunard's June 1937 call to intervention againstFrancisco Franco . [Marie-Jaqueline Lancaster, "Brian Howard: Portrait of a Failure", Timewell Press, London, 2005, p.221. ISBN 185725211X] Reportedly, he and Nancy Cunard were romantically involved. [Caroline Weber, "Nancy Cunard: a Troubled Heiress with an Ideological Mission", in "The International Herald Tribune ", March 30, 2007]Although the poet was moving away from Surrealism, his adherence to strict
Marxism-Leninism was reportedly questioned by both the PCF and the Soviet Union.Beitchman, p.49] Semiotician Philip Beitchman places their attitude in connection with Tzara's own vision ofUtopia , which combined communist messages with Freudo-Marxistpsychoanalysis and made use of particularly violent imagery. [Beitchman, p.48-49] Reportedly, Tzara refused to be enlisted in supporting theparty line , maintaining his independence and refusing to take the forefront at public rallies.ro icon Sorin Pop, [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/informatiiarticol.phtml?xid=9785&print=true "François Buot, Tristan Tzara. Omul care a pus la cale revoluţia Dada"] (book review), in "Observator Cultural ", Nr. 195, November 2003]However, others note that the former Dadaist leader would often show himself a follower of political guidelines. As early as 1934, Tzara, together with Breton, Éluard and communist writer
René Crevel , organized an informal trial of independent-minded SurrealistSalvador Dalí , who was at the time a confessed admirer of Hitler, and whose portrait ofWilliam Tell had alarmed them because it shared likeness withBolshevik leaderVladimir Lenin . [Carlos Rojas, "Salvador Dalí, or the Art of Spitting on Your Mother's Portrait",Penn State University Press , University Park, 1993, p.98. ISBN 0271008423] HistorianIrina Livezeanu notes that Tzara, who agreed withStalinism and shunnedTrotskyism , submitted to the PCF cultural demands during the writers' congress of 1935, even when his friend Crevel committed suicide to protest the adoption ofsocialist realism .Livezeanu, p.251] At a later stage, Livezeanu remarks, Tzara reinterpreted Dada and Surrealism as revolutionary currents, and presented them as such to the public. [Livezeanu, p.247-249] This stance she contrasts with that of Breton, who was more reserved in his attitudes.World War II and Resistance
During
World War II , Tzara took refuge from the German occupation forces, moving to the southern areas, controlled by the Vichy regime. On one occasion, the antisemitic and collaborationist publication "Je Suis Partout " made his whereabouts known to theGestapo .fr icon [http://www.marianne2.fr/Tristan-Tzara,-radical,-mondain-et-anticonformiste_a41229.html?PHPSESSID=c3682e2fb29f923d2fc35498af3a6907 "Tristan Tzara, radical, mondain et anticonformiste"] , in "Marianne", January 13, 2003]He was in
Marseille in late 1940-early 1941, joining the group of anti-fascist and Jewish refugees who, protected by American diplomatVarian Fry , were seeking to escapeNazi-occupied Europe . Among the people present there were the anti-totalitarian socialistVictor Serge , anthropologistClaude Lévi-Strauss , playwrightArthur Adamov , philosopher and poetRené Daumal , and several prominent Surrealists: Breton, Char, andBenjamin Péret , as well as artistsMax Ernst ,André Masson ,Wifredo Lam ,Jacques Hérold ,Victor Brauner andÓscar Domínguez .Danièle Giraudy, Musée de Marseille (eds.), "Le jeu de Marseille: autour d'André Breton et des surréalistes à Marseille en 1940-1941", Éditions Alors Hors du Temps, Marseille, p.79sqq] During the months spent together, and before some of them received permission to leave for America, they invented a newcard game , on which traditional card imagery was replaced with Surrealist symbols.Some time after his stay in Marseille, Tzara joined the
French Resistance , rallying with the Maquis. A contributor to magazines published by the Resistance, Tzara also took charge of the cultural broadcast for theFree French Forces clandestine radio station. He lived inAix-en-Provence , then in Souillac, and ultimately inToulouse . His son Cristophe was at the time a Resistant in northern France, having joined the "Franc Tireurs Partisans ". In Axis-allied and antisemitic Romania, the regime ofIon Antonescu ordered bookstores not to sell works by Tzara and 44 other Jewish-Romanian authors ("seeRomania during World War II "). [Radu Ioanid , "The Romanian Press: Preparing the Ground for the Holocaust and Reporting on Its Implementation", in Robert Moses Shapiro, "Why Didn't the Press Shout?: American and International Journalism during the Holocaust", Ktav, Hoboken, 2003, p.404. ISBN 0881257753]In December 1944, five months after the
Liberation of Paris , he was contributing to "L'Éternelle Revue ", a pro-communist newspaper edited by philosopherJean-Paul Sartre , through which Sartre was publicizing the heroic image of a France united in resistance, as opposed to the perception that it had passively accepted German control.Susan Rubin Suleiman, "Crises of Memory and the Second World War",Harvard University Press , Cambridge, 2006, p.30-31. ISBN 0674022068] Other contributors included writers Aragon, Char, Éluard,Elsa Triolet ,Eugène Guillevic ,Raymond Queneau ,Francis Ponge ,Jacques Prévert and painterPablo Picasso .Upon the end of the war and the restoration of French independence, Tzara was naturalized a French citizen. During 1945, under the
