Editing Tristan Tzara (section)

===Paris Dada===
[[File:Jane Heap, John Rodker, Martha Dennison, Tristan Tzara, Margaret Anderson, ca. 1920s.jpg|thumb|330px|Tzara (second from right) in the 1920s, with [[Margaret C. Anderson]], [[Jane Heap]], and [[John Rodker]]]]
[[File:Tristan Tzara lisant L'Action Française.jpg|thumb|280px|Tzara reading [[L'Action française (quotidien)|L'Action Française]], French nationalist newspaper in the 1920s, [[archives Charmet]].]]
In late 1919, Tristan Tzara left Switzerland to join Breton, Soupault and [[Claude Rivière]] in editing the Paris-based magazine ''[[Littérature]]''.<ref name="mrdada"/><ref>Cardinal, pp. 529-530; Hofman, pp. 12-14; Richter, pp. 167, 173.</ref> Already a mentor for the French avant-garde, he was, according to Hans Richter, perceived as an "Anti-[[Messiah]]" and a "prophet".<ref name="hrich168">Richter, pg. 168</ref> Reportedly, Dada mythology had it that he entered the French capital in a snow-white or lilac-colored car, passing down [[Boulevard Raspail]] through a [[triumphal arch]] made from his own pamphlets, being greeted by cheering crowds and a fireworks display.<ref name="hrich168"/> Richter dismisses this account, indicating that Tzara actually walked from [[Gare de l'Est]] to Picabia's home, without anyone expecting him to arrive.<ref name="hrich168"/>

He is often described as the main figure in the ''Littérature'' circle, and credited with having more firmly set its artistic principles in the line of Dada.<ref name="mrdada"/><ref>Hofman, pg. 13; Richter, pg. 167</ref> When Picabia began publishing a new series of ''391'' in Paris, Tzara seconded him and, Richter says, produced issues of the magazine "decked out [...] in all the colors of Dada."<ref name="hrich167"/> He was also issuing his ''Dada'' magazine, printed in Paris but using the same format, renaming it ''Bulletin Dada'' and later ''Dadaphone''.<ref>Hofman, pp. 13-14; Richter, pp. 173, 179–180.</ref> At around that time, he met American author [[Gertrude Stein]], who wrote about him in ''[[The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas]]'',<ref>"''Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas''", in ''The Cambridge Handbook of American Literature'', [[Cambridge University Press]], Cambridge, 1986 pg. 13; {{ISBN|0-521-30703-1}}<br>Armstrong, pg. 496.</ref> and the artist couple [[Robert Delaunay|Robert]] and [[Sonia Delaunay]] (with whom he worked in tandem for "poem-dresses" and other simultaneist literary pieces).<ref name="tgdelau">Tag Gronberg, "Sonia Delaunay's Simultaneous Fashions and the Modern Woman", in Whitney Chadwick, Tirza True Latimer (eds.), ''The Modern Woman Revisited: Paris between the Wars'', [[Rutgers University Press]], Piscataway, pp. 114-115; {{ISBN|0-8135-3292-2}}</ref>

Tzara became involved in a number of Dada experiments, on which he collaborated with Breton, Aragon, Soupault, Picabia or [[Paul Éluard]].<ref name="jycmelusine"/><ref name="enotestt">[http://www.enotes.com/poetry-criticism/tzara-tristan "Tristan Tzara 1896–1963"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019020831/http://www.enotes.com/poetry-criticism/tzara-tristan |date=19 October 2011 }}, in Susan Salas, Laura Wisner-Broyles, ''Poetry Criticism'', Vol. 27, Gale Group Inc., 2000, [http://www.enotes.com/ eNotes.com]; retrieved 23 April 2008</ref><ref>Hofman, pg. 13; Richter, pp. 173-176</ref> Other authors who came into contact with Dada at that stage were [[Jean Cocteau]], [[Paul Dermée]] and [[Raymond Radiguet]].<ref>Richter, pp. 173-174</ref> The performances staged by Dada were often meant to popularize its principles, and Dada continued to draw attention on itself by [[hoax]]es and [[false advertising]], announcing that the [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] film star [[Charlie Chaplin]] was going to appear on stage at its show,<ref name="bgend77"/> or that its members were going to have their heads shaved or their hair cut off on stage.<ref>Gendron, pg. 77; Richter, pg. 181.</ref> In another instance, Tzara and his associates lectured at the ''[[Université populaire]]'' in front of industrial workers, who were reportedly less than impressed.<ref name="Richter, p.175-176">Richter, pp. 175-176</ref> Richter believes that, ideologically, Tzara was still in tribute to Picabia's nihilistic and anarchic views (which made the Dadaists attack all political and cultural ideologies), but that this also implied a measure of sympathy for the [[working class]].<ref name="Richter, p.175-176"/>

Dada activities in Paris culminated in the March 1920 [[variety show]] at the [[Théâtre de l'Œuvre]], which featured readings from Breton, Picabia, Dermée and Tzara's earlier work, ''La Première aventure céleste de M. Antipyrine'' ("The First Heavenly Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine").<ref>Londré, pg. 398; Richter, pp. 179-183.</ref> Tzara's melody, ''Vaseline symphonique'' ("Symphonic Vaseline"), which required ten or twenty people to shout "cra" and "cri" on a rising scale, was also performed.<ref>Gendron, pg. 77; Richter, pg. 182</ref> A scandal erupted when Breton read Picabia's ''Manifeste cannibale'' ("Cannibal Manifesto"), lashing out at the audience and mocking them, to which they answered by aiming rotten fruit at the stage.<ref>Richter, pp. 180-182.</ref>

The Dada phenomenon was only noticed in Romania beginning in 1920, and its overall reception was negative. Traditionalist historian [[Nicolae Iorga]], Symbolist promoter [[Ovid Densusianu]], the more reserved modernists [[Camil Petrescu]] and [[Benjamin Fondane]] all refused to accept it as a valid artistic manifestation.<ref>Cernat, pg. 125</ref> Although he rallied with tradition, Vinea defended the subversive current in front of more serious criticism, and rejected the widespread rumor that Tzara had acted as an [[agent of influence]] for the [[Central Powers]] during the war.<ref>Cernat, pg. 127</ref> [[Eugen Lovinescu]], editor of ''[[Sburătorul]]'' and one of Vinea's rivals on the modernist scene, acknowledged the influence exercised by Tzara on the younger avant-garde authors, but analyzed his work only briefly, using as an example one of his pre-Dada poems, and depicting him as an advocate of literary "extremism".<ref>Cernat, pp. 126-127, 299</ref>