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{{Short description|Romanian-French poet (1896–1963)}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox writer
| name        = Tristan Tzara
| birth_name = Samuel (Samy) Rosenstock
| image       = Retrato de Tristan Tzara (Robert Delaunay).jpg
| imagesize   = 
| caption     = ''[[Portrait of Tristan Tzara]]'', by [[Robert Delaunay]] (1923)
| pseudonym   = S. Samyro, Tristan, Tristan Ruia, Tristan Țara, Tr. Tzara
| birth_date  = 28 April 1896
| birth_place = [[Moinești]], [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]]
| death_date  = {{death date and age|df=yes|1963|12|25|1896|4|4}}
| death_place = Paris, France
| occupation  = Poet, essayist, journalist, playwright, performance artist, composer, film director, politician, diplomat
| nationality = Romanian, French
| period      = 1912–1963
| genre       = [[Lyric poetry]], [[epic poetry]], [[free verse]], [[prose poetry]], [[parody]], [[satire]], [[Utopian and dystopian fiction|utopian fiction]]
| subject     = [[Art criticism]], [[literary criticism]], [[social criticism]]
| movement    = [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]]<br>[[Avant-garde]]<br>[[Dada]]<br>[[Surrealism]]
| signature   = Tristan Tzara's signature 1946-12-08.svg
| website     =
 {{Infobox officeholder | embed = yes
| office = [[Deputy (France)|Member of the French National Assembly]]
| term_start = 1945
| term_end = 1946
| party = [[French Communist Party]]
}}
}}
'''Tristan Tzara''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|z|ɑr|ə}}; {{IPA|fr|tʁistɑ̃ dzaʁa|lang}}; {{IPA|ro|trisˈtan ˈt͡sara|lang}}; born '''Samuel''' or '''Samy Rosenstock''', also known as '''S. Samyro'''; {{OldStyleDate|28 April|1896|16 April}}<ref>Hentea, p.1–2</ref> – 25 December 1963) was a Romanian and French [[avant-garde]] poet, essayist and [[performance 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 the [[anti-establishment]] [[Dada]] movement. Under the influence of [[Adrian Maniu]], the adolescent Tzara became interested in [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]] and co-founded the magazine ''[[Simbolul]]'' with [[Ion Vinea]] (with whom he also wrote [[Experimental literature|experimental]] poetry) and painter [[Marcel Janco]].

During [[World War I]], after briefly collaborating on Vinea's ''Chemarea'', he joined Janco in Switzerland. There, Tzara's shows at the [[Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich)|Cabaret Voltaire]] and [[Zünfte of Zürich|Zunfthaus zur Waag]], as well as his poetry and [[art manifesto]]s, became a main feature of early Dadaism. His work represented Dada's [[Nihilism|nihilistic]] side, in contrast with the more moderate approach favored by [[Hugo 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 toward [[Surrealism]]. He was involved in the major polemics which led to Dada's split, defending his principles against [[André Breton]] and [[Francis Picabia]], and, in Romania, against the [[Eclecticism|eclectic]] [[modernism]] of Vinea and Janco. This personal vision on art defined his Dadaist plays ''[[The Gas Heart]]'' (1921) and ''[[Handkerchief of Clouds]]'' (1924). A forerunner of [[Surrealist automatism|automatist techniques]], Tzara eventually aligned himself with Breton's Surrealism, and under its influence wrote his celebrated [[Utopian and dystopian fiction|utopian poem]] "[[The Approximate Man]]".

During the final part of his career, Tzara combined his [[Humanism|humanist]] and [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] perspective with a [[Communism|communist]] vision, joining the [[Second Spanish Republic|Republicans]] in the [[Spanish Civil War]] and the [[French Resistance]] during [[World War II]], and serving a term in the [[National Assembly of France|National Assembly]]. Having spoken in favor of [[liberalization]] in the [[People's Republic of Hungary]] just before the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Revolution of 1956]], he distanced himself from the [[French Communist Party]], of which he was by then a member. In 1960, he was among the intellectuals who protested against French actions in the [[Algerian War]].

Tristan Tzara was an influential author and performer, whose contribution is credited with having created a connection from [[Cubism]] and [[Futurism]] to the [[Beat Generation]], [[Situationist International|Situationism]] and various currents in [[rock music]]. The friend and collaborator of many modernist figures, he was the lover of dancer [[Maja Kruscek]] in his early youth and was later married to Swedish artist and poet [[Greta Knutson]].

==Name==
''S. Samyro'', a partial [[anagram]] of ''Samy Rosenstock'', was used by Tzara from his debut and throughout the early 1910s.<ref name="Cernat, p.108-109">Cernat, p.108-109</ref> 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''.<ref name="pcern109">Cernat, p.109</ref><ref name="jycmelusine">{{in lang|fr}} Jacques-Yves Conrad, [http://melusine.univ-paris3.fr/Association/Conrad.htm ''Promenade surréaliste sur la colline de Montmartre''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080915053946/http://melusine.univ-paris3.fr/Association/Conrad.htm |date=15 September 2008 }}, at the [[University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle]] [http://melusine.univ-paris3.fr/ Center for the Study of Surrealism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080327041319/http://melusine.univ-paris3.fr/ |date=27 March 2008 }}; retrieved 23 April 2008</ref>

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.<ref name="pcern109"/> 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 language|French]] for "Sad Donkey Tzara").<ref name="pcern109"/> 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 Țara'' and ''Tr. Tzara'', in 1913–1914 (although there is a possibility that he was signing his texts long after committing them to paper).<ref>Cernat, p.109-110</ref>

In 1972, art historian [[Serge Fauchereau]], based on information received from Colomba, the wife of avant-garde poet [[Ilarie Voronca]], recounted that Tzara had explained his chosen name was a pun in [[Romanian language|Romanian]], ''trist în țară'', meaning "sad in the country"; Colomba Voronca was also dismissing rumors that Tzara had selected ''Tristan'' as a tribute to poet [[Tristan Corbière]] or to [[Richard Wagner]]'s ''[[Tristan und Isolde]]'' opera.<ref name="pcern110">Cernat, p.110</ref> Samy Rosenstock legally adopted his new name in 1925, after filing a request with Romania's [[Minister of Interior and Administrative Reform (Romania)|Ministry of the Interior]].<ref name="pcern110"/> The French pronunciation of his name has become commonplace in Romania, where it replaces its more natural reading as ''țara'' ("the land", {{IPA|ro|ˈt͡sara}}).<ref name="amcodrescu">{{in lang|ro}} Andra Matzal, [http://clubliteratura.cotidianul.ro/node/2948 "România-fantomă o să mai existe în forma unei suferințe psihice" (interview with Andrei Codrescu)]{{dead link|date=September 2018|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, at [http://clubliteratura.cotidianul.ro/ Club Literatura]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090613075708/http://clubliteratura.cotidianul.ro/ |date=13 June 2009 }}, ''[[Cotidianul]]''; retrieved 29 June 2009</ref>

==Biography==
===Early life and ''Simbolul'' years===
Tzara was born in [[Moinești]], [[Bacău County]], in the [[Historical regions of Romania|historical region]] of [[Western Moldavia]]. His parents were [[History of the Jews in Romania|Jewish Romanians]] who reportedly spoke [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] as their first language;<ref>Cernat, p.35</ref> his father Filip and grandfather Ilie were entrepreneurs in the forestry business.<ref name="iliv241">Livezeanu, p.241</ref><ref name="vmttcl">{{in lang|ro}} Victor Macarie, [http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/MACARIEnov4.html "Inedit: Tristan Tzara"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090309001230/http://convorbiri-literare.dntis.ro/MACARIEnov4.html |date=9 March 2009 }}, in ''[[Convorbiri Literare]]'', November 2004.</ref> Tzara's mother was Emilia Rosenstock ({{nee}} Zibalis).<ref name="vmttcl"/> Owing to the [[Kingdom of Romania|Romanian Kingdom]]'s discrimination laws, the Rosenstocks were not [[Jewish Emancipation|emancipated]], and thus Tzara was not a full citizen of the country until after 1918.<ref name="iliv241"/>

He moved to [[Bucharest]] at the age of eleven, and attended the Schemitz-Tierin [[boarding school]].<ref name="iliv241"/> It is believed that the young Tzara completed his secondary education at a state-run high school, which is identified as the [[Saint Sava National College]]<ref name="iliv241"/> or as the Sfântul Gheorghe High School.<ref>Cernat, p.48-51</ref> 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.<ref name="pcern99">Cernat, p.99</ref> Like Vinea, Tzara was also close to their young colleague [[Jacques G. Costin]], who was later his self-declared promoter and admirer.<ref>Cernat, p.186-194</ref>

Despite their young age, the three editors were able to attract collaborations from established [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolist]] authors, active within [[Symbolist movement in Romania|Romania's own Symbolist movement]]. Alongside their close friend and mentor [[Adrian Maniu]] (an [[Imagism|Imagist]] who had been Vinea's tutor),<ref>Cernat, p.51</ref> they included [[N. Davidescu]], [[Alfred Hefter|Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo]], [[Emil Isac]], [[Claudia Millian]], [[Ion Minulescu]], [[I. M. Rașcu]], [[Eugeniu Sperantia]], [[Al. T. Stamatiad]], [[Eugeniu Ștefănescu-Est]], and [[Constantin T. Stoika]], as well as journalist and lawyer [[Poldi Chapier]].<ref name="pcern49">Cernat, p.49</ref> In its inaugural issue, the journal even printed a poem by one of the leading figures in Romanian Symbolism, [[Alexandru Macedonski]].<ref name="pcern49"/> ''Simbolul'' also featured illustrations by Maniu, Millian and [[Iosif Iser]].<ref>Cernat, p.50, 100.</ref>
[[File:Tzara, Maxy, Vinea, Costin (1915).jpg|thumb|300px|The ''[[Chemarea]]'' circle in 1915. From left: Tzara, [[M. H. Maxy]], [[Ion Vinea]], and [[Jacques G. Costin]]]]
Although the magazine ceased print in December 1912, it played an important part in shaping [[Literature of Romania|Romanian literature]] of the period. Literary historian [[Paul Cernat]] sees ''Simbolul'' as a main stage in Romania's [[modernism]], and credits it with having brought about the first changes from Symbolism to the radical avant-garde.<ref>Cernat, p.49-54, 397–398, 412</ref> 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 as [[Ion Minulescu]] and [[Tudor Arghezi]].<ref>Cernat, p.47</ref> 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 the [[Black Sea]] coast or at the Rosenstock family property in [[Gârceni]], [[Vaslui County]]; during this time, Vinea and Samyro wrote poems with similar themes and alluding to one another.<ref>Cernat, p.116-121.</ref>

===''Chemarea'' and 1915 departure===
Tzara's career changed course between 1914 and 1916, during a period when the [[Kingdom of Romania|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''.<ref>Cernat, p.97, 106, 108–109</ref> At the time, the young poet and many of his friends were adherents of an [[anti-war]] and anti-[[Nationalism|nationalist]] current, which progressively accommodated [[anti-establishment]] messages.<ref>Cernat, p.99–108.</ref> ''Chemarea'', which was a platform for this agenda and again attracted collaborations from Chapier, may also have been financed by Tzara and Vinea.<ref name="pcern99"/> According to Romanian avant-garde writer [[Claude Sernet]], the journal was "totally different from everything that had been printed in Romania before that moment."<ref>Cernat, p.100</ref> During the period, Tzara's works were sporadically published in Hefter-Hidalgo's ''[[Versuri și Proză]]'', and, in June 1915, [[Constantin Rădulescu-Motru]]'s ''[[Noua Revistă Română]]'' published Samyro's known poem ''Verișoară, fată de pension'' ("Little Cousin, Boarding School Girl").<ref name="Cernat, p.108-109"/>

Tzara had enrolled at the [[University of Bucharest]] in 1914, studying mathematics and philosophy, but did not graduate.<ref name="iliv241"/><ref name="ttunifi">{{in lang|it}} [http://www.unifi.it/letrum/CMpro-v-p-1020.html "Tristan Tzara"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605084429/http://www.unifi.it/letrum/CMpro-v-p-1020.html |date=5 June 2011 }}, biographical note in [http://www.unifi.it/letrum/ ''Cronologia della letteratura rumena moderna (1780–1914)'' database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018010504/https://www.clrm.unifi.it/ |date=18 October 2021 }}, at the [[University of Florence]]'s Department of Neo-Latin Languages and Literatures; retrieved 23 April 2008.</ref> In autumn 1915, he left Romania for Zürich, in neutral Switzerland. Janco, together with his brother Jules Janco, had settled there a few months before, and was later joined by his other brother, Georges Janco.<ref>Cernat, p.110-111</ref> Tzara, who may have applied to the Faculty of Philosophy at the [[University of Zurich|local university]],<ref name="iliv241"/><ref name="mrdada">Marta Ragozzino, "Tristan Tzara", in ''Art e Dossier'', March 1994, Giunti, p.48</ref> shared lodging with Marcel Janco, who was a student at the ''[[ETH Zurich|Technische Hochschule]]'', in the Altinger Guest House<ref>Cernat, p.111</ref> (by 1918, Tzara had moved to the Limmatquai Hotel).<ref>Richter, p.137</ref> His departure from Romania, like that of the Janco brothers, may have been in part a [[Pacifism|pacifist]] political statement.<ref>Cernat, p.132; Livezeanu, p.241, 249.</ref> After settling in Switzerland, the young poet almost completely discarded Romanian as his language of expression, writing most of his subsequent works in French.<ref name="ttunifi"/><ref>Răileanu & Carassou, p.13</ref> The poems he had written before, which were the result of poetic dialogues between him and his friend, were left in Vinea's care.<ref name="pcern116">Cernat, p.116</ref> Most of these pieces were first printed only in the [[interwar period]].<ref name="ttunifi"/><ref>Cernat, p.116, 130, 138, 153</ref>