Provisional Government of the French Republic , he was a representative of the Sud-Ouest region to the National Assembly. According to Livezeanu, he "helped reclaim the South from the cultural figures who had associated themselves to Vichy [France] ." In April 1946, his early poems, alongside similar pieces by Breton, Éluard, Aragon and Dalí, were the subject of a midnight broadcast on Parisian Radio. ["Drop Everything, Drop Dado", in "Time", April 8, 1946] In 1947, he became a full member of the PCF (according to other sources, he had been one since 1934).International leftism
Over the following decade, Tzara lend his support to political causes. Pursuing his interest in
primitivism , he became a critic of the Fourth Republic's colonial policy, and joined his voice to those who supporteddecolonization . Nevertheless, he was appointedcultural ambassador of the Republic by thePaul Ramadier cabinet. [Livezeanu, p.244, 246, 247] He also participated in the PCF-organized Congress of Writers, but, unlike Éluard and Aragon, again avoided adapting his style tosocialist realism .He returned to Romania on an official visit in late 1946-early 1947, [Cernat, p.113; Livezeanu, "passim"] ro icon János Farkas, [http://www.revista-apostrof.ro/articole.php?id=154 "Tristan Tzara în Ungaria. Octombrie 1956"] , in "
Apostrof ", Vol. XVII, Nr. 12 (199)] as part of a tour of the emergingEastern Bloc during which he also stopped in Czechoslovakia,Hungary , and the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. The speeches he andSaşa Pană gave on the occasion, published by "Orizont " journal, were noted for condoning official positions of the PCF and theRomanian Communist Party , and are credited by Irina Livezeanu with causing a rift between Tzara and young Romanian avant-gardists such as Victor Brauner andGherasim Luca (who rejected communism and were alarmed by theIron Curtain having fallen over Europe). [Livezeanu, p.252] In September of the same year, he was present at the conference of the pro-communistInternational Union of Students (where he was a guest of the French-basedUnion of Communist Students , and met with similar organizations from Romania and other countries). [G. Brătescu , "Ce-a fost să fie. Notaţii autobiografice", Humanitas, Bucharest, 2003, p.207-208. ISBN 973-50-0425-9]In 1949-1950, Tzara answered Aragon's call and become active in the international campaign to liberate
Nazım Hikmet , a Turkish poet whose 1938 arrest for communist activities had created a "cause célèbre " for the pro-Soviet public opinion. [Göksu & Timms, p.212, 318] Mark Carroll, "Music and Ideology in Cold War Europe",Cambridge University Press , Cambridge, 2003, p.52. ISBN 0521820723] Tzara chaired the Committee for the Liberation of Nazım Hikmet, which issued petitions to national governments [Göksu & Timms, p.212] and commissioned works in honor of Hikmet (including musical pieces byLouis Durey andSerge Nigg ). Hikmet was eventually released in July 1950, and publicly thanked Tzara during his subsequent visit to Paris. [Göksu & Timms, p.318]His works of the period include, among others: "Le Signe de vie" ("Sign of Life", 1946), "Terre sur terre" ("Earth on Earth", 1946), "Sans coup férir" ("Without a Need to Fight", 1949), "De mémoire d'homme" ("From a Man's Memory", 1950), "Parler seul" ("Speaking Alone", 1950), and "La Face intérieure" ("The Inner Face", 1953), followed in 1955 by "À haute flamme" ("Flame out Loud") and "Le Temps naissant" ("The Nascent Time"), and the 1956 "Le Fruit permis" ("The Permitted Fruit"). [http://www.imj.org.il/imagine/dada_surrealism/pdf/books%20from%20schwarz%20catalog-3.pdf "Books in the Vera and Arturo Schwarz Collection"] , at the
Israel Museum ; retrieved April 23, 2008] Tzara continued to be an active promoter of modernist culture. Around 1949, having read Irish authorSamuel Beckett 's manuscript of "Waiting for Godot ", Tzara facilitated the play's staging by approaching producerRoger Blin .David Bradby , "Beckett: Waiting for Godot",Cambridge University Press , Cambridge, 2001, p.46. ISBN 052159510X] He also translated into French some poems by Hikmet [Bernard Vargaftig (ed.), "Poésies de Résistence", J'ai lu, Paris, 1994. ISBN 2277237671] and the Hungarian authorJózsef Attila . In 1949, he introduced Picasso to art dealerHeinz Berggruen (thus helping start their lifelong partnership), [Alan Riding"Obituary: Heinz Berggruen, Noted Art Dealer and Collector", in "The International Herald Tribune ", February 26, 2007] and, in 1951, wrote the catalog for an exhibit of works by his friendMax Ernst ; the text celebrated the artist's "free use of stimuli" and "his discovery of a new kind of humor." [Richter, p.164]1956 protest and final years
In October 1956, Tzara went visited the
People's Republic of Hungary , where the government ofImre Nagy was coming into conflict with theSoviet Union . This followed an invitation on the part of Hungarian writerGyula Illyés , who wanted his colleague to be present at ceremonies marking the rehabilitation ofLászló Rajk (a local communist leader whose prosecution had been ordered byJoseph Stalin ). Tzara was receptive of the Hungarians' demand forliberalization , contacted the anti-Stalinist and former DadaistLajos Kassák , and deemed the anti-Soviet movement "revolutionary". However, unlike much of Hungarian public opinion, the poet did not recommend emancipation from Soviet control, and described the independence demanded by local writers as "an abstract notion". The statement he issued, widely quoted in the Hungarian and international press, forced a reaction from the PCF: through Aragon's reply, the party deplored the fact that one of its members was being used in support of "anti-communist and anti-Soviet campaigns."His return to France coincided with the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution, which ended with a Soviet military intervention. On October 24, Tzara was ordered to a PCF meeting, where activist
