Poems Performance Pieces Proses Plays Poetics (The Border Lines)

Although Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) is increasingly recognized as one of the great visual artists of the twentieth century—a recognition reconfirmed in 1985 by a highly acclaimed retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art—his achievements as one of the major poets and theorists of Modernism have not received the same degree of attention. This collection of Schwitters' literary work, presented by two American poets of international standing, brings the vast range and unique genius of his writings to English-language audiences for the first time.

Coining the word "Merz" to identify his one-man version of Dadism, Schwitters sought to "erase the boundaries between the arts" and to emphasize the reciprocal relationship of his visual and verbal works. Schwitters worked with and developed more new forms and genres than almost any poet of his time. The wide sweep and inventiveness of his literary output—essays, plays, fiction, manifestos, as well as poetry—reflect or prefigure movements such as expressionism, surrealism, sound-texts, concrete poetry, performance art, and language poetry.

To present Schwitters' astounding range, the poet-translators of this volume have selected poems, "proses," performance pieces, and manifestos; included complete major works, such as "Augusta Bolte" and "Ur Sonata"; offered selections from Schwitters' plays; and provided a sampler of the collaged and word-filled paintings (some in full color).