It was in Zürich that the Romanian group met with the [[German Empire|German]] [[Hugo Ball]], an [[Anarchism|anarchist]] poet and pianist, and his young wife [[Emmy Hennings]], a [[music hall]] performer. In February 1916, Ball had rented the [[Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich)|Cabaret Voltaire]] from its owner, Jan Ephraim, and intended to use the venue for [[performance art]] and exhibits.<ref>Cernat, p.110-111; Hofman, p.2; Richter, p.12-14.</ref> Hugo Ball recorded this period, noting that Tzara and Marcel Janco, like [[Hans Arp]], [[Arthur Segal (painter)|Arthur Segal]], [[Otto van Rees]], and [[Max Oppenheimer]], and [[Marcel Słodki]], "readily agreed to take part in the cabaret".<ref name="Cernat, p.111; Richter, p.14">Cernat, p.111; Richter, p.14</ref> According to Ball, among the performances of songs mimicking or taking inspiration from various national [[folklore]]s, "Herr Tristan Tzara recited Rumanian poetry<!-- sic -->."<ref>Cernat, p.111; Gendron, p.73; Richter, p.14</ref> In late March, Ball recounted, the group was joined by German writer and drummer [[Richard Huelsenbeck]].<ref name="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 of [[Cubism]], [[Fernand Divoire]] and [[Henri Barzun]].<ref>Cernat, p.111; Richter, p.14, 28–30.</ref>

===Birth of Dada===
[[File:Placa en Cabaret Voltaire retouched.jpg|thumb|260px|[[Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich)|Cabaret Voltaire]] plaque commemorating the 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 a [[monocle]], 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 on [[stilts]], and returning in clown attire.<ref name="pcern112">Cernat, p.112</ref> The same type of performances took place at the [[Zünfte of Zürich|Zunfthaus zur Waag]] beginning in summer 1916, after the Cabaret Voltaire was forced to close down.<ref>Cernat, p.115; Gendron, p.73-75; Hofman, p.3; Richter, p.39, 41–44, 48.</ref>

According to music historian Bernard Gendron, for as 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."<ref>Gendron, p.75.</ref> Other opinions link Dada's beginnings with much earlier events, including the experiments of [[Alfred Jarry]], [[André Gide]], [[Christian Morgenstern]], [[Jean-Pierre Brisset]], [[Guillaume Apollinaire]], [[Jacques Vaché]], [[Marcel Duchamp]], and [[Francis Picabia]].<ref>Richter, p.11, 71–72, 81–100, 168–173.</ref>

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']."''<ref name="hrich14">Richter, p.14</ref> 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."<ref name="hrich14"/> 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.<ref name="hrich123">Richter, p.123</ref>

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 (artist)|Hans Richter]], was first adopted in print in June 1916.<ref name="hrich32">Richter, p.32</ref> 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 (toy)|hobby horse]]" and a [[German language|German-language]] term reflecting the joy of children being rocked to sleep.<ref>Cernat, p.115-116; Richter, p.31-32.</ref> Tzara himself declined interest in the matter, but Marcel Janco credited him with having coined the term.<ref>Cernat, p.115-116.</ref> Dada manifestos, written or co-authored by Tzara, record that the name shares its form with various other terms, including a word used in the [[Kru languages]] of [[West Africa]] to designate the tail of a sacred cow; a toy and the name for "mother" in an unspecified [[Regional Italian|Italian dialect]]; and the double affirmative in Romanian and in various [[Slavic languages]].<ref>Cernat, p.116; Londré, p.397; Richter, p.31-32.</ref>

===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.<ref name="mrdada"/><ref>Cardinal, p.529; Hofman, p.3-4; Cernat, p.115; Livezeanu, p.249-251; Londré, p.396; Richter, p.33</ref> This period also saw the first conflict within the group: citing irreconcilable differences with Tzara, Ball left the group.<ref>Cernat, p.115; Richter, p.43, 59.</ref> With his departure, Gendron argues, Tzara was able to move Dada [[vaudeville]]-like performances into more of "an incendiary and yet jocularly provocative theater."<ref name="bgend77">Gendron, p.77</ref>

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]] and [[Philippe Soupault]].<ref name="jycmelusine"/><ref name="hrich33">Richter, p.33</ref> 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.<ref name="hrich33"/> 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.<ref>Hofman, p.4; Richter, p.33</ref> He was at the time the lover of [[Maja Kruscek]], who was a student of [[Rudolf Laban]]; in Richter's account, their relationship was always tottering.<ref>Richter, p.45, 69–70.</ref>

As early as 1916, Tristan Tzara took distance from the Italian [[Futurism|Futurists]], rejecting the [[Militarism|militarist]] and proto-[[Italian fascism|fascist]] stance of their leader [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]].<ref>Cernat, p.193</ref> 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."<ref name="hrich33"/> Despite this and the fact that Dada did not make any gains in Italy, Tzara could count poets [[Giuseppe Ungaretti]] and [[Alberto Savinio]], painters [[Gino Cantarelli]] and [[Aldo Fiozzi]], as well as a few other Italian Futurists, among the Dadaists.<ref>Richter, p.199, 201 (Haftmann, in Richter, p.217)</ref> Among the Italian authors supporting Dadaist manifestos and rallying with the Dada group was the poet, painter and in the future a fascist racial theorist [[Julius Evola]], who became a personal friend of Tzara.<ref name="buddevo">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|0-7286-0255-5}}</ref>

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 [[Expressionism|Expressionist]] journal ''[[Der Sturm]]'', all of whom were described as "fathers of Dada".<ref>Richter, p.39-40, 46.</ref> 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 [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian]] Expressionist [[Oskar Kokoschka]], whom he advertised as an example of "Dada theater".<ref>Grigorescu, p.173-174.</ref> He was also in touch with ''[[Nord-Sud]]'', the magazine of French poet [[Pierre Reverdy]] (who sought to unify all avant-garde trends),<ref name="jycmelusine"/> and contributed articles on [[African art]] to both ''Nord-Sud'' and [[Pierre Albert-Birot]]'s ''SIC'' magazine.<ref name="hrich167">Richter, p.167</ref> In early 1918, through Huelsenbeck, Zürich Dadaists established contacts with their more explicitly [[left-wing]] disciples in the German Empire — [[George Grosz]], [[John Heartfield]], [[Johannes Baader]], [[Kurt Schwitters]], [[Walter Mehring]], [[Raoul Hausmann]], [[Carl Einstein]], [[Franz Jung]], and Heartfield's brother [[Wieland Herzfelde]].<ref>Hofman, p.7-8; Richter, p.102-114.</ref> With Breton, Soupault and Aragon, Tzara traveled [[Cologne]], where he became familiarized with the elaborate [[collage]] works of Schwitters and [[Max Ernst]], which he showed to his colleagues in Switzerland.<ref>Richter, p.137, 155, 159.</ref> Huelsenbeck nonetheless declined to Schwitters membership in Berlin Dada.<ref>Londré, p.397; Richter, p.137-138.</ref>

As a 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, figures ranging from Ernst, Arp, Baader, Breton and Aragon to Kruscek, Evola, [[Rafael Lasso de la Vega]], [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Vicente Huidobro]], [[Francesco Meriano]] and [[Théodore Fraenkel]].<ref>Richter, p.201</ref> Richter notes: "I'm not sure if all the names who appear here would agree with the description."<ref>Richter, p.200-201.</ref>

===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 [[Law enforcement in Switzerland|Swiss law enforcers]].<ref>Cernat, p.115; Richter, p.16, 19, 39.</ref> Hans Richter speaks of a "pleasure of letting fly at the [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]], which in Tristan Tzara took the form of coldly (or hotly) calculated insolence" (''see [[Épater la bourgeoisie]]'').<ref>Richter, p.24</ref> 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 a [[duel]] in Rehalp, near Zürich, and that they were going to have the popular novelist [[Jakob Christoph Heer]] for their witness.<ref>Richter, p.66-67</ref> Richter also reports that his Romanian colleague profited from Swiss neutrality to play the [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] and [[Central Powers]] against each other, obtaining art works and funds from both, making use of their need to stimulate their respective [[propaganda]] efforts.<ref>Richter, p.47-48.</ref> While active as a promoter, Tzara also published his first volume of collected poetry, the 1918 ''Vingt-cinq poèmes'' ("Twenty-five Poems").<ref name="rcard530">Cardinal, p.530</ref>

A major event took place in autumn 1918, when [[Francis Picabia]], who was then publisher of ''[[391 (magazine)|391]]'' magazine and a distant Dada affiliate, visited Zürich and introduced his colleagues there to his [[Nihilism|nihilistic]] views on art and reason.<ref>Richter, p.70-74.</ref> In the [[United States]], Picabia, [[Man Ray]] and [[Marcel Duchamp]] had earlier set up their own version of Dada. This circle, based in New 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").<ref>Hofman, p.12</ref> 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 [[Stratosphere|stratospheric]] regions of pure and joyful nothingness."<ref>Richter, p.71</ref> The movement subsequently organized its last major Swiss show, held at the Saal zur Kaufleutern, with choreography by [[Susanne Perrottet]], [[Sophie Taeuber-Arp]], and with the participation of [[Käthe Wulff]], [[Hans Heusser]], Tzara, Hans Richter and [[Walter Serner]].<ref>Richter, p.74-78.</ref> 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.<ref>Richter, p.78-80.</ref>

Following the November 1918 [[Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)|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.<ref name="Richter, p.80">Richter, p.80.</ref> Richter, who admits that the magazine was "rather tame", also notes that Tzara and his colleagues were dealing with the impact of [[communist revolution]]s, in particular the [[October Revolution]] and the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|German revolts of 1918]], which "had stirred men's minds, divided men's interests and diverted energies in the direction of political change."<ref name="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."<ref name="Richter, p.80"/> According to one account rendered by historian Robert Levy, Tzara shared company with a group of Romanian [[Communism|communist]] students, and, as such, may have met with [[Ana Pauker]], who was later one of the [[Romanian Communist Party]]'s most prominent activists.<ref>Robert Levy, ''Ana Pauker: The Rise and Fall of a Jewish Communist'', [[University of California Press]], Berkeley, p.37. {{ISBN|0-520-22395-0}}</ref>

Arp and Janco drifted away from the movement ca. 1919, when they created the [[Constructivism (art)|Constructivist]]-inspired workshop ''[[Das Neue Leben]]''.<ref name="pcern115">Cernat, p.115</ref> 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.<ref>Cernat, p.121-123, 181–183</ref> When Vinea submitted his poem ''Doleanțe'' ("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.<ref>Cernat, p.123-124.</ref>

===Paris Dada===
[[File:Jane Heap, John Rodker, Martha Dennison, Tristan Tzara, Margaret Anderson, ca. 1920s.jpg|thumb|330px|Tzara (second from right) in the 1920s, with [[Margaret C. Anderson]], [[Jane Heap]], and [[John Rodker]]]]
[[File:Tristan Tzara lisant L'Action Française.jpg|thumb|280px|Tzara reading [[L'Action française (quotidien)|L'Action Française]], French nationalist newspaper in the 1920s, [[archives Charmet]].]]
In late 1919, Tristan Tzara left Switzerland to join Breton, Soupault and [[Claude Rivière]] in editing the Paris-based magazine ''[[Littérature]]''.<ref name="mrdada"/><ref>Cardinal, p.529-530; Hofman, p.12-14; Richter, p.167, 173.</ref> Already a mentor for the French avant-garde, he was, according to Hans Richter, perceived as an "Anti-[[Messiah]]" and a "prophet".<ref name="hrich168">Richter, p.168</ref> Reportedly, Dada mythology had it that he entered the French capital in a snow-white or lilac-colored car, passing down [[Boulevard Raspail]] through a [[triumphal arch]] made from his own pamphlets, being greeted by cheering crowds and a fireworks display.<ref name="hrich168"/> Richter dismisses this account, indicating that Tzara actually walked from [[Gare de l'Est]] to Picabia's home, without anyone expecting him to arrive.<ref name="hrich168"/>