Laurent Casanova reportedly ordered him to keep silent, which Tzara did. Tzara's apparent dissidence and the crisis he helped provoke within the Communist Party were celebrated by Breton, who had adopted a pro-Hungarian stance, and who defined his friend and rival as "the first spokesman of the Hungarian demand."He was thereafter mostly withdrawn from public life, dedicating himself to researching the work of 15th century poet
François Villon , and, like his fellow SurrealistMichel Leiris , to promoting primitive andAfrican art , which he had been collecting for years. In early 1957, Tzara attended a Dada retrospective on theRive Gauche , which ended in a riot caused by the rival avant-gardeMouvement Jariviste , an outcome which reportedly pleased him. ["Battle of the Nihilists", in "Time", April 8, 1957] In August 1960, one year after the Fifth Republic had been established by PresidentCharles de Gaulle , at a time when French forces were confronting theAlgeria n rebels ("seeAlgerian War "). Together withSimone de Beauvoir ,Marguerite Duras ,Jérôme Lindon ,Alain Robbe-Grillet and other intellectuals, he addressed PremierMichel Debré a letter of protest, concerning France's refusal to grant Algeria its independence.Laure Adler , "Marguerite Duras: A Life",University of Chicago Press , Chicago, 2000, p.233-234. ISBN 0226007588] As a result, Minister of CultureAndré Malraux announced that his cabinet would not subsidize any films to which Tzara and the others may contribute, and the signatories could no longer appear on stations managed by the state-owned French Broadcasting Service.In 1961, as recognition for his work as a poet, Tzara was awarded the prestigious
Taormina Prize . One of his final public activities took place in 1962, when he attended theInternational Congress on African Culture , organized by English curatorFrank McEwen and held at the National Gallery in Salisbury,Southern Rhodesia . [Johannesburg Art Gallery , "Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent",Jacana Media , 2007, p.227. ISBN 177009363X] He died one year later in his Paris home, and was buried at theCimetière du Montparnasse .Literary contributions
Identity issues
Much critical commentary about Tzara surrounds the measure to which the poet identified with the national cultures which he represented. Paul Cernat notes that the association between Samyro and the Jancos, who were Jews, and their ethnic Romanian colleagues, was one sign of a cultural dialog, in which "the openness of Romanian environments toward artistic modernity" was stimulated by "young emancipated Jewish writers." [Cernat, p.34] Salomon Schulman, a Swedish researcher of
Yiddish literature , argues that the combined influence of Yiddish folklore andHasidic philosophy shaped European modernism in general and Tzara's style in particular, [Cernat, p.35-36] while American poetAndrei Codrescu speaks of Tzara as one in a Balkan line of "absurdist writing", which also includes the RomaniansUrmuz ,Eugène Ionesco andEmil Cioran . [Olson, p.40] According to literary historianGeorge Călinescu , Samyro's early poems deal with "the voluptuousness over the strong scents of rural life, which is typical among Jews compressed intoghetto s."Călinescu, p.887]Tzara himself used elements alluding to his homeland in his early Dadaist performances. His collaboration with
Maja Kruscek at Züntfhaus zür Waag featured samples ofAfrican literature , to which Tzara added Romanian-language fragments. He is also known to have mixed elements ofRomanian folklore , and to have sung the native suburbanromanza "La moară la Hârţa" ("At the Mill in Hârţa") during at least one staging for Cabaret Voltaire. [Cernat, p.182, 405] Addressing the Romanian public in 1947, he claimed to have been captivated by "the sweet language ofMoldavia n peasants".Tzara nonetheless rebelled against his birthplace and upbringing. His earliest poems depict provincial Moldavia as a desolate and unsettling place. In Cernat's view, this imagery was in common use among Moldavian-born writers who also belonged to the avant-garde trend, notably
Benjamin Fondane andGeorge Bacovia . [Cernat, p.37-38] Like in the cases of Eugène Ionesco and Fondane, Cernat proposes, Samyro sought self-exile toWestern Europe as a "modern, voluntarist" means of breaking with "the peripheral condition", [Cernat, p.38] which may also serve to explain the pun he selected for a pseudonym. According to the same author, two important elements in this process were "a maternal attachment and a break with paternal authority", an "Oedipus complex " which he also argued was evident in the biographies of other Symbolist and avant-garde Romanian authors, from Urmuz toMateiu Caragiale . [Cernat, p.18] Unlike Vinea and the "Contimporanul " group, Cernat proposes, Tzara stood for radicalism and insurgency, which would also help explain their impossibility to communicate. [Cernat, p.398, 403-405] In particular, Cernat argues, the writer sought to emancipate himself from competingnationalism s, and addressed himself directly to the center of European culture, withZürich serving as a stage on his way toParis . The 1916 "Monsieur's Antipyrine's Manifesto" featured a cosmopolitan appeal: "DADA remains within the framework of European weaknesses, it's still shit, but from now on we want to shit in different colors so as to adorn the zoo of art with all the flags of all the consulates."With time, Tristan Tzara came to be regarded by his Dada associates as an exotic character, whose attitudes were intrinsically linked with
