Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Dadaism
Definition:
It'll probably come as little surprise when we tell you that the literary (and art) movement called Dadaism was all about rejecting the mainstream. And that is one of the few things that people agree about when it comes to all things Dada.
As literary movements go, Dadaism is one of the most diverse and short-lived. It started in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1916 as a reaction to World War I and was heavily influenced by an assortment of avant-garde "-isms" that came before it, like Cubism, Expressionism, and Futurism. Ultimately, it was replaced by Surrealism, another experimental literary movement, by the end of the 20th century.
We hear you: "Enough with the -isms. How can I tell if what I'm looking at is Dada-riffic?" Dadaist writing relies heavily on nonsense in order to stress how meaningless modern life is. It also really, really hates materialism.
So if you ever find yourself surrounded by Dadaists—you know, like at a dog park or Olive Garden—resist the urge to brag about your new flat-screen TV, and instead recite Tristan Tzara's poem "To Make a Dadaist Poem." He was one of the movement's heavyweights, along with writers André Breton and Hugo Ball, painter/photographer Man Ray, and "art's original punk," Hannah Höch.