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.<ref name="mrdada"/><ref>Hofman, p.13; Richter, p.167</ref> 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."<ref name="hrich167"/> He was also issuing his ''Dada'' magazine, printed in Paris but using the same format, renaming it ''Bulletin Dada'' and later ''Dadaphone''.<ref>Hofman, p.13-14; Richter, p.173, 179–180.</ref> At around that time, he met American author [[Gertrude Stein]], who wrote about him in ''[[The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas]]'',<ref>"''Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas''", in ''The Cambridge Handbook of American Literature'', [[Cambridge University Press]], Cambridge, 1986 p.13; {{ISBN|0-521-30703-1}}<br>Armstrong, p.496.</ref> and the artist couple [[Robert Delaunay|Robert]] and [[Sonia Delaunay]] (with whom he worked in tandem for "poem-dresses" and other simultaneist literary pieces).<ref name="tgdelau">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|0-8135-3292-2}}</ref>

Tzara became involved in a number of Dada experiments, on which he collaborated with Breton, Aragon, Soupault, Picabia or [[Paul Éluard]].<ref name="jycmelusine"/><ref name="enotestt">[http://www.enotes.com/poetry-criticism/tzara-tristan "Tristan Tzara 1896–1963"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019020831/http://www.enotes.com/poetry-criticism/tzara-tristan |date=19 October 2011 }}, in Susan Salas, Laura Wisner-Broyles, ''Poetry Criticism'', Vol. 27, Gale Group Inc., 2000, [http://www.enotes.com/ eNotes.com]; retrieved 23 April 2008</ref><ref>Hofman, p.13; Richter, p.173-176</ref> Other authors who came into contact with Dada at that stage were [[Jean Cocteau]], [[Paul Dermée]] and [[Raymond Radiguet]].<ref>Richter, p.173-174</ref> The performances staged by Dada were often meant to popularize its principles, and Dada continued to draw attention on itself by [[hoax]]es and [[false advertising]], announcing that the [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] film star [[Charlie Chaplin]] was going to appear on stage at its show,<ref name="bgend77"/> or that its members were going to have their heads shaved or their hair cut off on stage.<ref>Gendron, p.77; Richter, p.181.</ref> In another instance, Tzara and his associates lectured at the ''[[Université populaire]]'' in front of industrial workers, who were reportedly less than impressed.<ref name="Richter, p.175-176">Richter, p.175-176</ref> 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 this also implied a measure of sympathy for the [[working class]].<ref name="Richter, p.175-176"/>

Dada activities in Paris culminated in the March 1920 [[variety show]] at the [[Théâtre 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").<ref>Londré, p.398; Richter, p.179-183.</ref> 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.<ref>Gendron, p.77; Richter, p.182</ref> 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.<ref>Richter, p.180-182.</ref>

The Dada phenomenon was only noticed in Romania beginning in 1920, and its overall reception was negative. Traditionalist historian [[Nicolae Iorga]], Symbolist promoter [[Ovid Densusianu]], the more reserved modernists [[Camil Petrescu]] and [[Benjamin Fondane]] all refused to accept it as a valid artistic manifestation.<ref>Cernat, p.125</ref> 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 an [[agent of influence]] for the [[Central Powers]] during the war.<ref>Cernat, p.127</ref> [[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".<ref>Cernat, p.126-127, 299</ref>

===Dada stagnation===
[[File:St-Julien-le-Pauvre & houses.jpg|thumb|260px|[[Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre]], site of the 1921 "Dada excursion"]]
By 1921, Tzara had become involved in conflicts with other figures in the movement, whom he claimed had parted with the spirit of Dada.<ref>Cernat, p.127-128; Richter, p.122-123.</ref> 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.<ref name="hrich123"/> 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.<ref>Richter, p.182-183, 192–193.</ref> The Dada shows themselves were by then such common occurrences that audiences expected to be insulted by the performers.<ref name="rcard530"/>

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 his [[antisemitism]] and [[reactionary]] stance: [[Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes]] was the prosecutor, Aragon and Soupault the defense attorneys, with Tzara, Ungaretti, [[Benjamin Péret]] and others as witnesses (a [[mannequin]] stood in for Barrès).<ref>Richter, p.184-186.</ref> 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.<ref>Richter, p.184, 186.</ref> In June, Tzara and Picabia clashed with each other, after Tzara expressed an opinion that his former mentor was becoming too radical.<ref>Richter, p.184-185.</ref> During the same season, Breton, Arp, Ernst, [[Maja Kruschek]] and Tzara were in Austria, at [[Imst]], 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 in [[German Tyrol|Tyrol]]").<ref>Richter, p.186 (illustration 96)</ref> Tzara also visited [[History of Czechoslovakia (1918–1938)|Czechoslovakia]], where he reportedly hoped to gain adherents to his cause.<ref>Cernat, p.128</ref>

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).<ref>Cernat, p.127-128.</ref> 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.<ref>Cernat, p.130, 138, 153.</ref> Reportedly, the conflict between Tzara and Janco had a personal note: Janco later mentioned "some dramatic quarrels" between his colleague and him.<ref>Răileanu & Carassou, p.151</ref> They avoided each other for the rest of their lives and Tzara even struck out the dedications to Janco from his early poems.<ref>Cernat, p.115, 137.</ref> [[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 to [[Western esotericism|esotericism]] and fascism.<ref name="buddevo"/>

===''Evening of the Bearded Heart''===
[[File:Theo van Doesburg kleine Dada soirée.jpg|thumb|230px|[[Theo van Doesburg]]'s poster for a Dada soirée (ca.1923)]]
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".<ref>Cernat, p.114; Richter, p.188</ref> 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, and [[Christian Schad]].<ref name="pcern114">Cernat, p.114</ref> 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 the [[Supreme War Council]].<ref name="pcern114"/> Tzara, who attended the Congress only as a means to subvert it,<ref>Richter, p.187</ref> 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.<ref name="pcern114"/> Rumors reported much later by American writer [[Brion Gysin]] had it that Breton's claims also depicted Tzara as an informer for the [[Prefecture of Police]].<ref name="nzgysin">[[Nicholas Zurbrugg]], "Brion Gysin", in ''Art, Performance, Media: 31 Interviews'', [[University of Minnesota Press]], Minneapolis, p.190. {{ISBN|0-8166-3832-2}}</ref>

In May 1922, Dada staged its own funeral.<ref name="Londré, p.398; Richter, p.191">Londré, p.398; Richter, p.191</ref> According to Hans Richter, the main part of this took place in [[Weimar]], where the Dadaists attended a festival of the [[Bauhaus]] 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."<ref>Richter, p.191</ref>

In "The Bearded Heart" manifesto a number of artists backed the marginalization of Breton in support of 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]], and [[Man Ray]].<ref>Richter, p.188</ref> During an associated soirée, ''Evening of the Bearded Heart'', which began on 6 July 1923, Tzara presented a re-staging of his play ''[[The Gas Heart]]'' (which had been first performed two years earlier to howls of derision from its audience), for which [[Sonia Delaunay]] designed the costumes.<ref name="tgdelau"/> Breton interrupted its performance and reportedly fought with several of his former associates and broke furniture, prompting a theatre riot that only the intervention of the police halted.<ref>Richter, p.190-191</ref> Dada's vaudeville declined in importance and disappeared altogether after that date.<ref>Gendron, p.78</ref>

Picabia took Breton's side against Tzara,<ref>Hofman, p.15; Richter, p.188, 190</ref> and replaced the staff of his ''391'', enlisting collaborations from [[Clément Pansaers]] and [[Ezra Pound]].<ref>Richter, p.188, 190</ref> Breton marked the end of Dada in 1924, when he issued the first ''[[Surrealist Manifesto]]''. Richter suggests that "Surrealism devoured and digested Dada."<ref name="Londré, p.398; Richter, p.191"/> Tzara distanced himself from the new trend, disagreeing with its methods and, increasingly, with its politics.<ref name="mrdada"/><ref name="rcard530"/><ref name="enotestt"/><ref>Cernat, p.239-240</ref> In 1923, he and a few other former Dadaists collaborated with Richter and the [[Constructivism (art)|Constructivist]] artist [[El Lissitzky]] on the magazine ''G'',<ref>Haftmann, in Richter, p.221</ref> and, the following year, he wrote pieces for the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]]-[[Slovenia]]n magazine ''Tank'' (edited by [[Ferdinand Delak]]).<ref>Grigorescu, p.315</ref>

===Transition to Surrealism===
[[File:Paris 18 - Maison Tristan Tzara -1.JPG|thumb|230px|''Maison Tzara'', designed by [[Adolf Loos]]]]
Tzara continued to write, becoming more seriously interested in the theater. In 1924, he published and staged the play ''[[Handkerchief of Clouds]]'', which was soon included in the repertoire of [[Serge Diaghilev]]'s ''[[Ballets Russes]]''.<ref>Lynn Garafola, ''Legacies of Twentieth-century Dance'', [[Wesleyan University Press]], Middletown, 2005, p.172. {{ISBN|0-8195-6674-8}}</ref> He also collected his earlier Dada texts as the ''Seven Dada Manifestos''. [[Marxism|Marxist]] thinker [[Henri Lefebvre]] reviewed them enthusiastically; he later became one of the author's friends.<ref>[[Martin Jay]], ''Marxism and Totality: the Adventures of a Concept from Lukács to Habermas'', [[University of California Press]], Berkeley, 1984, p.293 {{ISBN|0-520-05742-2}}</ref>

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.<ref>Cernat, p.153, 156, 159, 186</ref> In parallel, the short-lived magazine ''Integral'', where [[Ilarie Voronca]] and [[Ion Călugăru]] were the main animators, took significant interest in Tzara's work.<ref>Cernat, p.239-240, 277, 279, 287</ref> 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".<ref>Cernat, p.239</ref>

In 1925, Tristan Tzara was in Stockholm, where he married [[Greta Knutson]], with whom he had a son, Christophe (born 1927).<ref name="jycmelusine"/> A former student of painter [[André Lhote]], she was known for her interest in [[Phenomenology (philosophy)|phenomenology]] and [[abstract art]].<ref name="prsurrgk">"Greta Knutson", in [[Penelope Rosemont]], ''[[Surrealist Women]]'', [[Continuum International Publishing Group]], London & New York, 1998, p.69. {{ISBN|0-485-30088-5}}</ref> Around the same period, with funds from Knutson's inheritance, Tzara commissioned [[Austria]]n architect [[Adolf Loos]], a former representative of the [[Vienna Secession]] whom he had met in Zürich, to build him a house in Paris.<ref name="jycmelusine"/> The rigidly [[Functionalism (architecture)|functionalist]] ''Maison Tristan Tzara'', built in [[Montmartre]], was designed following Tzara's specific requirements and decorated with samples of [[African art]].<ref name="jycmelusine"/> It was Loos' only major contribution in his Parisian years.<ref name="jycmelusine"/>

In 1929, he reconciled with Breton, and sporadically attended the Surrealists' meetings in Paris.<ref name="rcard530"/><ref name="enotestt"/> The same year, he issued the poetry book ''De nos oiseaux'' ("Of Our Birds").<ref name="rcard530"/> This period saw the publication of ''[[The Approximate Man]]'' (1931), alongside the volumes ''L'Arbre des voyageurs'' ("The Travelers' Tree", 1930), ''Où boivent les loups'' ("Where Wolves Drink", 1932), ''L'Antitête'' ("The Antihead", 1933) and ''Grains et issues'' ("Seed and Bran", 1935).<ref name="enotestt"/> By then, it was also announced that Tzara had started work on a screenplay.<ref name="pcern277">Cernat, p.277</ref> In 1930, he directed and produced a cinematic version of ''Le Cœur à barbe'', starring Breton and other leading Surrealists.<ref name="ttzimdb">{{IMDb name|0879262}}</ref> Five years later, he signed his name to ''The Testimony against [[Gertrude Stein]]'', published by [[Eugene Jolas]]'s magazine ''[[transition (literary journal)|transition]]'' in reply to Stein's memoir ''[[The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas]]'',<!-- sic --> in which he accused his former friend of being a [[wikt:megalomaniac|megalomaniac]].<ref>Armstrong, p.496</ref>

The poet became involved in further developing [[Surrealist techniques]], and, together with Breton and [[Valentine Hugo]], drew one of the better-known examples of "[[exquisite corpse]]s".<ref>[[Ion Biberi]], ''Arta suprarealistă'', [[Editura Meridiane]], Bucharest, 1973, p.53. {{OCLC|22905196}}</ref> Tzara also prefaced a 1934 collection of Surrealist poems by his friend [[René Char]], and the following year he and Greta Knutson visited Char in [[L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue]].<ref>"René Char Bio-Bibliography", in ''Selected Poems of René Char'' (edited by [[Mary Ann Caws]] and Tina Jolas), [[New Directions Publishers]], New York, 1992, p.xii. {{ISBN|0-8112-1191-6}}</ref> Tzara's wife was also affiliated with the Surrealist group at around the same time.<ref name="jycmelusine"/><ref name="prsurrgk"/> This association ended when she parted with Tzara late in the 1930s.<ref name="jycmelusine"/><ref name="prsurrgk"/>