Eastern Europe . Early on, Ball referred to him and the Janco brothers as "Orientals". Hans Richter believed him to be a fiery and impulsive figure, having little in common with his German collaborators. [Cernat, p.112; Richter, p.18-20, 24, 36, 37, 59] According to Cernat, Richter's perspective seems to indicate a vision of Tzara having a "Latin" temperament. This type of perception also had negative implications for Tzara, particularly after the 1922 split within Dada. In the 1940s,Richard Huelsenbeck alleged that his former colleague had always been separated from other Dadaists by his failure to appreciate the legacy of "German humanism", and that, compared to his German colleagues, he was "a barbarian". In his polemic with Tzara, Breton also repeatedly placed stress on his rival's foreign origin. [Cernat, p.114, 115; Răileanu & Carassou, p.35]At home, Tzara was occasionally targeted for his Jewishness, culminating in the ban enforced by the
Ion Antonescu regime. In 1931,Const. I. Emilian , the first Romanian to write an academic study on the avant-garde, attacked him from a conservative and antisemitic position. He depicted Dadaists as "Judaeo-Bolsheviks" who corrupted Romanian culture, and included Tzara among the main proponents of "literary anarchism". [Cernat, p.296, 299, 307, 309-310, 329] Alleging that Tzara's only merit was to establish a literary fashion, while recognizing his "formal virtuosity and artistic intelligence", he claimed to prefer Tzara in his "Simbolul " stage. [Cernat, p.310] Nine years after Emilian's polemic text, fascist poet and journalistRadu Gyr published an article in "Convorbiri Literare ", in which he attacked Tzara as a representative of the "Judaic spirit", of the "foreign plague" and of "materialist-historical dialectics". [Z. Ornea , "Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească",Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române , Bucharest, 1995, p.457. ISBN 973-9155-43-X]ymbolist poetry
Tzara's earliest Symbolist poems, published in "Simbolul" during 1912, were later rejected by their author, who asked
Saşa Pană not to include them in editions of his works. The influence of French Symbolists on the young Samyro was particularly important, and surfaced in both his lyric and prose poems. [Cernat, p.49, 52] Attached to Symbolistmusicality at that stage, he was indebted to his "Simbolul" colleagueIon Minulescu [Cernat, p.49; Emil Manu, "Actualitatea lui Ion Minulescu", inIon Minulescu , "Versuri şi proză",Editura Eminescu , Bucharest, 1986, p.8. OCLC|18090790] and the Belgian poetMaurice Maeterlinck . Philip Beitchman argues that "Tristan Tzara is one of the writers of the twentieth century who was most profoundly influenced by symbolism—and utilized many of its methods and ideas in the pursuit of his own artistic and social ends." [Beitchman, p.27] However, Cernat believes, the young poet was by then already breaking with thesyntax of conventional poetry, and, in subsequent experimental pieces, he progressively stripped his style of its Symbolist elements. [Cernat, p.49, 52-53]During the 1910s, Samyro experimented with Symbolist imagery, in particular with the "hanged man" motif, which served as the basis for his poem "Se spânzură un om" ("A Man Hangs Himself"), and which built on the legacy of similar pieces authored by
Christian Morgenstern andJules Laforgue .Cernat, p.52] "Se spânzură un om" was also in many ways similar to ones authored by his collaboratorsAdrian Maniu ("Balada spânzuratului", "The Hanged Man's Ballad") and Vinea ("Visul spânzuratului", "The Hanged Man's Dream"): all three poets, who were all in the process of discarding Symbolism, interpreted the theme from a tragicomic andiconoclastic perspective. These pieces also include "Vacanţă în provincie" ("Provincial Holiday") and theanti-war fragment "Furtuna şi cântecul dezertorului" ("The Storm and the Deserter's Song"), which Vinea published in his "Chemarea". [Cernat, p.97-98, 106] The series is seen by Cernat as "the general rehearsal for the Dada adventure." [Cernat, p.98] The complete text of "Furtuna şi cântecul dezertorului" was published at a later stage, after the missing text was discovered by Pană. [Cernat, p.106] At the time, he became interested in thefree verse work of the AmericanWalt Whitman , and his translation of Whitman's epic poem "Song of Myself ", probably completed beforeWorld War I , was published byAlfred Hefter-Hidalgo in his magazine "Versuri şi Proză " (1915). [Cernat, p.55]Beitchman notes that, throughout his life, Tzara used Symbolist elements against the doctrines of Symbolism. Thus, he argues, the poet did not cultivate a memory of historical events, "since it deludes man into thinking that there was something when there was nothing."Beitchman, p.29] Cernat notes: "That which essentially unifies, during [the 1910s] , the poetic output of Adrian Maniu, Ion Vinea and Tristan Tzara is an acute awareness of literary conventions, a satiety [...] in respect to calophile literature, which they perceived as exhausted." [Cernat, p.54] In Beitchman's view, the revolt against cultivated beauty was a constant in Tzara's years of maturity, and his visions of social change continued to be inspired by
Arthur Rimbaud and theComte de Lautréamont . [Beitchman, p.38-39, 46] According to Beitchman, Tzara's uses the Symbolist message that "the birthright [of humans] has been sold for a mess of porridge", taking it "into the streets, cabarets and trains where he denounces the deal and asks for his birthright back." [Beitchman, p.52]Collaboration with Vinea
The transition to a more radical form of poetry seems to have taken place in 1913-1915, during the periods when Tzara and Vinea were vacationing together. The pieces share a number of characteristics and subjects, and the two poets even use them to allude to one another (or, in one case, to Tzara's sister). [Cernat, p.117, 119]
