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Dada and Language

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Dada was an international movement, appealing to speakers of many languages and dialects. This project alone featured works in the following languages: 
However, the relationship between Dada and language was hardly without strife. As Hugo Ball's "Karawane" demonstrates, many Dadaists sought to transcend language. In poems like these, language was represented as broken and absurd. Where Futurists like Marinetti had highlighted language's ability to convey what he saw as the progress and triumph of war, many Dadaists viewed language as broken and unworthy of recovery due to that very war.
 
In light of this undercurrent, translations played a varied role across European and American Dada circles.