Professor Jean Weisgerber (1924-2013) was in some way my counterpart at the Free University of Brussels where he directed the Center for the Study of Avant-gardes, insofar as, for my part, I coordinated research on Dada and surrealism at Paris III. In this capacity, he worked on the concepts used in various European languages to account for the evolution of poetics of both the novel and poetry. He had published at L'Age d'Homme editions a much-discussed essay on Magical Realism (1994) and, given the scope he gave to his work, he asked me for this chapter on simultaneism illustrated by Dada for a work where he took up the biblical image of the Tower of Babel to illustrate the present state of European avant-gardes. I specify that I had known him personally through my friend Alain van Crugten (see the file "The Crime Scene").

The Avant-gardes and the Tower of Babel

Back cover: Paradoxically, this book on avant-gardes tells a very old story, eternally new. The diversity of languages is a reality that we face daily. Presented here is a set of studies on European and American literatures and, historically, on phenomena that have marked them, as well as the fine arts, over the last hundred years: polyglottism, simultaneism, manipulation of signs.

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Supplements: Dada Total Circuit L'Age d'Homme, 2005.

This comprehensive and exhaustive Dossier H addresses the Dada movement from "proto-dada" to all the major poles of "historical Dadaism" Zurich Paris Berlin Cologne etc. The work is enhanced with unpublished documents, general syntheses that only existed in foreign languages, French novelties by Hausmann, Huelsenbeck and Arp, studies and documents on Baargeld and Dada in Cologne. An event book not to be missed!