In addition to the lyrics were they both speak of provincial holidays and love affairs with local girls, both friends intended to reinterpret
William Shakespeare 's "Hamlet " from a modernist perspective, and wrote incomplete texts with this as their subject. [Cernat, p.109, 119, 160] However, Paul Cernat notes, the texts also evidence a difference in approach, with Vinea's work being "meditative and melancholic", while Tzara's is "hedonistic".Cernat, p.117] Tzara often appealed to revolutionary and ironic images, portraying provincial andmiddle class environments as places of artificiality and decay, demystifyingpastoral themes and evidencing a will to break free. [Cernat, p.117-119] His literature took a more radical perspective on life, and featured lyrics with subversive intent:Cernat notes that "Nocturnă" ("Nocturne") and "Înserează" were the pieces originally performed at Cabaret Voltaire, identified by
Hugo Ball as "Rumanian poetry", and that they were recited in Tzara's own spontaneous French translation. [Cernat, p.111, 120] Although they are noted for their radical break with the traditional form of Romanian verse,ro iconDennis Deletant , [http://www.revista22.ro/html/index.php?nr=2007-01-12&art=3373 "Întoarcerea României în Europa: între politică şi cultură"] , in "Revista 22 ", Nr. 879, January 2007] Ball's diary entry of February 5, 1916, indicates that Tzara's works were still "conservative in style".Richter, p.16] In Călinescu's view, they announce Dadaism, given that "bypassing the relations which lead to a realistic vision, the poet associates unimaginably dissipated images that will surprise consciousness." In 1922, Tzara himself wrote: "As early as 1914, I tried to strip the words of their proper meaning and use them in such a way as to give the verse a completely new, general, meaning [...] ."Alongside pieces depicting a Jewish cemetery in which graves "crawl like worms" on the edge of a town, chestnut trees "heavy-laden like people returning from hospitals", or wind wailing "with all the hopelessness of an orphanage", Samyro's poetry includes "Verişoară, fată de pension", which, Cernat argues, displays "playful detachment [for] the musicality of
internal rhyme s". It opens with the lyrics:The next stage in Tzara's career saw a merger of his literary and political views. His poems of the period blend a humanist vision with communist theses. The 1935 "Grains et issues", described by Beitchman as "fascinating", [Beitchman, p.45] was a prose poem of
social criticism connected with "L'Homme approximatif", expanding on the vision of a possible society, in which haste has been abandoned in favor ofoblivion . The world imagined by Tzara abandons symbols of the past, from literature to public transportation and currency, while, like psychologistsSigmund Freud andWilhelm Reich , the poet depicts violence as a natural means of human expression. [Beitchman, p.46-50] People of the future live in a state which combines waking life and the realm of dreams, and life itself turns into revery. [Beitchman, p.48] "Grains et issues" was accompanied by "Personage d'insomnie" ("Personage of Insomnia"), which went unpublished. [Beitchman, p.51]Cardinal notes: "In retrospect, harmony and contact had been Tzara's goals all along." The post-
World War II volumes in the series focus on political subjects related to the conflict. In his last writings, Tzara toned down experimentation, exercising more control over the lyrical aspects. He was by then undertaking a hermeutic research into the work ofGoliard s andFrançois Villon , whom he deeply admired.Legacy
Influence
Beside the many authors who were attracted into Dada through his promotional activities, Tzara was able to influence successive generations of writers. This was the case in his homeland during 1928, when the first avant-garde manifesto issued by "unu" magazine, written by
Saşa Pană andMoldov , cited as its mentors Tzara, writers Breton, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Vinea,Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , andTudor Arghezi , as well as artistsConstantin Brancusi andTheo van Doesburg . [Călinescu, p.889] One of the Romanian writers to claim inspiration from Tzara wasJacques G. Costin , who nevertheless offered an equally good reception to both Dadaism andFuturism , [Cernat, p.174, 193, 409] whileIlarie Voronca 's "Zodiac" cycle, first published in France, is traditionally seen as indebted to "L'Homme approximatif". [Cernat, p.328] The Kabbalist and Surrealist author Marcel Avramescu, who wrote during the 1930s, also appears to have been directly inspired by Tzara's views on art. Other authors from that generation to have been inspired by Tzara were Polish Futurist writerBruno Jasieński , [Nina Kolesnikoff, "Bruno Jasieński: His Evolution from Futurism to Socialist Realism",Wilfrid Laurier University Press , Waterloo, 1982, p.15. ISBN 0889201102]Japan ese poet andZen thinkerTakahashi Shinkichi , [Makoto Ueda, "Modern Japanese Poets and the Nature of Literature",Stanford University Press , Palo Alto, 1983, p.335-336. ISBN 0804711666] andChile an poet and Dadaist sympathizerVicente Huidobro , who cited him as a precursor for his own "Creacionismo ". [es iconVicente Huidobro , [http://www.vicentehuidobro.uchile.cl/manifiesto1.htm "El Creacionismo"] , at theUniversity of Chile [http://www.vicentehuidobro.uchile.cl/ Vicente Huidobro site] ; retrieved May 4, 2008]An immediate precursor of Absurdism, he was acknowledged as a mentor by