At home, Tzara's works were collected and edited by the Surrealist promoter [[Sașa Pană]], who corresponded with him over several years.<ref>Cernat, p.49, 106, 109, 116; Răileanu & Carassou, p.154-155</ref> The first such edition saw print in 1934, and featured the 1913–1915 poems Tzara had left in Vinea's care.<ref name="pcern116"/> In 1928–1929, Tzara exchanged letters with his friend [[Jacques 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.<ref>Cernat, p.192-194</ref>

===Affiliation with communism and Spanish Civil War===

Alarmed by the establishment of [[Adolf Hitler]]'s [[Nazi Germany|Nazi regime]], which also signified the end of Berlin's avant-garde, he merged his activities as an art promoter with the cause of [[anti-fascism]], and was close to the [[French Communist Party]] (PCF). In 1936, Richter recalled, he published a series of photographs secretly taken by [[Kurt Schwitters]] in [[Hanover]], 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.<ref>Richter, p.153</ref> After the outbreak of the [[Spanish Civil War]], he briefly left France and joined the [[Second Spanish Republic|Republican forces]].<ref name="enotestt"/><ref>Livezeanu, p.245-246</ref> Alongside [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] reporter [[Ilya Ehrenburg]], Tzara visited [[Madrid]], which was besieged by the [[Spain under Franco|Nationalists]] (''see [[Siege of Madrid]]'').<ref name="iliv246">Livezeanu, p.246</ref> Upon his return, he published the collection of poems ''Midis gagnés'' ("Conquered Southern Regions").<ref name="enotestt"/> 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 the Chilean poet [[Pablo Neruda]].<ref>[[Susan Robin Suleiman]], "Committed Painting", in Denis Hollier (ed.), ''A New History of French Literature'', [[Harvard University Press]], Cambridge, 1994, p.938. {{ISBN|0-674-61566-2}}</ref> Tzara had also signed Cunard's June 1937 call to intervention against [[Francisco Franco]].<ref>Marie-Jaqueline Lancaster, ''Brian Howard: Portrait of a Failure'', Timewell Press, London, 2005, p.221. {{ISBN|1-85725-211-X}}</ref> Reportedly, he and Nancy Cunard were romantically involved.<ref>Caroline Weber, "Nancy Cunard: a Troubled Heiress with an Ideological Mission", in ''[[Int. Her. Trib.|The International Herald Tribune]]'', 30 March 2007</ref>

Although the poet was moving away from Surrealism,<ref name="rcard530"/> his adherence to strict [[Marxism-Leninism]] was reportedly questioned by both the PCF and the Soviet Union.<ref name="pbeit49">Beitchman, p.49</ref> [[Semiotics|Semiotician]] Philip Beitchman places their attitude in connection with Tzara's own vision of [[Utopia]], which combined communist messages with [[Freudo-Marxism|Freudo-Marxist]] [[psychoanalysis]] and made use of particularly violent imagery.<ref>Beitchman, p.48-49</ref> Reportedly, Tzara refused to be enlisted in supporting the [[party line (politics)|party line]], maintaining his independence and refusing to take the forefront at public rallies.<ref name="spbuot">{{in lang|ro}} Sorin Pop, [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/*articleID_9669-articles_details.html "François Buot, Tristan Tzara. Omul care a pus la cale revoluția Dada"] (book review), in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 195, November 2003</ref>

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 Surrealist [[Salvador Dalí]], who was at the time a confessed admirer of Hitler, and whose portrait of [[William Tell]] had alarmed them because it shared likeness with [[Bolshevik]] leader [[Vladimir Lenin]].<ref>Carlos Rojas, ''Salvador Dalí, or the Art of Spitting on Your Mother's Portrait'', [[Penn State University Press]], University Park, 1993, p.98. {{ISBN|0-271-00842-3}}</ref> Historian [[Irina Livezeanu]] notes that Tzara, who agreed with [[Stalinism]] and shunned [[Trotskyism]], submitted to the PCF cultural demands during the writers' congress of 1935, even when his friend Crevel committed suicide to protest the adoption of [[socialist realism]].<ref name="iliv251">Livezeanu, p.251</ref> At a later stage, Livezeanu remarks, Tzara reinterpreted Dada and Surrealism as revolutionary currents, and presented them as such to the public.<ref>Livezeanu, p.247-249</ref> This stance she contrasts with that of Breton, who was more reserved in his attitudes.<ref name="iliv251"/>

===World War II and Resistance===
During [[World War II]], Tzara took refuge from the [[German occupation of France during World War II|German occupation forces]], moving to the southern areas, controlled by the [[Vichy France|Vichy regime]].<ref name="jycmelusine"/><ref name="enotestt"/> On one occasion, the [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] and [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy|collaborationist]] publication ''[[Je Suis Partout]]'' made his whereabouts known to the [[Gestapo]].<ref name="mrnnradi">{{in lang|fr}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20080607172341/http://www.marianne2.fr/Tristan-Tzara,-radical,-mondain-et-anticonformiste_a41229.html "Tristan Tzara, radical, mondain et anticonformiste"], in ''[[Marianne (magazine)|Marianne]]'', 13 January 2003</ref>

He was in [[Marseille]] in late 1940-early 1941, joining the group of anti-fascist and Jewish refugees who, protected by American diplomat [[Varian Fry]], were seeking to escape [[Nazi-occupied Europe]]. Among the people present there were the anti-[[Totalitarianism|totalitarian]] socialist [[Victor Serge]], anthropologist [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]], playwright [[Arthur Adamov]], philosopher and poet [[René Daumal]], and several prominent Surrealists: Breton, Char, and [[Benjamin Péret]], as well as artists [[Max Ernst]], [[André Masson]], [[Wifredo Lam]], [[Jacques Hérold]], [[Victor Brauner]] and [[Óscar Domínguez]].<ref name="dgmarse">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</ref> During the months spent together, and before some of them received permission to leave for America, they invented a new [[card game]], on which traditional card imagery was replaced with Surrealist symbols.<ref name="dgmarse"/>

Some time after his stay in Marseille, Tzara joined the [[French Resistance]], rallying with the [[Maquis (World War II)|Maquis]]. A contributor to magazines published by the Resistance, Tzara also took charge of the cultural broadcast for the [[Free French Forces]] clandestine radio station.<ref name="jycmelusine"/><ref name="enotestt"/> He lived in [[Aix-en-Provence]], then in [[Souillac, Lot|Souillac]], and ultimately in [[Toulouse]].<ref name="jycmelusine"/> His son Cristophe was at the time a Resistant in northern France, having joined the ''[[Francs-Tireurs et Partisans]]''.<ref name="mrnnradi"/> In [[Axis Powers|Axis]]-allied and antisemitic Romania (''see [[Romania during World War II]]''), the regime of [[Ion Antonescu]] ordered bookstores not to sell works by Tzara and 44 other Jewish-Romanian authors.<ref>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|0-88125-775-3}}; {{in lang|ro}} Liviu Rotman (ed.), ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20110818231335/http://jewishfed.ro/fcer/public_html/downloads/carti/Demnitate.pdf Demnitate în vremuri de restriște]'', Editura Hasefer, [[Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania]] & [[Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania]], Bucharest, 2008, p.174-175. {{ISBN|978-973-630-189-6}}</ref> In 1942, with the generalization of antisemitic measures, Tzara was also stripped of his Romanian citizenship rights.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Adrian Niculescu, [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/index.html/articles|details?articleID=23639 "Destinul excepțional al lui Alexandru Șafran"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120906134321/http://www.observatorcultural.ro/index.html/articles |date=6 September 2012 }}, in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 523, May 2010</ref>

In December 1944, five months after the [[Liberation of Paris]], he was contributing to ''[[L'Éternelle Revue]]'', a pro-communist newspaper edited by philosopher [[Jean-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.<ref name="srsmemor">[[Susan Rubin Suleiman]], ''Crises of Memory and the Second World War'', [[Harvard University Press]], Cambridge, 2006, p.30-31. {{ISBN|0-674-02206-8}}</ref> Other contributors included writers Aragon, Char, Éluard, [[Elsa Triolet]], [[Eugène Guillevic]], [[Raymond Queneau]], [[Francis Ponge]], [[Jacques Prévert]] and painter [[Pablo Picasso]].<ref name="srsmemor"/>

Upon the end of the war and the restoration of French independence, Tzara was [[Naturalization|naturalized]] a French citizen.<ref name="enotestt"/> During 1945, under the [[Provisional Government of the French Republic]], he was a representative of the Sud-Ouest region to the [[National Assembly of France|National Assembly]].<ref name="iliv246"/> According to Livezeanu, he "helped reclaim the [[Southern France|South]] from the cultural figures who had associated themselves to Vichy [France]."<ref name="iliv251"/> In April 1946, his early poems, alongside similar pieces by Breton, Éluard, Aragon and Dalí, were the subject of a midnight broadcast on [[Radio in Paris|Parisian Radio]].<ref>"Drop Everything, Drop Dado", in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 8 April 1946</ref> In 1947, he became a full member of the PCF<ref name="rcard530"/> (according to some sources, he had been one since 1934).<ref name="enotestt"/>

===International leftism===
Over the following decade, Tzara lent his support to political causes. Pursuing his interest in [[primitivism]], he became a critic of the [[French Fourth Republic|Fourth Republic]]'s [[French colonial empires|colonial policy]], and joined his voice to those who supported [[decolonization]].<ref name="spbuot"/> Nevertheless, he was appointed [[cultural ambassador]] of the Republic by the [[Paul Ramadier]] cabinet.<ref>Livezeanu, p.244, 246, 247</ref> He also participated in the PCF-organized Congress of Writers, but, unlike Éluard and Aragon, again avoided adapting his style to [[socialist realism]].<ref name="mrnnradi"/>

He returned to Romania on an official visit in late 1946-early 1947,<ref>Cernat, p.113; Livezeanu, ''passim''</ref><ref name="jfapung">{{in lang|ro}} János Farkas, [http://www.revista-apostrof.ro/articole.php?id=154 "Tristan Tzara în Ungaria. Octombrie 1956"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025050140/http://www.revista-apostrof.ro/articole.php?id=154 |date=25 October 2016 }}, in ''[[Apostrof]]'', Vol. XVII, Nr. 12 (199)</ref> as part of a tour of the emerging [[Eastern Bloc]] during which he also stopped in [[History of Czechoslovakia (1945–1948)|Czechoslovakia]], [[Hungary]], and the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia]].<ref name="jfapung"/> The speeches he and [[Sașa Pană]] gave on the occasion, published by ''[[Orizont]]'' journal, were noted for condoning official positions of the PCF and the [[Romanian Communist Party]], and are credited by Irina Livezeanu with causing a rift between Tzara and young Romanian avant-gardists such as Victor Brauner and [[Gherasim Luca]] (who rejected communism and were alarmed by the [[Iron Curtain]] having fallen over Europe).<ref>Livezeanu, p.252</ref> In September of the same year, he was present at the conference of the pro-communist [[International Union of Students]] (where he was a guest of the French-based [[Union of Communist Students]], and met with similar organizations from Romania and other countries).<ref>[[G. Brătescu]], ''Ce-a fost să fie. Notații autobiografice'', [[Humanitas publishing house|Humanitas]], Bucharest, 2003, p.207-208. {{ISBN|973-50-0425-9}}</ref>

In 1949–1950, Tzara answered Aragon's call and become active in the international campaign to liberate [[Nazım Hikmet]], a [[Turkey|Turkish]] poet whose 1938 arrest for communist activities had created a ''[[cause célèbre]]'' for the pro-Soviet public opinion.<ref>Göksu & Timms, p.212, 318</ref><ref name="mcmusic">Mark Carroll, ''Music and Ideology in Cold War Europe'', [[Cambridge University Press]], Cambridge, 2003, p.52. {{ISBN|0-521-82072-3}}</ref> Tzara chaired the Committee for the Liberation of Nazım Hikmet, which issued petitions to national governments<ref name="mcmusic"/><ref>Göksu & Timms, p.212</ref> and commissioned works in honor of Hikmet (including musical pieces by [[Louis Durey]] and [[Serge Nigg]]).<ref name="mcmusic"/> Hikmet was eventually released in July 1950, and publicly thanked Tzara during his subsequent visit to Paris.<ref>Göksu & Timms, p.318</ref>

