Tzara - Minji Kim

Dada is one of the most famous and influential literary and artistic movements that began to appear and spread as a reaction to World War I. Dadaists, who believed such cruel war and miserable carnages were initiated by the bourgeois class, authoritarianistic government, and nationalistic mind, began to oppose these powers by rejecting logic and irrationality, and performing a new form of avant-grade art. Throughout his literary work, seven manifestoes, Tzara utilizes contradiction and paradoxes in order to deliver his views about what Dadaism should be and fills his pieces with nonsense.

The very first paradox I found was the title itself. The title is “Seven” Dada manifestoes; however, there are only five different kinds of manifestoes throughout the piece. By entitling his five manifestoes as seven manifestoes, he is going against the logical world, where people should follow the patterns and certain orders, such as numbering from the smallest number and putting documents or charts in alphabetical orders. Another sentence that I thought was paradoxical was in the beginning of Dada Manifesto 1918. In this section, Tzara tells readers that he “write[s] a manifesto and [he] want[s] nothing” (pg. 76). However, before Tzara says he does not want anything from his manifesto, he argues that in order for people “to put out a manifesto you must want: ABC/ to fulminate against 1,2,3” (pg. 76). In this sentence Tzara symbolically represents society’s traditional systems and rules as 1,2, and 3, and he refers to Dadaistic new way of looking at the world as A, B, and C. His referring to Dadaist’s unique way of pursing life as A, B, and C is paradoxical and certainly contradicts what he has claimed, since he follows the alphabetical rule to describe Dadaistic life. Tzara could have referred to Dadaistic avant-grade way of looking at their world using other languages or signs that are not following alphabetical order and logic, or he could have “want[ed] nothing.”

Tzara also contradicts himself about notion of logic through the second manifesto, Dada Manifesto 1918, and the last manifesto, manifesto on feeble love and bitter love. In the second manifesto, Tzara remarks that “[l]ogic is a complication. Logic is always wrong” (pg. 80).  However, in the last manifesto, he points out that a manifesto is “a communication addressed to the whole world […] It can be gentle, good-natured, it is always right, it is strong, vigorous and logical (pg. 86). If a logical manifesto is always right, strong and vigorous, then why is the logic itself in complication and always wrong? Tzara makes contradiction about logic using manifesto as a tool here.

Throughout his work, he reveals his principle or opinion and contradicts them. For example, Tzara “write[s] a manifesto” but he contradicts what he pointed out by telling the readers that he is against the manifestoes (pg. 76). Tzara’s Seven dada manifestoes is very complicating, and it is hard to find the main theme and his purpose of writing these manifestoes. Although it seems as though manifestoes are connected to each other, they are actually not.  However, his usage of contradiction and paradoxes makes his work very avant-grade and nonsensical.