Eugène Ionesco , who developed on his principles for his early essays of literary and social criticism, as well as in tragic farces such as "The Bald Soprano ". [Rosette C. Lamont, "Ionesco's Imperatives: The Politics of Culture",University of Michigan Press , Ann Arbor, 1993, p.4. ISBN 0472103105] Tzara's poetry influencedSamuel Beckett (who translated some of it into English); the Irish author's 1972 play "Not I " shares some elements with "Le Cœur à gaz ". [Brater, p.25-26] In the United States, the Romanian author is cited as an influence onBeat Generation members. Beat writerAllen Ginsberg , who made his acquaintance in Paris, cites him among the Europeans who influenced him andWilliam S. Burroughs . [Josef Jařab, "When All Met Together in One Room: Josef Jařab Interviews Allen Ginsberg", in Heather Hathaway, Josef Jařab, Jeffrey Melnick (eds.), "Race and the Modern Artist",Oxford University Press , New York, p.242-243. ISBN 0195123247] The latter also mentioned Tzara's use of chance in writing poetry as an early example of what became thecut-up technique , adopted byBrion Gysin and Burroughs himself. Gysin, who conversed with Tzara in the late 1950s, records the latter's indignation that Beat poets were "going back over the ground we [Dadaists] covered in 1920", and accuses Tzara of having consumed his creative energies into becoming a "Communist Party bureaucrat".Among the late 20th century writers who acknowledged Tzara as an inspiration are
Jerome Rothenberg ,Christine A. Meilick, "Jerome Rothenberg's Experimental Poetry and Jewish Tradition",Lehigh University Press , Bethlehem, 2005, p.46-47, 85sqq. ISBN 0934223769]Isidore Isou andAndrei Codrescu . The former Situationist Isou, whose experiments with sounds and poetry come in succession to Apollinaire and Dada, declared hisLettrism to be the last connection in theCharles Baudelaire -Tzara cycle, with the goal of arranging "a nothing [...] for the creation of the anecdote." For a short period, Codrescu even adopted the pen name "Tristan Tzara". [Noemi Marin, "The Rhetoric of Andrei Codrescu: A Reading in Exilic Fragmentation", in Domnica Rădulescu (ed.), "Realms of Exile: Nomadism, Diasporas, and Eastern European Voices", Lexington Books, New York, p.102. ISBN 0-7391-0333-4]In retrospect, various authors describe Tzara's Dadaist shows and street performances as "
happening s", with a word employed by post-Dadaists and Situationists, which was coined in the 1950s. [Beitchman, p.44; Londré, p.397] Some also credit Tzara with having provided an ideological source for the development ofrock music , includingpunk rock ,punk subculture andpost-punk . [Beitchman, p.36; Thomas McLaughlin, "Street Smarts and Critical Theory: Listening to the Vernacular",University of Wisconsin Press , Madison, 1997, p.67. ISBN 0299151700] Tristan Tzara has inspired the songwriting technique ofRadiohead , [Joseph Tate, "The Music and Art of Radiohead",Ashgate Publishing , London etc., 2005, p.195. ISBN 0754639800] and is one of the avant-garde authors whose voices were mixed byDJ Spooky on histrip hop album "Rhythm Science". [Colin Buttimer, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/jx8c/ "DJ Spooky. "Rhythm Science". Review"] , November 20, 2002, atBBC [http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/ /Music] ; retrieved April 23, 2008] Romaniancontemporary classical music ianCornel Ţăranu set to music five of Tzara's poems, all of which date from the post-Dada period. [ro icon Radu Constantinescu, [http://www.zf.ro/articol_99716/cornel_taranu__ii___m_au_inspirat_atat_tzara__cat_si_armatele_romane_din_secolul_al_ii_lea___.html "Cornel Ţăranu (II): 'M-au inspirat atât Tzara, cât şi armatele romane din secolul al II-lea...' "] , in "Ziarul Financiar ", October 27, 2006] Ţăranu,Anatol Vieru and other ten composers contributed to the album "La Clé de l'horizon", inspired by Tzara's work.Tributes and portrayals
In France, Tzara's work was collected as "Oevres complètes" ("Complete Works"), of which the first volume saw print in 1975, and an international poetry award is named after him ("Prix International de Poésie Tristan Tzara"). An international periodical titled "Caietele Tristan Tzara", edited by the Tristan Tzara Cultural-Literary Foundation, has been published in
Moineşti since 1998.ro icon Oltiţa Cîntec, [http://www.evenimentul.ro/articol/un-profesor-inimos-din.html "Un profesor inimos din Moineşti şi o societate cultural-literară atrag atenţia întregii lumii asupra României"] , in "Evenimentul ", March 10, 2003] [ro icon Oana Tănase, [http://observatorcultural.ro/informatiiarticol.phtml?xid=9425&print=true "Pic Adrian: artist esenţialist"] , in "Observator Cultural ", Nr. 189, October 2003]According to Paul Cernat, "Aliluia", one of the few avant-garde texts authored by Ion Vinea features a "transparent allusion" to Tristan Tzara. [Cernat, p.181] Vinea's fragment speaks of "the
Wandering Jew ", a character whom people notice because he sings "La moară la Hârţa", "a suspicious song fromGreater Romania ." [Cernat, p.181-182] The poet is a character in Indian novelistMulk Raj Anand 's "Thieves of Fire", part four of his "The Bubble" (1984), [Suresh Chandra, "Fresh Perspectives on Fiction", Anmol Publications, New Delhi, 2005, p.78. ISBN 8126121262] as well as in "The Prince of West End Avenue", a 1994 book by the AmericanAlan Isler . [Bette Pesetsky , "Shakespeare Meets Emma Lazarus", in "The New York Times ", May 29, 1994] Rothenberg dedicated several of his poems to Tzara, as did the Neo-DadaistValery Oişteanu . [ro iconValery Oişteanu , [http://www.respiro.org/Issue10/poezie_oisteanu.htm "Poeme din exil"] in [http://www.respiro.org/ "Respiro"] , Issue 10/2002]Tzara's legacy in literature also covers specific episodes of his biography, beginning with