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").<ref name="enotestt"/><ref name="imjbokks">[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 23 April 2008</ref> Tzara continued to be an active promoter of modernist culture. Around 1949, having read [[Ireland|Irish]] author [[Samuel Beckett]]'s manuscript of ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', Tzara facilitated the play's staging by approaching producer [[Roger Blin]].<ref name="dbgodot">[[David Bradby]], ''Beckett: Waiting for Godot'', [[Cambridge University Press]], Cambridge, 2001, p.46. {{ISBN|0-521-59510-X}}</ref> He also translated into French some poems by Hikmet<ref>Bernard Vargaftig (ed.), ''Poésies de Résistence'', J'ai lu, Paris, 1994. {{ISBN|2-277-23767-1}}</ref> and the Hungarian author [[Attila József]].<ref name="jfapung"/> In 1949, he introduced Picasso to art dealer [[Heinz Berggruen]] (thus helping start their lifelong partnership),<ref>Alan Riding
"Obituary: Heinz Berggruen, Noted Art Dealer and Collector", in ''[[Int. Her. Trib.|The International Herald Tribune]]'', 26 February 2007</ref> and, in 1951, wrote the catalog for an exhibit of works by his friend [[Max Ernst]]; the text celebrated the artist's "free use of stimuli" and "his discovery of a new kind of humor."<ref>Richter, p.164</ref>

===1956 protest and final years===
[[File:Tristan Tzara grave.jpg|thumb|240px|Tzara's grave in the [[Cimetière du Montparnasse]]]]
In October 1956, Tzara visited the [[People's Republic of Hungary]], where the government of [[Imre Nagy]] was coming into conflict with the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="mrnnradi"/><ref name="jfapung"/> This followed an invitation on the part of Hungarian writer [[Gyula Illyés]], who wanted his colleague to be present at ceremonies marking the [[Rehabilitation (Soviet)|rehabilitation]] of [[László Rajk]] (a local communist leader whose prosecution had been ordered by [[Joseph Stalin]]).<ref name="jfapung"/> Tzara was receptive of the Hungarians' demand for [[liberalization]],<ref name="mrnnradi"/><ref name="jfapung"/> contacted the anti-[[Stalinism|Stalinist]] and former Dadaist [[Lajos Kassák]], and deemed the anti-Soviet movement "revolutionary".<ref name="jfapung"/> 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".<ref name="jfapung"/> 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-communism|anti-communist]] and anti-Soviet campaigns."<ref name="jfapung"/>

His return to France coincided with the outbreak of the [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian Revolution]], which ended with a Soviet military intervention. On 24 October, Tzara was ordered to a PCF meeting, where activist [[Laurent Casanova]] reportedly ordered him to keep silent, which Tzara did.<ref name="jfapung"/> 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."<ref name="jfapung"/>

He was thereafter mostly withdrawn from public life, dedicating himself to researching the work of 15th-century poet [[François Villon]],<ref name="spbuot"/> and, like his fellow Surrealist [[Michel Leiris]], to promoting [[Primitivism|primitive]] and [[African art]], which he had been collecting for years.<ref name="mrnnradi"/> In early 1957, Tzara attended a Dada retrospective on the [[Rive Gauche]], which ended in a riot caused by the rival avant-garde [[Mouvement Jariviste]], an outcome which reportedly pleased him.<ref>"Battle of the Nihilists", in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 8 April 1957</ref> In August 1960, one year after the [[French Fifth Republic|Fifth Republic]] had been established by [[President of France|President]] [[Charles de Gaulle]], French forces were confronting the Algerian rebels (''see [[Algerian War]]''). Together with [[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Marguerite Duras]], [[Jérôme Lindon]], [[Alain Robbe-Grillet]] and other intellectuals, he addressed [[Prime Minister of France|Premier]] [[Michel Debré]] a letter of protest, concerning France's refusal to grant Algeria its independence.<ref name="laduras">[[Laure Adler]], ''Marguerite Duras: A Life'', [[University of Chicago Press]], Chicago, 2000, p.233-234. {{ISBN|0-226-00758-8}}</ref> As a result, [[Minister of Culture (France)|Minister of Culture]] [[André Malraux]] announced that his cabinet would not subsidize any films to which Tzara and the others might contribute, and the signatories could no longer appear on stations managed by the state-owned [[Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française|French Broadcasting Service]].<ref name="laduras"/>

In 1961, as recognition for his work as a poet, Tzara was awarded the prestigious [[Taormina Prize]].<ref name="enotestt"/> One of his final public activities took place in 1962, when he attended the [[International Congress on African Culture]], organized by English curator [[Frank McEwen]] and held at the [[National Gallery of Zimbabwe|National Gallery]] in [[Harare|Salisbury]], [[Southern Rhodesia]].<ref>[[Johannesburg Art Gallery]], ''Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent'', [[Jacana Media]], 2007, p.227. {{ISBN|1-77009-363-X}}</ref> He died one year later in his Paris home, and was buried at the [[Cimetière du Montparnasse]].<ref name="jycmelusine"/>

==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 [[Romanians|ethnic Romanian]] colleagues, was one sign of a cultural dialogue, in which "the openness of Romanian environments toward artistic modernity" was stimulated by "young emancipated Jewish writers."<ref>Cernat, p.34</ref> [[Salomon Schulman]], a Swedish researcher of [[Yiddish literature]], argues that the combined influence of Yiddish folklore and [[Hasidic philosophy]] shaped European modernism in general and Tzara's style in particular,<ref>Cernat, p.35-36</ref> while American poet [[Andrei Codrescu]] speaks of Tzara as one in a [[Balkans|Balkan]] line of "absurdist writing", which also includes the Romanians [[Urmuz]], [[Eugène Ionesco]] and [[Emil Cioran]].<ref>Olson, p.40</ref> According to literary historian [[George Călinescu]], Samyro's early poems deal with "the voluptuousness over the strong scents of rural life, which is typical among Jews compressed into [[ghetto]]s."<ref name="gcal887">Călinescu, p.887</ref>

Tzara himself used elements alluding to his homeland in his early Dadaist performances. His collaboration with [[Maja Kruscek]] at [[Zünfte of Zürich|Zuntfhaus zür Waag]] featured samples of [[African literature]], to which Tzara added Romanian-language fragments.<ref name="pcern115"/> He is also known to have mixed elements of [[Romanian folklore]], and to have sung the native suburban [[Romance (music)|romanza]] ''La moară la Hârța'' ("At the Mill in Hârța") during at least one staging for Cabaret Voltaire.<ref>Cernat, p.182, 405</ref> Addressing the Romanian public in 1947, he claimed to have been captivated by "the sweet language of [[Western Moldavia|Moldavian]] peasants".<ref name="iliv246"/>

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]] and [[George Bacovia]].<ref>Cernat, p.37-38</ref> Like in the cases of Eugène Ionesco and Fondane, Cernat proposes, Samyro sought self-exile to [[Western Europe]] as a "modern, [[Voluntarism (metaphysics)|voluntarist]]" means of breaking with "the peripheral condition",<ref>Cernat, p.38</ref> which may also serve to explain the pun he selected for a pseudonym.<ref name="pcern110"/> 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 to [[Mateiu Caragiale]].<ref>Cernat, p.18</ref> Unlike Vinea and the ''[[Contimporanul]]'' group, Cernat proposes, Tzara stood for radicalism and insurgency, which would also help explain their impossibility to communicate.<ref>Cernat, p.398, 403–405</ref> In particular, Cernat argues, the writer sought to emancipate himself from competing nationalisms, and addressed himself directly to the center of European culture, with [[Zürich]] serving as a stage on his way to Paris.<ref name="pcern115"/> The 1916 ''Monsieur's Antipyrine's Manifesto'' featured a [[Cosmopolitanism|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."<ref name="pcern115"/>

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".<ref name="pcern112"/> [[Hans Richter (artist)|Hans Richter]] believed him to be a fiery and impulsive figure, having little in common with his German collaborators.<ref>Cernat, p.112; Richter, p.18-20, 24, 36, 37, 59</ref> According to Cernat, Richter's perspective seems to indicate a vision of Tzara having a "[[Italic peoples|Latin]]" temperament.<ref name="pcern112"/> 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 "[[Humanism in Germany|German humanism]]", and that, compared to his German colleagues, he was "a barbarian".<ref name="pcern114"/> In his polemic with Tzara, Breton also repeatedly placed stress on his rival's foreign origin.<ref>Cernat, p.114, 115; Răileanu & Carassou, p.35</ref>

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 [[Conservatism|conservative]] and [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] position. He depicted Dadaists as "[[Jewish Bolshevism|Judaeo-Bolsheviks]]" who corrupted [[Culture of Romania|Romanian culture]], and included Tzara among the main proponents of "literary anarchism".<ref>Cernat, p.296, 299, 307, 309–310, 329</ref> 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.<ref>Cernat, p.310</ref> This perspective was deplored early on by the modernist critic [[Perpessicius]].<ref>Cernat, p.329</ref> Nine years after Emilian's polemic text, [[Fascism|fascist]] poet and journalist [[Radu Gyr]] published an article in ''[[Convorbiri Literare]]'', in which he attacked Tzara as a representative of the "[[Judaism|Judaic]] spirit", of the "foreign plague" and of "[[Dialectical materialism|materialist]]-[[Historical materialism|historical dialectics]]".<ref>[[Z. Ornea]], ''Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească'', [[Editura Fundației Culturale Române]], Bucharest, 1995, p.457. {{ISBN|973-9155-43-X}}</ref>

===Symbolist poetry===
Tzara's earliest [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist poems]], published in ''Simbolul'' during 1912, were later rejected by their author, who asked [[Sașa Pană]] not to include them in editions of his works.<ref name="pcern49"/> The influence of French Symbolists on the young Samyro was particularly important, and surfaced in both his [[Lyric poetry|lyric]] and [[Prose poetry|prose poems]].<ref name="mrdada"/><ref name="enotestt"/><ref>Cernat, p.49, 52</ref> Attached to Symbolist [[musicality]] at that stage, he was indebted to his ''Simbolul'' colleague [[Ion Minulescu]]<ref>Cernat, p.49; Emil Manu, "Actualitatea lui Ion Minulescu", in [[Ion Minulescu]], ''Versuri și proză'', [[Editura Eminescu]], Bucharest, 1986, p.8. {{OCLC|18090790}}</ref> and the Belgian [[Maurice Maeterlinck]].<ref name="pcern49"/> 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."<ref>Beitchman, p.27</ref> However, Cernat believes, the young poet was by then already breaking with the [[syntax]] of conventional poetry, and that, in subsequent experimental pieces, he progressively stripped his style of its Symbolist elements.<ref>Cernat, p.49, 52–53</ref>

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]] and [[Jules Laforgue]].<ref name="pcern52">Cernat, p.52</ref> ''Se spânzură un om'' was also in many ways similar to ones authored by his collaborators [[Adrian 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 [[Tragicomedy|tragicomic]] and [[iconoclastic]] perspective.<ref name="pcern52"/> These pieces also include ''Vacanță în provincie'' ("Provincial Holiday") and the [[anti-war]] fragment ''Furtuna și cântecul dezertorului'' ("The Storm and the Deserter's Song"), which Vinea published in his ''Chemarea''.<ref>Cernat, p.97-98, 106</ref> The series is seen by Cernat as "the general rehearsal for the Dada adventure."<ref>Cernat, p.98</ref> The complete text of ''Furtuna și cântecul dezertorului'' was published at a later stage, after the missing text was discovered by Pană.<ref>Cernat, p.106</ref> At the time, he became interested in the [[free verse]] work of the American [[Walt Whitman]], and his translation of Whitman's [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] ''[[Song of Myself]]'', probably completed before [[World War I]], was published by [[Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo]] in his magazine ''[[Versuri și Proză]]'' (1915).<ref>Cernat, p.55</ref>

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."<ref name="pbeit29">Beitchman, p.29</ref> 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 [[Aestheticism|calophile]] literature, which they perceived as exhausted."<ref>Cernat, p.54</ref> 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 the [[Comte de Lautréamont]].<ref>Beitchman, p.38-39, 46</ref> According to Beitchman, Tzara uses the Symbolist message, "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."<ref>Beitchman, p.52</ref>

===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).<ref>Cernat, p.117, 119</ref>

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.<ref>Cernat, p.109, 119, 160</ref> However, Paul Cernat notes, the texts also evidence a difference in approach, with Vinea's work being "meditative and melancholic", while Tzara's is "[[Hedonism|hedonistic]]".<ref name="pcern117">Cernat, p.117</ref> Tzara often appealed to revolutionary and ironic images, portraying provincial and [[middle class]] environments as places of artificiality and decay, demystifying [[pastoral]] themes and evidencing a will to break free.<ref>Cernat, p.117-119</ref> His literature took a more radical perspective on life, and featured lyrics with subversive intent:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|ro|să ne coborâm în râpa, 
care-i Dumnezeu când cască}}<ref>Cernat, p.119</ref>
|
let's descend into the precipice
that is God yawning}}

