Zygopoulou, Maria Nefeli; (2017) Identity, Language, Militancy: the question of origins in the poetry and prose of Tristan Tzara and Mário de Andrade. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis offers a comparison between specific works by Tristan Tzara and Mário de Andrade in order to synthetize their contribution to oral language traditions and to the body of criticism on Modernism. The Romanian Jewish poet and writer Tristan Tzara, later a naturalized French citizen, became a central figure in the European avant-garde from 1916 when he took part in the Dada Movement. Mário de Andrade, the Brazilian poet, writer and musicologist of mixed origins was a contemporary of Tristan Tzara, and a similarly central figure in the 1922 São Paulo Modern Art Week that defined Brazilian Modernism. Although the authors never met and emerged from very distinct foundations, they followed a parallel creative path. Both researched oral language traditions and adapted ethnopoetics to their work, and in their prose both were inspired by folk elements. Concurrently, prompted by the historical and sociopolitical events of the late 1930s, they went on to develop militant poetics. By comparing chronologically compatible case studies of individual works, I show that their respective cultural backgrounds along with their respective cultural understanding led them to employ oral language narratives in their own work as well as to an active criticism of cultural imperialism.

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