Gertrude Stein 's controversial memoir. One of his performances is enthusiastically recorded byMalcolm Cowley in his autobiographical book of 1934, "Exile's Return", ["Lost Generation", in "Time", June 4, 1934] and he is also mentioned inHarold Loeb 's memoir "The Way It Was". ["The Sun Also Rises (Contd.)", in "Time", June 22, 1959] Among his biographers is the French author François Buot, who records some of the lesser-known aspects of Tzara's life. At some point between 1915 and 1917, Tzara is believed to have played chess in a coffeehouse that was also frequented byBolshevik leaderVladimir Lenin . [J. Hoberman , "The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism",Temple University Press , Philadelphia, p.100. ISBN 1566397677; Olson, p.43] While Richter himself recorded the incidental proximity of Lenin's lodging to the Dadaist milieu, no record exists of an actual conversation between the two figures.Olson, p.43] Jenna Scherer, [http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/view.bg?articleid=1087112 "Travesties" Shows Importance of Being Stoppard"] , in "Boston Herald ", April 15, 2008] Andrei Codrescu believes that Lenin and Tzara did play against each other, noting that an image of their encounter would be "the proper icon of the beginning of [modern] times." This meeting is mentioned as a fact in "Harlequin at the Chessboard", a poem by Tzara's acquaintanceKurt Schwitters . [ [http://capa.conncoll.edu/morton.merzbook.html "The Merzbook: Kurt Schwitters Poems"] , translated byColin Morton , at the [http://capa.conncoll.edu/ Contemporary American Poetry Archive] ; retrieved April 23, 2008] German playwright and novelistPeter Weiss , who has introduced Tzara as a character in his 1969 play aboutLeon Trotsky ("Trotzki im Exil"), recreated the scene in his 1975-1981 cycle "The Aesthetics of Resistance ". [Robert Cohen, "Understanding Peter Weiss",University of South Carolina Press , Columbia, 1993, p.130. ISBN 0-87249-898-0] The imagined episode also inspired much ofTom Stoppard 's 1974 play "Travesties ", which also depicts conversations between Tzara, Lenin, and the Irish modernist authorJames Joyce (who is also known to have resided in Zürich after 1915).Michael Coveney , "Usurpation Supreme", in "The Observer ", March 19, 1993] Charles Isherwood, "Lenin, Joyce and Philosophy with Vaudevillian Verve", in "The New York Times ", May 27, 2005] His role was notably played byDavid Westhead in the 1993 British production, and by Tom Hewitt in the 2005 American version.Alongside his collaborations with Dada artists on various pieces, Tzara himself was a subject for visual artists.
Max Ernst depicts him as the only mobile character in the Dadaists' group portrait "Au Rendez-vous des Amis" ("A Friends' Reunion", 1922), while, in one ofMan Ray 's photographs, he is shown kneeling to kiss the hand of anandrogynous Nancy Cunard . [Maureen Moynagh, introduction toNancy Cunard , "Essays on Race and Empire", Broadview Press, Peterborough & Orchard Park, p.24. ISBN 1551112302] Years before their split,Francis Picabia used Tzara's calligraphed name in "Moléculaire" ("Molecular"), a composition printed on the cover of "391". [Richter, p.73] The same artist also completed his schematic portrait, which showed a series of circles connected by two perpendicular arrows. [Richter, p.76] In 1949, Swiss artistAlberto Giacometti made Tzara the subject of one of his first experiments withlithography . [fr icon [http://www.bnf.fr/PAGES/presse/dossiers/giacometti.pdf "Dossier de presse. Exposition 19 octobre 2007 - 13 janvier 2008. Alberto Giacometti, œuvre gravé"] ,Bibliothèque nationale de France , [http://www.bnf.fr/PAGES/presse/ Rélations presse] , p.2, 4, 7, 10; retrieved May 2, 2008] Portraits of Tzara were also made byGreta Knutson , [Sotheby's "Catalogues of Sales", 1985 Nov 29 - Dec 18, item 131]Robert Delaunay , [Florence Callu, "Sonia et Robert Delaunay: exposition",Bibliothèque nationale de France , Paris, 1977, p.16, 91. ISBN 2717713883] and the Cubist paintersM. H. Maxy [Grigorescu, p.442-443] andLajos Tihanyi . As an homage to Tzara the performer,art rock erDavid Bowie adopted his accessories and mannerisms during a number of public appearances. [Ingrid Sischy, "The Artist Who Fell to Earth" (interview with David Bowie), in "Interview", 2/1/1997] In 1996, he was depicted on a series of Romanian stamps, and, the same year, a concrete and steel monument dedicated to the writer was erected in Moineşti.Several of Tzara's Dadaist editions had illustrations by Picabia, Janco and
Hans Arp . In its 1925 edition, "Mouchoir de Nuages" featured etchings byJuan Gris , while his late writings "Parler seul", "Le Signe de vie", "De mémoire d'homme", "Le Temps naissant", and "Le Fruit permis" were illustrated with works by, respectively,Joan Miró , [Jacques Lassaigne, "Miró: Biographical and Critical Study", SKIRA, New York, 1963, p.128]Henri Matisse ,Pablo Picasso ,Nejad Devrim andSonia Delaunay . [ [http://www.kb.nl/bc/koopman/1951-1960/c06-en.html "Le fruit permis"] , at the National Library of the Netherlands's [http://www.kb.nl/bc/koopman/ Koopman Collectie] ; retrieved April 26, 2008] Tzara was the subject of an 1949 eponymousdocumentary film directed by the Danish filmmakerJørgen Roos , and footage of him featured prominently in the 1953 production "Les statues meurent aussi" ("Statues Also Die"), jointly directed byChris Marker andAlain Resnais .Posthumous controversies
The many polemics which surrounded Tzara in his lifetime left traces after his death, and determine contemporary perceptions of his work. The controversy regarding Tzara's role as a founder of Dada extended into several milieus, and continued long after the writer died. Richter, who discusses the lengthy conflict between Huelsenbeck and Tzara over the issue of Dada foundation, speaks of the movement as being torn apart by "petty jealosies".
