Editing Tristan Tzara (section)

===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>