ABSTRACT
Dada was a literary and artistic movement, international in scope and nihilist in character, which lasted from 1915 until 1922. While considering that to define Dada was ‘un-Dadaistic’ they constantly attempted to do so, in the process revealing a characteristic predilection for paradox and contradiction. Thus Tristan Tzara could announce that there should be ‘No More Manifestoes’ while devoting considerable time and energy to compiling a large number of them. The manifesto seemed to answer the public need for direct, polemical statement. Perversely, it served merely to further the Dadaists’ aim of taunting the bourgeoisie. For while the public looked for a plain statement of intent, the bare bones of the latest artistic movement they were caught in a web of words whose primary purpose was to demonstrate the redundancy of language. The early Dada manifestoes, in which nonsense was mixed with earnestness, seemed to justify this negative attitude.
