Willard Bohn's collection of Dada poetry is the most comprehensive ever compiled. Forty-two poets writing in seven different languages (French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and Dutch) are presented in a bilingual format, where appropriate, with the original text and its English translation on facing pages. The collection, which opens with a critical and historical introduction, spans the years from 1914 to 1923 and includes such poets as Walter Conrad Arensberg, André Breton, Malcolm Cowley, Max Ernst, Mina Loy, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Kurt Schwitters, and Tristan Tzara. Twelve works by ten Dada visual artists (six of whom are also represented by their poetry) illustrate the book.Dada's overriding concern was liberty--social, moral, artistic, and intellectual. While rebelling against bourgeois values and all forms of authority, the Dadaists venerated scandalous behavior, spontaneity, and a general joie de vivre. Their adherents questioned the basic postulates of rationalism and humanism as few had done before. In trying to strip artistic expression down to its bare essentials, these writers often created works that were experiments in sound or typography.
Format: Paperback / softback
CONTRIBUTORS: Willard Bohn
EAN: 9780809318193
COUNTRY: United States
PAGES: 256
WEIGHT:
HEIGHT: 222 mm
PUBLISHED BY: Southern Illinois University Press
DATE PUBLISHED: 1993-05-01
CITY:
GENRE: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Readers, POETRY / Anthologies (multiple authors)
WIDTH: 140 mm
SPINE:
Book Themes:
Language readers, Poetry anthologies (various poets)
Willard Bohn is a professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at Illinois State University.