TRISTAN TZARA’S SHIFT FROM SYMBOLISM TO FUTURISM, TO DADAISM, 1912-1916

Authors

  • EMILIA DAVID University of Pisa Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62229/

Keywords:

Symbolism, Postsymbolism, Futurism, anti-Marinettian Futurism, Dadaism, paroliberismo, simultaneous poem, theatrical practices

Abstract

My paper will present Tristan Tzara’s artistic development from his early Symbolist days via Futurism to his Dadaist days in  Zurich. In particular, I shall discuss how Futurism lingered on in the first phase of Dadaism and in Tzara’s Dada poetics
(1916-1918). I shall first analyse some traits of his Symbolist poetry, composed in the 1910s, until his departure from Romania. I shall argue that his orientation towards Futurism was possible thanks to his Symbolist beginnings, an aesthetic the young Tzara shared with many Futurists, including F.T. Marinetti. Following a reconsideration of the network of cultural relations forged by the Romanian writer between the young Dada
group in Zurich and members of the Futurist movement in Rome, Naples and Mantua,
or more precisely: between anti-Marinettian representatives of Futurism who edited the
magazines Noi, Le pagine, Procellaria and Brigata, I shall demonstrate that Tzara continued
to be open to Futurist influences, albeit from the Florentine and Ferrarese strands, which
were more moderate and less dogmatic than the Milanese circle around Marinetti.
Examining some Tzara works in Cabaret Voltaire and Dada, I shall demonstrate certain
Futurist affinities in his Dadaist production, in particular with regard to the graphictypographic
features of his poems and the performative tactics in his theatrical practice.

Author Biography

  • EMILIA DAVID, University of Pisa

    Emilia David is Associate Professor in Romanian Language and Literature at the University of Pisa. She received in 2006 a Ph.D. in Italian Literature at the University of Turin, which focuses on the relationship of Futurism with Dadaism and with the European avant-garde, including the Romanian avant-garde, and in 2015 she obtained a Ph.D. in Philology, after a joint doctoral programme and PhD thesis carried out at the Universities of Bucharest and Turin, entitled Intertextuality Aims in the “Generation ’80” Literature: Matei Visniec – The Bilingualism and Postmodernism Aspects Within a Pluricultural Reception. She has published various articles, as “Aesthetic Affinities and Political
    Divergences Between Italian and Romanian Futurism”, in International Yearbook of Futurism Studies, Vol. 1, Berlin/New York, 2011, pp. 175-200, and she collaborated as contributing editor at the volumes I-IV of the same International Yearbook. Her main book publications are Italian Futurism’s Influence on the Romanian Avant-Garde (in Romanian language, Piteşti, 2004), Futurismo, dadaismo e avanguardia romena: contaminazioni fra culture europee (1909–1930) (Turin, 2006), Avanguardie, nazionalismi e interventismo nei primi decenni del XX secolo (Rome, 2nd edition, 2011) and a translated collection of
    Marinetti’s manifestos with critical apparatus, Manifestele Futurismului (Bucharest, 2009). She is also the author of two monographs concerning the contemporary Romanian Literature: Poezia generaţiei ’80: intertextualitate şi “performance” [The poetry of ‘Generation ’80’: intertextuality and “performance”, Bucharest, 2016] and Consecinţele bilingvismului în teatrul lui Matei Vişniec [The bilingualism consequences on the Matei Vişniec’s theatre, Bucharest, 2015].

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Published

2024-09-30

Issue

Vol. 72 No. 1 (2023): Analele Universității București. Limba și literatură română

Section

Articles