Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara (April 16, 1896 – December 25, 1963) is the assumed name of Sami Rosenstock, born in Moineşti, Bacău, Romania, a poet and essayist who lived for the majority of his life in France. He is known mainly as a founder of Dada, an avant garde revolutionary movement in the arts.

Life and work

The Dada movement originated in Zürich during World War I. Tzara wrote the first Dada texts, La Première Aventure céleste de Monsieur Antipyrine (The First Heavenly Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine) (1916), Vingt-cinq poèmes (Twenty-Five Poems) (1918) ^*, and the movement's manifestos, Sept manifestes Dada (Seven Dada Manifestos) (1924).

In Paris he engaged in tumultuous activities with André Breton, Philippe Soupault, and Louis Aragon to shock the public and to disintegrate the structures of language.

In late 1929, weary of nihilism and destruction, he joined his friends in the more constructive activities of Surrealism. He devoted much of his time to the reconciliation of Surrealism and Marxism and joined the French Communist Party in 1937. He was active in the French Resistance movement during World War II. He left the Communist Party in 1956, in protest against the Soviet quelling of the Hungarian Revolution.

His political commitments brought him closer to his fellow human beings, and he gradually matured into a lyrical poet. His poems revealed the anguish of his soul, caught between revolt and wonderment at the daily tragedy of the human condition. His mature works started with L'Homme approximatif (The Approximate Man) (1931), and continued with Parler seul (Speaking Alone) (1950), and La Face intérieure (The Inner Face) (1953). In these, the anarchically scrambled words of Dada were replaced with a difficult but humanized language.

He died in Paris and was interred there in the Cimetière du Montparnasse.

Trivia

Tzara appears as a character in Tom Stoppard's comedic play Travesties, which fictionalizes his time in Zurich in 1916.

Tristan Tzara is the name of a now defunct German Chaotic-Emo band that released two LPs, Da ne Zaboravis and omorina nad evropom.

"Tristan Tzarathustra" is the pseudonym of one of the authors of Crimethinc's book Days of War, Nights of Love. The last four letters of "Tzara" are also the first four of Zarathustra, a reference to Nietzche's work Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Audio

A French-language interview with Tzara recorded in 1959 can be heard on the audio CD Futurism & Dada Reviewed and a 1948 reading by Tzara of his poem "Pour compte" on the audio CD Voices of Dada.

"Pour Compte," as well as "L'amiral Cherche Une Maison à Louer" and "Dada Into Surrealism" can also be found online at Ubu Web.

External links

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Tristan Tzara

Life and work

Trivia

Audio

See also

External links