The foreign sources of the French avant-garde, from Dada to Tropismes

Tristan Tzara, Caude Sernet and Benjamin Fondane (Romanians), Arthur Adamov (Armenian), Elsa Triolet and Nathalie Sarraute (Russians) belong to the same generation, all “foreigners” from the East who have switched to the French language. They actively contributed to the revolutions of literary modernity in interwar France. The contribution to the history of French literature of these writers of foreign origin eager for aesthetic and intellectual innovations has been decisive.