In his ''Înserează'' (roughly, "Night Falling"), probably authored in [[Mangalia]], Tzara writes:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|ro|[...] deschide-te fereastră, prin urmare
și ieși noapte din odaie ca din piersică sâmburul, 
ca preotul din biserică
[...] hai în parcul communal
până o cânta cocoșul
să se scandalizeze orașul [...].}}<ref name="pcern117"/>
|
[...] open yourself therefore, window
and you night, spring out of the room like a kernel from the peach,
like a priest from the church
[...] let's go to the community park
before the rooster starts crowing
so that the city will be scandalized [...]}}

Vinea's similar poem, written in [[Tuzla, Constanța|Tuzla]] and named after that village, reads:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|ro|seara bate semne pe far
peste goarnele vagi de apă
când se întorc pescarii cu stele pe mâini
și trec vapoarele și planetele}}<ref name="pcern117"/>
|
the evening stamps signs on the lighthouse
over the vague bugles of water
when fishermen return with stars on their arms
and ships and planets pass by}}

Cernat notes that ''Nocturnă'' ("Nocturne") and ''Înserează'' were the pieces originally performed at [[Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich)|Cabaret Voltaire]], identified by [[Hugo Ball]] as "Rumanian poetry",<!-- sic --> and that they were recited in Tzara's own spontaneous French translation.<ref>Cernat, p.111, 120</ref> Although they are noted for their radical break with the traditional form of Romanian verse,<ref name="ddintoarc">{{in lang|ro}} [[Dennis Deletant]], [http://www.revista22.ro/html/index.php?nr=2007-01-12&art=3373 "Întoarcerea României în Europa: între politică și cultură"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071021120445/http://www.revista22.ro/html/index.php?art=3373&nr=2007-01-12 |date=21 October 2007 }}, in ''[[Revista 22]]'', Nr. 879, January 2007</ref> Ball's diary entry of 5 February 1916, indicates that Tzara's works were still "conservative in style".<ref name="hrich16">Richter, p.16</ref> 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."<ref name="gcal887"/> 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 [...]."<ref name="ddintoarc"/>

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",<ref name="gcal887"/> Samyro's poetry includes ''Verișoară, fată de pension'', which, Cernat argues, displays "playful detachment [for] the musicality of [[internal rhyme]]s".<ref name="pcern49"/> It opens with the lyrics:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|ro|Verișoară, fată de pension, îmbrăcată în negru, guler alb,
Te iubesc pentru că ești simplă și visezi
Și ești bună, plângi, și rupi scrisori ce nu au înțeles
Și-ți pare rău că ești departe de ai tăi și că înveți 
La Călugărițe unde noaptea nu e cald.}}<ref name="gcal887"/>
|
Little cousin, boarding school girl, dressed in black, white collar,
I love you because you are simple and you dream
And you are kind, you cry, you tear up letters that have no meaning
And you feel bad because you are far from yours and you study
At the Nuns where at night it's not warm.}}

The [[Gârceni]] pieces were treasured by the moderate wing of the Romanian avant-garde movement. In contrast to his previous rejection of Dada, ''[[Contimporanul]]'' collaborator [[Benjamin Fondane]] used them as an example of "pure poetry", and compared them to the elaborate writings of French poet [[Paul Valéry]], thus recuperating them in line with the magazine's ideology.<ref>Cernat, p.153, 288; Răileanu & Carassou, p.62-67</ref>

===Dada synthesis and "simultaneism"===
Tzara the Dadaist was inspired by the contributions of his experimental modernist predecessors. Among them were the literary promoters of [[Cubism]]: in addition to [[Henri Barzun]] and [[Fernand Divoire]], Tzara cherished the works of [[Guillaume Apollinaire]].<ref name="mrnnradi"/><ref>Haftmann, in Richter, p.216</ref> Despite Dada's condemnation of [[Futurism]], various authors note the influence [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]] and his circle exercised on Tzara's group.<ref>Londré, p.396; Richter, p.19, 191 (Haftmann, in Richter, p.216-217)</ref> In 1917, he was in correspondence with both Apollinaire<ref>Cardinal, p.529; Richter, p.167</ref> and Marinetti.<ref>Cardinal, p.529</ref> Traditionally, Tzara is also seen as indebted to the early avant-garde and [[black comedy]] writings of Romania's [[Urmuz]].<ref name="ddintoarc"/><ref>Cernat, p.128-129, 341, 343, 346; Amy D. Colin, "Paul Celan's Poetics of Destruction", in Amy D. Colin (ed.), ''Argumentum E Silentio'', [[Walter de Gruyter]], Berlin, 1987, p.158. {{ISBN|3-11-010555-1}}</ref>

For a large part, Dada focused on performances and [[satire]], with shows that often had Tzara, Marcel Janco and Huelsenbeck for their main protagonists. Often dressed up as [[German Tyrol|Tyrolian]] peasants or wearing dark robes, they improvised poetry sessions at the Cabaret Voltaire, reciting the works of others or their spontaneous creations, which were or pretended to be in [[Esperanto]] or [[Māori language]].<ref>Cernat, p.113, 115</ref> Bernard Gendron describes these soirées as marked by "heterogeneity and [[eclecticism]]",<ref>Gendron, p.73</ref> and Richter notes that the songs, often punctuated by loud shrieks or other unsettling sounds, built on the legacy of [[noise music]] and [[Futurism (music)|Futurist compositions]].<ref>Richter, p.19</ref>

With time, Tristan Tzara merged his performances and his literature, taking part in developing Dada's "simultaneist poetry", which was meant to be read out loud and involved a collaborative effort, being, according to [[Hans Arp]], the first instance of [[Surrealist automatism]].<ref name="hrich16"/> Ball stated that the subject of such pieces was "the value of the human voice."<ref>Richter, p.31</ref> Together with Arp, Tzara and [[Walter Serner]] produced the [[German language|German-language]] ''Die Hyperbel vom Krokodilcoiffeur und dem Spazierstock'' ("The Hyperbole of the Crocodile's Hairdresser and the Walking-Stick"), in which, Arp stated, "the poet crows, curses, sighs, stutters, [[Yodeling|yodels]], as he pleases. His poems are like Nature [where] a tiny particle is as beautiful and important as a star."<ref>Richter, p.30-31</ref> Another noted simultaneist poem was ''L'Amiral cherche une maison à louer'' ("The Admiral Is Looking for a House to Rent"), co-authored by Tzara, Marcel Janco and Huelsenbach.<ref name="gcal887"/>

Art historian Roger Cardinal describes Tristan Tzara's Dada poetry as marked by "extreme semantic and syntactic incoherence".<ref name="rcard530"/> Tzara, who recommended destroying just as it is created,<ref>Londré, p.396-397</ref> had devised a personal system for writing poetry, which implied a seemingly chaotic reassembling of words that had been randomly cut out of newspapers.<ref name="nzgysin"/><ref>Călinescu, p.887; Londré, p.397; Richter, p.54, 60, 123</ref><ref name="rlword">Robin Lydenberg, ''Word Cultures: Radical Theory and Practice in William S. Burroughs'', [[University of Illinois Press]], Urbana & Chicago, p.45. {{ISBN|0-252-01413-8}}</ref>

===Dada and anti-art===
The Romanian writer also spent the Dada period issuing a long series of manifestos, which were often authored as [[prose poetry]],<ref name="enotestt"/> and, according to Cardinal, were characterized by "rumbustious tomfoolery and astringent wit", which reflected "the language of a sophisticated savage".<ref name="rcard530"/> Huelsenbeck credited Tzara with having discovered in them the format for "compress[ing] what we think and feel",<ref>Richter, p.103</ref> and, according to Hans Richter, the genre "suited Tzara perfectly."<ref name="hrich33"/> Despite its production of seemingly theoretical works, Richter indicates, Dada lacked any form of program, and Tzara tried to perpetuate this state of affairs.<ref>Richter, p.33-35</ref> His Dada manifesto of 1918 stated: "Dada means nothing", adding "Thought is produced in the mouth."<ref>Londré, p.396, 397; Richter, p.35</ref> Tzara indicated: "I am against systems; the most acceptable system is on principle to have none."<ref name="jycmelusine"/> In addition, Tzara, who once stated that "[[logic]] is always false",<ref name="ipuranus">{{in lang|ro}} [[Ion Pop (literary historian)|Ion Pop]], [http://www.revistatribuna.ro/arhiva/tribuna96.pdf "Un urmuzian: Ionathan X. Uranus"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327074348/http://www.revistatribuna.ro/arhiva/tribuna96.pdf |date=27 March 2009 }}, in ''[[Tribuna (Romania)|Tribuna]]'', Vol. V, Nr. 96, September 2006</ref> probably approved of Serner's vision of a "final dissolution".<ref>Richter, p.48, 49</ref> According to Philip Beitchman, a core concept in Tzara's thought was that "as long as we do things the way we think we once did them we will be unable to achieve any kind of livable society."<ref name="pbeit29"/>

Despite adopting such [[anti-art]]istic principles, Richter argues, Tzara, like many of his fellow Dadaists, did not initially discard the mission of "furthening the cause of art."<ref name="Richter, p.54">Richter, p.54</ref> He saw this evident in ''La Revue Dada 2'', a poem "as exquisite as freshly-picked flowers", which included the lyrics:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|fr|Cinq négresses dans une auto
ont explosé suivant les 5 directions de mes doigts
quand je pose la main sur la poitrine pour prier Dieu (parfois)
autour de ma tête il y a la lumière humide des vieux oiseaux lunaires}}<ref name="Richter, p.54"/>
|
Five Negro women in a car
exploded following the 5 directions of my fingers
when I pose my hand on my chest to pray God (sometimes)
around my head there is the humid light of old lunar birds}}

[[File:Guillaume Apollinaire Calligramme.JPG|thumb|190px|One of [[Guillaume Apollinaire]]'s [[calligram]]s, shaped like the [[Eiffel Tower]]]]
''La Revue Dada 2'', which also includes the [[Onomatopoeia|onomatopoeic]] line ''tralalalalalalalalalalala'', is one example where Tzara applies his principles of chance to sounds themselves.<ref name="Richter, p.54"/> This sort of arrangement, treasured by many Dadaists, was probably connected with Apollinaire's [[calligram]]s, and with his announcement that "Man is in search of a new language."<ref name="mlsconcr">Mary Lewis Shaw, "Concrete and Abstract Poetry: The World as Text and the Text as World", in Leonard M. Trawick (ed.), ''World, Self, Poem: Essays on Contemporary Poetry from the "Jubliation of Poets"'', [[Kent State University Press]], Kent, 1990, p.169. {{ISBN|0-87338-419-9}}</ref> Călinescu proposed that Tzara willingly limited the impact of chance: taking as his example a short [[parody]] piece which depicts the love affair between cyclist and a Dadaist, which ends with their decapitation by a jealous husband, the critic notes that Tzara transparently intended to "shock the [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]]".<ref name="gcal887"/> Late in his career, Huelsenbeck alleged that Tzara never actually applied the experimental methods he had devised.<ref name="hrich123"/>

The Dada series makes ample use of contrast, [[Ellipse (figure of speech)|ellipses]], ridiculous imagery and nonsensical verdicts.<ref name="enotestt"/> Tzara was aware that the public could find it difficult to follow his intentions, and, in a piece titled ''Le géant blanc lépreux du paysage'' ("The White Leprous Giant in the Landscape") even alluded to the "skinny, idiotic, dirty" reader who "does not understand my poetry."<ref name="enotestt"/> He called some of his own poems ''lampisteries'', from a French word designating storage areas for light fixtures.<ref>Cardinal, p.530; Hofman, p.7</ref> The [[Lettrism|Lettrist]] poet [[Isidore Isou]] included such pieces in a succession of experiments inaugurated by [[Charles Baudelaire]] with the "destruction of the anecdote for the form of the poem", a process which, with Tzara, became "destruction of the word for nothing".<ref name="dwslettr">David W. Seaman, "French Lettrisme—Discontinuity and the Nature of the Avant-Garde", in Freeman G. Henry (ed.), ''Discontinuity and Fragmentation'', [[Rodopi Publishers|Rodopi]], Amsterdam, 1994, p.163. {{ISBN|90-5183-634-1}}</ref> According to American literary historian [[Mary Ann Caws]], Tzara's poems may be seen as having an "internal order", and read as "a simple spectacle, as creation complete in itself and completely obvious."<ref name="enotestt"/>

===Plays of the 1920s===
Tristan Tzara's first play, ''[[The Gas Heart]]'', dates from the final period of Paris Dada. Created with what Enoch Brater calls a "peculiar verbal strategy", it is a dialogue between characters called Ear, Mouth, Eye, Nose, Neck, and Eyebrow.<ref name="ebra25">Brater, p.25</ref> They seem unwilling to actually communicate to each other and their reliance on proverbs and idiotisms willingly creates confusion between metaphorical and literal speech.<ref name="ebra25"/> The play ends with a dance performance that recalls similar devices used by the proto-Dadaist [[Alfred Jarry]]. The text culminates in a series of doodles and illegible words.<ref name="ebra26">Brater, p.26</ref> Brater describes ''The Gas Heart'' as a "parod[y] of theatrical conventions".<ref name="ebra26"/>

