Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada. Hall. 1996-2002. Vol II: Dada Zurich: A Clown's Game from Nothing by Stephen C. Foster , Brigitte Pichon , Karl Riha Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada. Vol. III: Dada Cologne Hanover by Charlotte Stokes , Stephen C. Foster (review)

Abstract

MLR, 96. , 200I MLR, 96. , 200I threat. These expressionists are shown to have been Cassandra-figures,warning society of currentproblems. The book takes for granted that the progress man has wrung from nature will lead to eventual destruction.The reinterpretationofDoblin, Benn, and Einstein,at least in their earlier prose writings, allows for no final accommodation between nature and technology. There is little here that will surprise the specialist on German twentieth-centuryliterature, but confirmation of the prescience of these expressionists as doomwatchers will doubtless lead to further interest in the significanceof theirdevelopmentsin relatedfields. MELLEN UNIVERSITY, IOWA BRIAN KEITH-SMITH Crisis andthe Arts.TheHistory ofDada. Ed. By STEPHEN C. FOSTER. 8 vols. New York: Hall. 1996-2002. Vol II: DadaZurich: A Clown'sGamefrom Nothing. Ed. by BRIGITTE PICHON and KARLRIHA. 1996. xiii + 281 pp.; Vol. III: Dada Cologne Hanover. Ed. by CHARLOTTESTOKESand STEPHENC. FOSTER. I998. xv + 251 pp. $95 each. These books arepartof a uniqueproject,to be completed in a couple of years'time, which aimsto examine all aspectsof the Dada movement thatflourishedin the early twentieth centuryin Central,Westernand EasternEurope as well as in the US and in Japan. Editors and contributors approach Dada as an historical phenomenon and cover the movement in all its literary, artistic, philosophical, and political dimensions. At the same time, as the general title suggests, Dada is seen in the context of a profound crisis of modernism, and regarded as the first, and perhaps most incisive, expression of that crisis, which continues to influence our understandingof twentieth-centuryculture. DadaZurich containsthirteenessaysfromcontributorsbasedin Germany,the US, and the UK. They examine the social and political atmosphere that made Zurich the centre of the firstDada movement in Europe and look at individualDadaists as well as the art forms, performances, and manifestations associated with Zurich Dada. The emphasisis not so much on Dada as a radical,if now accepted, form of 'anti-art', but on Dada as a spectacle, which began as a cabaret act. As a result, Dada's theatricality, its loud and self-reflexive staging of culture, is highlighted throughout.The firstessay,by BrigittePichon, takesitscue fromDada's firstZurich address, 'Spiegelgasse'. Pichon contends that Dada's 'prismatic breaking-up of oppositional, antagonistic sense-making processes' (p. 30) was liberating, both aestheticallyand socially,forperformersand spectatorsalike.KarlRiha and Debbie Lewer, in the following two essays, give an account of the 'CabaretVoltaire', and chart Dada's nomadic moves across Zurich. The following six essays are shorter and devoted to the contributions made to Zurich Dada by Hugo Ball, his wife Emmy Hennings, Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp and Marcel Janco respectively. The concluding essays look at the role of 'bruitist' music in Dada; the paintings, drawings,and woodcuts, which came to dominate the second phase of ZurichDada; the visualexperimentsin abstractfilmundertakenby Viking Eggeling;and the periodicalsof ZurichDada, Cabaret Voltaire, Dada,and DerZeltweg, which contained contributions in German, French and other languages. Richard Sheppard's 'Dada Zurich in Zeitungen', a comprehensive collection of newspaper excerptsin Germanrelatingto Dadaist activitiesand publicitystunts,formsa useful and at times entertaining appendix. All contributions to the volume are solid and well-informed;where material has been published in German beforehand, it has threat. These expressionists are shown to have been Cassandra-figures,warning society of currentproblems. The book takes for granted that the progress man has wrung from nature will lead to eventual destruction.The reinterpretationofDoblin, Benn, and Einstein,at least in their earlier prose writings, allows for no final accommodation between nature and technology. There is little here that will surprise the specialist on German twentieth-centuryliterature, but confirmation of the prescience of these expressionists as doomwatchers will doubtless lead to further interest in the significanceof theirdevelopmentsin relatedfields. MELLEN UNIVERSITY, IOWA BRIAN KEITH-SMITH Crisis andthe Arts.TheHistory ofDada. Ed. By STEPHEN C. FOSTER. 8 vols. New York: Hall. 1996-2002. Vol II: DadaZurich: A Clown'sGamefrom Nothing. Ed. by BRIGITTE PICHON and KARLRIHA. 1996. xiii + 281 pp.; Vol. III: Dada Cologne Hanover. Ed. by CHARLOTTESTOKESand STEPHENC. FOSTER. I998. xv + 251 pp. $95 each. These books arepartof a uniqueproject,to be completed in a couple of years'time, which aimsto examine all aspectsof the Dada movement thatflourishedin the early twentieth centuryin Central,Westernand EasternEurope as well as in the...