In Romania, similar debates often involved the supposed founding role of
Urmuz , who wrote his avant-garde texts beforeWorld War I , and Tzara's status as a communicator between Romania and the rest of Europe. Vinea, who claimed that Dada had been invented by Tzara inGârceni ca. 1915 and thus sought to legitimize his own modernist vision, also saw Urmuz as the ignored precursor of radical modernism, from Dada to Surrealism. [Cernat, p.121-122, 128-129, 177, 212, 343, 346, 359, 409] In 1931, the young and modernist literary criticLucian Boz evidenced that he partly shared Vinea's perspective on the matter, crediting Tzara andConstantin Brancusi with having, each on his own, invented the avant-garde. [Cernat, p.331]Eugène Ionesco argued that "before Dadaism there was Urmuzianism", and, afterWorld War II , sought to popularize Urmuz's work among aficionados of Dada. [Cernat, p.367] Rumors in the literary community had it that Tzara successfully sabotaged Ionesco's initiative to publish a French edition of Urmuz's texts, allegedly because the public could then question his claim to have initiated the avant-garde experiment in Romania and the world (the edition saw print in 1965, two years after Tzara's death). [Cernat, p.110, 367-368]A more radical questioning of Tzara's influence came from Romanian essayist
Petre Pandrea . In his personal diary, published long after he and Tzara had died, Pandrea depicted the poet as an opportunist, accusing him of adapting his style to political requirements, of dodging military service duringWorld War I , and of being a "Lumpenproletarian".Cernat, p.113] Pandrea's text, completed just after Tzara's visit to Romania, claimed that his founding role within the avant-garde was an "illusion [...] which has swelled up like a multicolored balloon", and denounced him as "the Balkan provider of interlopeodalisque s, [together] with narcotics and a sort of scandalous literature." Himself an adherent to communism, Pandrea grew disillusioned with the ideology, and later became apolitical prisoner inCommunist Romania .From the 1960s to 1989, after a period when it ignored or attacked the avant-garde movement, the Romanian communist regime sought to recuperate Tzara, in order to validate its newly-adopted emphasis on nationalist tenets. In 1977, literary historian
Edgar Papu , whose controversial theories were linked to "protochronism ", which presumes that Romanians took precedence in various areas of world culture, mentioned Tzara, alongside Urmuz, Ionesco and Isou, as representatives of "Romanian initiatives" and "road openers at a universal level." [Cernat, p.359] Elements of protochronism in this area, Paul Cernat argues, could be traced back to Vinea's claim that his friend had single-handedly created the worldwide avant-garde movement on the basis of models already present at home. [Cernat, p.129]Notes
References
*Alice Armstrong, "Stein, Gertrude" and Roger Cardinal, "Tzara, Tristan", in
Justin Wintle (ed.), "Makers of Modern Culture",Routledge , London, 2002. ISBN 0415265835
*Philip Beitchman, "Symbolism in the Streets", in "I Am a Process with No Subject", University of Florida Press, Gainesville, 1988. ISBN 0813008883
*Enoch Brater, "Beyond Minimalism: Beckett's Late Style in the Theater",Oxford University Press , Oxford, 1987. ISBN 0195066553
*Paul Cernat , "Avangarda românească şi complexul periferiei: primul val",Cartea Românească , Bucharest, 2007. ISBN 978-973-23-1911-6
*Bernard Gendron, "Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde",University of Chicago Press , Chicago, 2002. ISBN 0226287351
*Saime Göksu, Edward Timms, "Romantic Communist: The Life and Work of Nazım Hikmet", C. Hurst & Co., London, 1999. ISBN 1850653712
*Dan Grigorescu , "Istoria unei generaţii pierdute: expresioniştii",Editura Eminescu , Bucharest, 1980. OCLC|7463753
*Irene E. Hofman, [http://www.artic.edu/reynolds/essays/hofmann.PDF "Documents of Dada and Surrealism: Dada and Surrealist Journals in the Mary Reynolds Collection"] ,Art Institute of Chicago , [http://www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/ Ryerson and Burnham Libraries] , 2001
*Irina Livezeanu , " 'From Dada to Gaga': The Peripatetic Romanian Avant-Garde Confronts Communism", in Mihai Dinu Gheorghiu, Lucia Dragomir (ed.), "Littératures et pouvoir symbolique. Colloque tenu à Bucarest (Roumanie), 30 et 31 mai 2003",Maison des Sciences de l'homme ,Editura Paralela 45 , Paris, 2005. ISBN 2-7351-1084-2
*Felicia Hardison Londré, "The History of World Theatre: From the English Restoration to the Present",Continuum International Publishing Group , London & New York, 1999. ISBN 0826411673
*Kirby Olson, "Andrei Codrescu and the Myth of America",McFarland & Company , Jefferson, 2005. ISBN 0786421371
*Petre Răileanu ,Michel Carassou , "Fundoianu/Fondane et l'avant-garde", Fondation Culturelle Roumaine, Éditions Paris-Méditerranée, Bucharest & Paris, 1999. ISBN 2-84272-057-1
*Hans Richter, "Dada. Art and Anti-art" (with a postscript by Werner Haftmann),Thames & Hudson , London & New York, 2004. ISBN 0-500-20039-4External links
* [http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/tzara.html Tristan Tzara's works] at the
University of Iowa [http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/ "International Dada Archive"]
* [http://12.172.4.131/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A13398&page_number=1&template_id=10&sort_order=1 Tristan Tzara drawings] at theMuseum of Modern Art
* [http://www.ubu.com/sound/tzara.html Recordings of Tzara] , [http://www.ubuweb.com/historical/dada/index.html "Dada Magazine"] , [http://www.ubu.com/ethno/discourses/tzara.html "A Note On Negro Poetry"] and [http://www.ubu.com/ethno/poems/01.html Tzara's renditions of African poetry] , atUbuWeb
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