In his 1924 play ''[[Handkerchief of Clouds]]'', Tzara explores the relation between perception, the [[subconscious]] and memory. Largely through exchanges between commentators who act as third parties, the text presents the tribulations of a [[love triangle]] (a poet, a bored woman, and her banker husband, whose character traits borrow the clichés of conventional drama), and in part reproduces settings and lines from ''[[Hamlet]]''.<ref>Beitchman, p.31-32</ref> Tzara mocks classical theater, which demands from characters to be inspiring, believable, and to function as a whole: ''Handkerchief of Clouds'' requires actors in the role of commentators to address each other by their real names,<ref>Beitchman, p.32-34; Cernat, p.279</ref> and their lines include dismissive comments on the play itself, while the [[protagonist]], who in the end dies, is not assigned any name.<ref>Beitchman, p.32-34</ref> Writing for ''Integral'', Tzara defined his play as a note on "the relativity of things, sentiments and events."<ref>Cernat, p.279</ref> Among the conventions ridiculed by the dramatist, Philip Beitchman notes, is that of a "privileged position for art": in what Beitchman sees as a comment on [[Marxism]], poet and banker are interchangeable [[Capitalism|capitalists]] who invest in different fields.<ref>Beitchman, p.34-35</ref> Writing in 1925, Fondane rendered a pronouncement by [[Jean Cocteau]], who, while commenting that Tzara was one of his "most beloved" writers and a "great poet", argued: "''Handkerchief of Clouds'' was poetry, and great poetry for that matter—but not theater."<ref>Răileanu & Carassou, p.34</ref> The work was nonetheless praised by [[Ion Călugăru]] at ''Integral'', who saw in it one example that modernist performance could rely not just on props, but also on a solid text.<ref name="pcern277"/>

===''The Approximate Man'' and later works===
After 1929, with the adoption of Surrealism, Tzara's literary works discard much of their satirical purpose, and begin to explore universal themes relating to the [[human condition]].<ref name="enotestt"/> According to Cardinal, the period also signified the definitive move from "a studied inconsequentiality" and "unreadable gibberish" to "a seductive and fertile surrealist idiom."<ref name="rcard530"/> The critic also remarks: "Tzara arrived at a mature style of transparent simplicity, in which disparate entities could be held together in a unifying vision."<ref name="rcard530"/> In a 1930 essay, Fondane had given a similar verdict: arguing that Tzara had infused his work with "suffering", had discovered humanity, and had become a "[[Clairvoyance|clairvoyant]]" among poets.<ref>Răileanu & Carassou, p.65</ref>

This period in Tzara's creative activity centers on ''[[The Approximate Man]]'', an [[Epic poetry|epic poem]] which is reportedly recognized as his most accomplished contribution to [[French literature]].<ref name="rcard530"/><ref name="enotestt"/> While maintaining some of Tzara's preoccupation with language experimentation, it is mainly a study in [[social alienation]] and the search for an escape.<ref name="enotestt"/><ref>Beitchman, p.37-42</ref> Cardinal calls the piece "an extended meditation on mental and elemental impulses [...] with images of stunning beauty",<ref name="rcard530"/> while Breitchman, who notes Tzara's rebellion against the "excess baggage of [man's] past and the notions [...] with which he has hitherto tried to control his life", remarks his portrayal of poets as voices who can prevent human beings from destroying themselves with their own intellects.<ref>Beitchman, p.37-38</ref> The goal is a new man who lets intuition and spontaneity guide him through life, and who rejects measure.<ref>Beitchman, p.40-45</ref> One of the appeals in the text reads:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|fr|je parle de qui parle qui parle je suis seul
je ne suis qu'un petit bruit j'ai plusieurs bruits en moi
un bruit glacé froissé au carrefour jeté sur le trottoir humide
aux pieds des hommes pressés courant avec leurs morts
autour de la mort qui étend ses bras
sur le cadran de l'heure seule vivante au soleil.}}<ref name="jycmelusine"/>
|
I speak of the one who speaks who speaks I am alone
I am but a small noise I have several noises in me
a ruffled noise frozen with the crossroads thrown on the wet pavement
with the feet of the men in a hurry running with their dead
around death which extends its arms
on the dial of the hour only alive in the sun}}

The next stage in Tzara's career saw a merger of his literary and political views. His poems of the period blend a [[Humanism|humanist]] vision with [[Communism|communist]] theses.<ref name="enotestt"/><ref name="pbeit49"/> The 1935 ''Grains et issues'', described by Beitchman as "fascinating",<ref>Beitchman, p.45</ref> was a prose poem of [[social criticism]] connected with ''The Approximate Man'', expanding on the vision of a possible society, in which haste has been abandoned in favor of [[oblivion (eternal)|oblivion]]. The world imagined by Tzara abandons symbols of the past, from literature to public transportation and currency, while, like psychologists [[Sigmund Freud]] and [[Wilhelm Reich]], the poet depicts violence as a natural means of human expression.<ref>Beitchman, p.46-50</ref> People of the future live in a state which combines waking life and the realm of dreams, and life itself turns into revery.<ref>Beitchman, p.48</ref> ''Grains et issues'' was accompanied by ''Personage d'insomnie'' ("Personage of Insomnia"), which went unpublished.<ref>Beitchman, p.51</ref>

Cardinal notes: "In retrospect, harmony and contact had been Tzara's goals all along."<ref name="rcard530"/> The post-[[World War II]] volumes in the series focus on political subjects related to the conflict.<ref name="enotestt"/> In his last writings, Tzara toned down experimentation, exercising more control over the lyrical aspects.<ref name="enotestt"/> He was by then undertaking a [[Hermeneutics|hermeutic]] research into the work of [[Goliard]]s and [[François Villon]], whom he deeply admired.<ref name="spbuot"/><ref name="mrnnradi"/>

==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]]''<!-- sic --> magazine, written by [[Sașa Pană]] and [[Moldov]], cited as its mentors Tzara, writers Breton, Ribemont-Dessaignes, Vinea, [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]], and [[Tudor Arghezi]], as well as artists [[Constantin Brâncuși]] and [[Theo van Doesburg]].<ref>Călinescu, p.889</ref> One of the Romanian writers to claim inspiration from Tzara was [[Jacques G. Costin]], who nevertheless offered an equally good reception to both Dadaism and [[Futurism]],<ref>Cernat, p.174, 193, 409</ref> while [[Ilarie Voronca]]'s ''Zodiac'' cycle, first published in France, is traditionally seen as indebted to ''The Approximate Man''.<ref>Cernat, p.328</ref> The [[Kabbalah|Kabbalist]] and Surrealist author [[Mihail (Marcel) Avramescu|Marcel Avramescu]], who wrote during the 1930s, also appears to have been directly inspired by Tzara's views on art.<ref name="ipuranus"/> Other authors from that generation to have been inspired by Tzara were [[Poland|Polish]] Futurist writer [[Bruno Jasieński]],<ref>Nina Kolesnikoff, ''Bruno Jasieński: His Evolution from Futurism to Socialist Realism'', [[Wilfrid Laurier University Press]], Waterloo, 1982, p.15. {{ISBN|0-88920-110-2}}</ref> [[Japan]]ese poet and [[Zen]] thinker [[Takahashi Shinkichi]],<ref>[[Makoto Ueda (poetry critic)|Makoto Ueda]], ''Modern Japanese Poets and the Nature of Literature'', [[Stanford University Press]], Palo Alto, 1983, p.335-336. {{ISBN|0-8047-1166-6}}</ref> and [[Chile]]an poet and Dadaist sympathizer [[Vicente Huidobro]], who cited him as a precursor for his own ''[[Creacionismo]]''.<ref>{{in lang|es}} [[Vicente Huidobro]], [http://www.vicentehuidobro.uchile.cl/manifiesto1.htm ''El Creacionismo''], at the [[University of Chile]] [http://www.vicentehuidobro.uchile.cl/ Vicente Huidobro site]; retrieved 4 May 2008</ref>

An immediate precursor of [[Theater of the Absurd|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]]''.<ref>Rosette C. Lamont, ''Ionesco's Imperatives: The Politics of Culture'', [[University of Michigan Press]], Ann Arbor, 1993, p.4. {{ISBN|0-472-10310-5}}</ref> Tzara's poetry influenced [[Samuel Beckett]] (who translated some of it into English);<ref name="dbgodot"/> the Irish author's 1972 play ''[[Not I]]'' shares some elements with ''[[The Gas Heart]]''.<ref>Brater, p.25-26</ref> In the United States, the Romanian author is cited as an influence on [[Beat Generation]] members. Beat writer [[Allen Ginsberg]], who made his acquaintance in Paris, cites him among the Europeans who influenced him and [[William S. Burroughs]].<ref>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|0-19-512324-7}}</ref> The latter also mentioned Tzara's use of chance in writing poetry as an early example of what became the [[cut-up technique]], adopted by [[Brion Gysin]] and Burroughs himself.<ref name="rlword"/> 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".<ref name="nzgysin"/>

Among the late 20th-century writers who acknowledged Tzara as an inspiration are [[Jerome Rothenberg]],<ref name="camroth">Christine A. Meilick, ''Jerome Rothenberg's Experimental Poetry and Jewish Tradition'', [[Lehigh University Press]], Bethlehem, 2005, p.46-47, 85sqq. {{ISBN|0-934223-76-9}}</ref> [[Isidore Isou]] and [[Andrei Codrescu]]. The former [[Situationist International|Situationist]] Isou, whose experiments with sounds and poetry come in succession to Apollinaire and Dada,<ref name="mlsconcr"/> declared his [[Lettrism]] to be the last connection in the [[Charles Baudelaire]]-Tzara cycle, with the goal of arranging "a nothing [...] for the creation of the anecdote."<ref name="dwslettr"/> For a short period, Codrescu even adopted the pen name ''Tristan Tzara''.<ref name="amcodrescu"/><ref>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}}</ref> He recalled the impact of having discovered Tzara's work in his youth, and credited him with being "the most important French poet after Rimbaud."<ref name="amcodrescu"/>

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.<ref>Beitchman, p.44; Londré, p.397</ref> Some also credit Tzara with having provided an ideological source for the development of [[rock music]], including [[punk rock]], [[punk subculture]] and [[post-punk]].<ref name="amcodrescu"/><ref>Beitchman, p.36; Thomas McLaughlin, ''Street Smarts and Critical Theory: Listening to the Vernacular'', [[University of Wisconsin Press]], Madison, 1997, p.67. {{ISBN|0-299-15170-0}}</ref> Tristan Tzara has inspired the songwriting technique of [[Radiohead]],<ref>Joseph Tate, ''The Music and Art of Radiohead'', [[Ashgate Publishing]], London etc., 2005, p.195. {{ISBN|0-7546-3980-0}}</ref> and is one of the avant-garde authors whose voices were mixed by [[DJ Spooky]] on his [[trip hop]] album ''Rhythm Science''.<ref>Colin Buttimer, [https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/jx8c/ "DJ Spooky. ''Rhythm Science''. Review"], 20 November 2002, at [[BBC]] [https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/ /Music]; retrieved 23 April 2008</ref> Romanian [[contemporary classical music]]ian [[Cornel Țăranu]] set to music five of Tzara's poems, all of which date from the post-Dada period.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} 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 Țăranu (II): 'M-au inspirat atât Tzara, cât și armatele romane din secolul al II-lea...' "] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512083911/http://www.zf.ro/articol_99716/cornel_taranu__ii___m_au_inspirat_atat_tzara__cat_si_armatele_romane_din_secolul_al_ii_lea___.html |date=12 May 2008 }}, in ''[[Ziarul Financiar]]'', 27 October 2006</ref> Țăranu, [[Anatol Vieru]] and ten other composers contributed to the album ''La Clé de l'horizon'', inspired by Tzara's work.<ref name="ocprofesor"/>

===Tributes and portrayals===
[[File:Tzara by Tihanyi.jpg|thumb|210px|1927 portrait by [[Lajos Tihanyi]]]]
In France, Tzara's work was collected as ''Oeuvres complètes'' ("Complete Works"), of which the first volume saw print in 1975,<ref name="rcard530"/> 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 [[Moinești]] since 1998.<ref name="ocprofesor">{{in lang|ro}} Oltița Cîntec, [http://www.evenimentul.ro/articol/un-profesor-inimos-din.html "Un profesor inimos din Moinești și o societate cultural-literară atrag atenția întregii lumii asupra României"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927213452/http://www.evenimentul.ro/articol/un-profesor-inimos-din.html |date=27 September 2007 }}, in ''[[Evenimentul]]'', 10 March 2003</ref><ref>{{in lang|ro}} Oana Tănase, [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/Pic-Adrian-artist-esentialist*articleID_9309-articles_details.html "Pic Adrian: artist esențialist"], in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 189, October 2003</ref>

