Women in Dada: Essays on Sex, Gender, and Identity [Paperback]

Naomi Sawelson-Gorse (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Given its heyday between the years 1916 and 1924, it is no surprise misogyny prevailed in the Dada movement. Thus, the editors surmise the need and rationale for this new study of Dada's lesser-known female participants. Among the numerous key figures discussed are Hannah H?ch, Juliette Roche, Suzanne Duchamp, Sophie Taeuber, Emmy Hennings, Mina Loy, Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, Clara Tice, Florine Stettheimer, Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, and Beatrice Wood. Topics include the young American girl, the gendered machine, the dandy, cross-dressing, homosexuality, and primitivism. The 19 feminist essays collected here vary in degree of clarity and successful argument, but all are stimulating. Recommended for collections in gender studies and modernism.AMary Hamel-Schwulst, Towson Univ., MD
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Women in Dada performs an important function not merely in reviving lost reputations, but in raising issues that are as hot—if not as new—today as they were in the Dada epoch."
—Linda Nochlin, Bookforum



"Important and stimulating. Its detailed accounts of major women dadas. . . are exceptionally valuable for the new historical information they contain."
—Rachel Blackwell, The Bloomsbury Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 704 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (February 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262692600
• ISBN-13: 978-0262692601
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,239,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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  Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Dadaism

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting collection of essays, January 2, 2006

By	Bentley S. Davis "philgirl2" (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Women in Dada: Essays on Sex, Gender, and Identity (Hardcover)

While this book contains essays on the lesser discussed women of Dada, it also covers gender and identity in Dada - including Marcel Duchamp. It is also worth pointing out that while most of the women covered are Dadaists, not all are. Specifically, Georgia O'Keefe doesn't really fall into the Dada category. I would recommend this for those interested in the intersection of gender and early twentieth century art.

4.0 out of 5 stars Making dada out of almost nada..., September 29, 2009

By	Mark Nadja "Literary Outlaw, author *Hardcore... (New York City) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Women in Dada: Essays on Sex, Gender, and Identity (Paperback)

The poop: The premise behind this collection of academic essays is that women have been marginalized to the fringes of Dada history. While it's quite possible that women have been undervalued throughout art history, it is also true that there is sometimes good reason for this and it has nothing to do with patriarchal politics or prejudice. Such is the case with Dada--at least that's my conclusion after reading *Women in Dada.* Although the authors generally make the case that women made some interesting contributions to Dada, they are, at best, minor contributions, and, for the most part, do belong among the footnotes of a history of the movement.

Indeed, some of the artists and writers discussed had, by the authors' own admission, only the briefest and most tangential involvement with Dada, which of itself explains why they've been marginalized in the conventional telling of Dada history.

The scoop: *Women in Dada* is a book worth reading if you're seriously interested in either Dada or woman/gender studies, but probably not for the casual reader of either. This collection bears all the trademarks of post-graduate school critical writing: interpretations teased and sometimes tortured beyond all reasonable assumptions into the semblance of something new for the purpose of saying something new, furthering an agenda, advancing a personal philosophy, etc., in other words, Derridean-style deconstruction without apology. The constant re-interpretation of old material is what academic writing has always been about--part of the vicious publish-or-perish cycle--and, ostensibly, what keeps art and literature by those long dead relevant to our time.

These subsequent re-interpretations can be interesting, illuminating (or annoying) and serve to prove that art and literature can be thought of as a kind of eternal Rorschach that tells us more about ourselves in our reaction to a work than it does the original artist or his/her original intent--a jumping-off place for original creation based on contemporary reactions.

For me, this book was most rewarding by my reading it as a sort of negative of the negative of the untold history of Dada that the authors were trying to provide--a restoring of the original Dada picture by means of where the shadow history borders on that of the major figures of Dada, who are all well-represented here.

If that makes sense. If not, try this: you get a lot of info about Duchamp, Picabia, Schwitters, Arp, Ball, etc, even if they aren't the main focus of these essays.

Also--this book is nicely formatted, well-made, and generously illustrated throughout, altho the plates are in money-saving black-and-white.

So, let me close in Dada-fashion by saying, and not irrelevantly, I trust: Unconventional on criticize broken decides life.....reenacted!