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Federating the Modern Spirit: The 1922 Congress of Paris

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Marius Hentea
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Abstract

The aim of the ill-fated 1922 Congress of Paris, an international conference organized by André Breton, was to diagnose the sources of the “modern spirit.” Although the congress had ambitious international goals, it was brought down by a remark with xenophobic connotations. Largely remembered today as the death knell of Paris Dada—the public fight between Tristan Tzara and Breton meant not only that the congress never took place but also that Paris Dada was dissolved—the congress's failure stemmed from the tensions involved in selfconsciously deining modernism. Arguing that ambivalence over the concept shaped the main participants' understanding of the congress, I read the congress as a concrete manifestation of the impulse to federate the arts in post-World War I France.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 130 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 37 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2015

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