According to Paul Cernat, ''Aliluia'', one of the few avant-garde texts authored by Ion Vinea features a "transparent allusion" to Tristan Tzara.<ref>Cernat, p.181</ref> Vinea's fragment speaks of "the [[Wandering Jew]]", a character whom people notice because he sings ''La moară la Hârța'', "a suspicious song from [[Greater Romania]]."<ref>Cernat, p.181-182</ref> The poet is a character in [[India]]n novelist [[Mulk Raj Anand]]'s ''Thieves of Fire'', part four of his ''The Bubble'' (1984),<ref>Suresh Chandra, ''Fresh Perspectives on Fiction'', Anmol Publications, New Delhi, 2005, p.78. {{ISBN|81-261-2126-2}}</ref> as well as in ''The Prince of West End Avenue'', a 1994 book by the American [[Alan Isler]].<ref>[[Bette Pesetsky]], "Shakespeare Meets Emma Lazarus", in ''[[The New York Times]]'', 29 May 1994</ref> Rothenberg dedicated several of his poems to Tzara,<ref name="camroth"/> as did the [[Neo-Dada]]ist [[Valery Oișteanu]].<ref>{{in lang|ro}} [[Valery Oișteanu]], [http://www.respiro.org/Issue10/poezie_oisteanu.htm "Poeme din exil"] in [http://www.respiro.org/ ''Respiro''], Issue 10/2002</ref> 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 by [[Malcolm Cowley]] in his autobiographical book of 1934, ''Exile's Return'',<ref>"Lost Generation", in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 4 June 1934</ref> and he is also mentioned in [[Harold Loeb]]'s memoir ''The Way It Was''.<ref>"The Sun Also Rises (Contd.)", in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 22 June 1959</ref> Among his biographers is the French author François Buot, who records some of the lesser-known aspects of Tzara's life.<ref name="spbuot"/>

At some point between 1915 and 1917, Tzara is believed to have played chess in a coffeehouse that was also frequented by [[Bolshevik]] leader [[Vladimir Lenin]].<ref>[[J. Hoberman]], ''The Red Atlantis: Communist Culture in the Absence of Communism'', [[Temple University Press]], Philadelphia, p.100. {{ISBN|1-56639-767-7}}; Olson, p.43</ref> While Richter himself recorded the incidental proximity of Lenin's lodging to the Dadaist milieu,<ref name="hrich16"/> no record exists of an actual conversation between the two figures.<ref name="kols43">Olson, p.43</ref><ref name="jstsbh">Jenna Scherer, [http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/view.bg?articleid=1087112 "''Travesties'' Shows Importance of Being Stoppard"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522015710/http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/arts_culture/view.bg?articleid=1087112 |date=22 May 2011 }}, in ''[[Boston Herald]]'', 15 April 2008</ref> 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."<ref name="kols43"/> This meeting is mentioned as a fact in ''Harlequin at the Chessboard'', a poem by Tzara's acquaintance [[Kurt Schwitters]].<ref>[http://capa.conncoll.edu/morton.merzbook.html ''The Merzbook: Kurt Schwitters Poems''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013003812/http://capa.conncoll.edu/morton.merzbook.html |date=13 October 2018 }}, translated by [[Colin Morton]], at the [http://capa.conncoll.edu/ Contemporary American Poetry Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719175510/http://capa.conncoll.edu/ |date=19 July 2011 }}; retrieved 23 April 2008</ref> German playwright and novelist [[Peter Weiss]], who has introduced Tzara as a character in his 1969 play about [[Leon Trotsky]] (''Trotzki im Exil''), recreated the scene in his 1975–1981 cycle ''[[The Aesthetics of Resistance]]''.<ref>[[Robert Cohen (playwright)|Robert Cohen]], ''Understanding Peter Weiss'', [[University of South Carolina Press]], Columbia, 1993, p.130. {{ISBN|0-87249-898-0}}</ref> The imagined episode also inspired much of [[Tom Stoppard]]'s 1974 play ''[[Travesties]]'', which also depicts conversations between Tzara, Lenin, and the Irish modernist author [[James Joyce]] (who is also known to have resided in Zürich after 1915).<ref name="jstsbh"/><ref name="mcovusu">[[Michael Coveney]], "Usurpation Supreme", in ''[[The Observer]]'', 19 March 1993</ref><ref name="cilenin">Charles Isherwood, "Lenin, Joyce and Philosophy with Vaudevillian Verve", in ''[[The New York Times]]'', 27 May 2005</ref> His role was notably played by [[David Westhead]] in the 1993 British production,<ref name="mcovusu"/> and by [[Tom Hewitt (actor)|Tom Hewitt]] in the 2005 American version.<ref name="cilenin"/>

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),<ref name="spbuot"/> while, in one of [[Man Ray]]'s photographs, he is shown kneeling to kiss the hand of an [[androgynous]] [[Nancy Cunard]].<ref>Maureen Moynagh, introduction to [[Nancy Cunard]], ''Essays on Race and Empire'', Broadview Press, Peterborough & Orchard Park, p.24. {{ISBN|1-55111-230-2}}</ref> Years before their split, [[Francis Picabia]] used Tzara's [[Calligraphy|calligraphed]] name in ''Moléculaire'' ("Molecular"), a composition printed on the cover of ''[[391 (magazine)|391]]''.<ref>Richter, p.73</ref> The same artist also completed his schematic portrait, which showed a series of circles connected by two perpendicular arrows.<ref>Richter, p.76</ref> In 1949, [[Switzerland|Swiss]] artist [[Alberto Giacometti]] made Tzara the subject of one of his first experiments with [[lithography]].<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.bnf.fr/PAGES/presse/dossiers/giacometti.pdf ''Dossier de presse. Exposition 19 octobre 2007 – 13 janvier 2008. Alberto Giacometti, œuvre gravé''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528181729/http://www.bnf.fr/PAGES/presse/dossiers/giacometti.pdf |date=28 May 2008 }}, [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]], [http://www.bnf.fr/PAGES/presse/ Rélations presse] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090624171010/http://www.bnf.fr/pages/presse/ |date=24 June 2009 }}, p.2, 4, 7, 10; retrieved 2 May 2008</ref> Portraits of Tzara were also made by [[Greta Knutson]],<ref>[[Sotheby's]] ''Catalogues of Sales'', 1985 Nov 29 – 18 Dec, item 131</ref> [[Robert Delaunay]],<ref>Florence Callu, ''Sonia et Robert Delaunay: exposition'', [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]], Paris, 1977, p.16, 91. {{ISBN|2-7177-1388-3}}</ref> and the [[Cubism|Cubist]] painters [[M. H. Maxy]]<ref>Grigorescu, p.442-443</ref> and [[Lajos Tihanyi]]. As an homage to Tzara the performer, [[art rock]]er [[David Bowie]] adopted his accessories and mannerisms during a number of public appearances.<ref>Ingrid Sischy, "The Artist Who Fell to Earth" (interview with David Bowie), in ''[[Interview (magazine)|Interview]]'', 2 January 1997</ref> 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 Moinești.<ref name="ocprofesor"/>

Several of Tzara's Dadaist editions had illustrations by Picabia, Janco and [[Hans Arp]].<ref name="imjbokks"/> In its 1925 edition, ''Handkerchief of Clouds'' featured etchings by [[Juan 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]],<ref>Jacques Lassaigne, ''Miró: Biographical and Critical Study'', SKIRA, New York, 1963, p.128</ref> [[Henri Matisse]], [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Nejad Devrim]]<ref name="imjbokks"/> and [[Sonia Delaunay]].<ref>[http://www.kb.nl/bc/koopman/1951-1960/c06-en.html ''Le fruit permis''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901224641/http://www.kb.nl/bc/koopman/1951-1960/c06-en.html |date= 1 September 2006 }}, at the [[Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands|National Library of the Netherlands]]'s [http://www.kb.nl/bc/koopman/ Koopman Collectie] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608071921/http://www.kb.nl/bc/koopman/ |date= 8 June 2011 }}; retrieved 26 April 2008</ref> Tzara was the subject of a 1949 eponymous [[documentary film]] directed by Danish filmmaker [[Jørgen Roos]], and footage of him featured prominently in the 1953 production ''Les statues meurent aussi'' ("Statues Also Die"), jointly directed by [[Chris Marker]] and [[Alain Resnais]].<ref name="ttzimdb"/>

===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 jealousies".<ref name="hrich32"/> In Romania, similar debates often involved the supposed founding role of [[Urmuz]], who wrote his avant-garde texts before [[World 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 in [[Gârceni]] 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.<ref>Cernat, p.121-122, 128–129, 177, 212, 343, 346, 359, 409</ref> In 1931 the young, modernist literary critic [[Lucian Boz]] evidenced that he partly shared Vinea's perspective on the matter, crediting Tzara and [[Constantin Brâncuși]] with having, each on his own, invented the avant-garde.<ref>Cernat, p.331</ref> [[Eugène Ionesco]] argued that "before Dadaism there was Urmuzianism", and, after [[World War II]], sought to popularize Urmuz's work among aficionados of Dada.<ref>Cernat, p.367</ref> 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).<ref>Cernat, p.110, 367–368</ref>

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 during [[World War I]], and of being a "[[Lumpenproletariat|Lumpenproletarian]]".<ref name="pcern113">Cernat, p.113</ref> 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 [[Balkans|Balkan]] provider of interlope [[odalisque]]s, [together] with narcotics and a sort of scandalous literature."<ref name="pcern113"/> Himself an adherent to communism, Pandrea grew disillusioned with the ideology, and later became a [[political prisoner]] in [[Communist Romania]]. Vinea's own grudge probably shows up in his 1964 novel ''Lunatecii'', where Tzara is identifiable as "Dr. Barbu", a thick-hided charlatan.<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Sanda Cordoș, [http://www.observatorcultural.ro/Lunatecii-un-mare-roman-de-redescoperit*articleID_28954-articles_details.html "''Lunatecii'' – un mare roman de redescoperit"], in ''[[Observator Cultural]]'', Nr. 683, July 2013</ref>

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 and [[National communism|national communist]] 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, Urmuz, Ionesco and Isou as representatives of "Romanian initiatives" and "road openers at a universal level."<ref>Cernat, p.359</ref> 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.<ref>Cernat, p.129</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==References==
*Alice Armstrong, "Stein, Gertrude" and Roger Cardinal, "Tzara, Tristan", in [[Justin Wintle]] (ed.), ''Makers of Modern Culture'', [[Routledge]], London, 2002. {{ISBN|0-415-26583-5}}
*Philip Beitchman, "Symbolism in the Streets", in ''I Am a Process with No Subject'', [[University Press of Florida|University of Florida Press]], Gainesville, 1988. {{ISBN|0-8130-0888-3}}
*Enoch Brater, ''Beyond Minimalism: Beckett's Late Style in the Theater'', [[Oxford University Press]], Oxford, 1987. {{ISBN|0-19-506655-3}}
*[[Paul Cernat]], ''Avangarda românească și 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|0-226-28735-1}}
*Saime Göksu, Edward Timms, ''Romantic Communist: The Life and Work of Nazım Hikmet'', [[C. Hurst & Co.]], London, 1999. {{ISBN|1-85065-371-2}}
*[[Dan Grigorescu]], ''Istoria unei generații pierdute: expresioniștii'', [[Editura Eminescu]], Bucharest, 1980. {{OCLC|7463753}}
*Marius Hentea, ''TaTa Dada: The Real Life and Celestial Adventures of Tristan Tzara'', MIT Press, Cambridge, 2014. {{OCLC|1090828679}}
*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]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20090815044817/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 (eds.), ''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|0-8264-1167-3}}
*Kirby Olson, ''Andrei Codrescu and the Myth of America'', [[McFarland & Company]], Jefferson, 2005. {{ISBN|0-7864-2137-1}}
*[[Petre Răileanu]], [[Michel Carassou]], ''Fundoianu/Fondane et l'avant-garde'', [[Editura Fundației Culturale Române|Fondation Culturelle Roumaine]], Éditions Paris-Méditerranée, Bucharest & Paris, 1999. {{ISBN|2-84272-057-1}}
*[[Hans Richter (artist)|Hans Richter]], ''Dada. Art and Anti-art'' (with a postscript by Werner Haftmann), [[Thames & Hudson]], London & New York, 2004. {{ISBN|0-500-20039-4}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
*{{gutenberg author|id=48499}}
*[http://exhibitions.europeana.eu/exhibits/show/dada-to-surrealism-en ''From Dada to Surrealism'', Judaica Europeana virtual exhibition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130125193300/http://exhibitions.europeana.eu/exhibits/show/dada-to-surrealism-en |date=25 January 2013 }}, [[Europeana]] database
*[http://www.lilithgallery.com/arthistory/dada/Tristan-Tzara.html Tristan Tzara: The Art History Archive] at ''The Lilith Gallery of Toronto''
*[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], at [[UbuWeb]]

{{Tristan Tzara}}
{{Surrealists}}
{{Dada}}
{{Authority control}}

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