Subversive fragments. The evolution of the cut-up method in the German speaking area throughout the 1960s and the 1970s

  • Gabriele Bacherini Università degli Studi di Firenze
Keywords: Dada, cut-up, pop art, collage, neo-avant-gardes, terrorism, Burroughs.

Abstract

1. Purpose

The article analyses from a comparative point of view the influence of William S. Burroughs’ cut-up method on the 1960s and 1970s neo-avant-gardes in the German speaking area.

2. Methodology

The article contains several excerpts from both journals and experimental works that were written by the three most important cut-up author in the German speaking area. It shows the connections between the Dada and post-Dada movement, the cut-up movement and the pop movement.

3. Results/Findings

Works like Ploog’s Cola-Hinterland or Fauser’s Tophane, as well as Weissner’s many collaborations, proved to be some really interesting historical and sociocritical documents: the results show that the movement grew strong because the technique it had adopted proved to be the best artistic instrument to depict the subversive spirit and at the same time the alienation from the bourgeois society actually felt by the young generations of the late Sixties.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Beiles, Sinclair - Burroughs, William - Corso, Gregory - Gysin, Brion, Minutes to Go, San Francisco, California, Beach Books Texts & Documents, 1960.

Brinkmann, Rolf Dieter, Westwärts 1&2. Gedichte, Reinbek bei Hamburg, Rowohlt Verlag, 1975.

Burroughs, William S., The Naked Lunch, Paris, Olympia Press, 1959, tr. it. Il pasto nudo, Milano, SugarCo Edizioni, 1964.

Burroughs, William S., The Soft Machine, Paris, Olympia Press, 1961, tr. it. La morbida macchina, Milano, SugarCo Edizioni, 1965.

Burroughs, William S., The Ticket That Exploded, Paris, Olympia Press, 1962, tr. it. Il biglietto che è esploso, Milano, SugarCo Edizioni, 1970.

Burroughs, William S., Nova Express, Paris-New York, Olympia Press-Grove Press, 1964, tr.  it. Nova Express, Milano, SugarCo Edizioni, 1967.

Burroughs, William S., APO-33 Bulletin: A Metabolic Regulator. A Report On The Synthesis Of The Apomorphine Formula, San Francisco, California, Beach Books Texts & Documents, 1966.

Burroughs, William - Gysin, Brion, The Exterminator, San Francisco, Dave Haselwood Books, 1960.

Burroughs, William S. - Pélieu, Claude - Weissner, Carl, So Who Owns Death TV?, San Francisco, California, Beach Books Texts & Documents, 1967.

Burroughs, William S. - Pélieu, Claude - Weissner, Carl (1969), Fernseh-Tuberkulose, Frankfurt am Main, Nova Press, 1969.

Enzensberger, Hans Magnus, Das Verhör von Habana, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970, tr. it. Interrogatorio all’Avana, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1971.

Fahrer, Sigrid, Cut-up: Eine literarische Medienguerilla, Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann, 2009.

Fauser, Jörg, Aqualunge: Ein Report, Göttingen, Verlag Udo Breger, 1971.

Fauser, Jörg, Tophane: Roman, Gersthofen, Maro Verlag, 1972, anche in Fauser, Jörg e Wewerka, Alexander (ed.), Alles wird gut. Gesammelte Erzählungen und Prosa I, Zürich, Diogenes Verlag, 2009 [2005]: 307-425.

Fauser, Jörg, Rohstoff. Roman, Frankfurt/Main, Berlin und Wien, Verlag Ullstein, 1984, tr. it. Materia prima, Roma, L’orma editore, 2017.

Herman, Jan - Ploog, Jürgen - Weissner, Carl, Cut Up or Shut Up, Paris, Editions AGENTZIA, 1972.

Jelinek, Elfriede, wir sind lockvögel baby!: Roman, Reinbek bei Hamburg, Rowohlt Verlag, 1970a.

Jelinek, Elfriede, wir stecken einander unter der haut. konzept einer television des innen raums, 1970b, in Protokolle. Wiener Jahresschrift für Literatur, bildende Kunst und Musik, 1 (1970): 129-134.

Jelinek, Elfriede, Michael. Ein Jugendbuch für die Infantilgesellschaft, Reinbek bei Hamburg, Rowohlt Verlag, 1972.

Moll, Andreas, Hamburger Beiträge zur Germanistik Band 43: Text und Bild bei Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. Intermedialität im Spätwerk, Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 2006.

Ploog, Jürgen, Cola-Hinterland, Darmstadt, Joseph Melzer Verlag, 1969.

Ploog, Jürgen, Die Fick-Maschine. Ein Beitrag zur kybernetischen Erotik, Göttingen, Expanded Media Editions, 1970.

Ploog, Jürgen, Sternzeit 23, Göttingen, Shark Editions/Verlag Udo Breger, 1975.

Ploog, Jürgen, RadarOrient, West-Berlin, Verlag Jakobsohn, 1976.

van der Bent, Jaap (2012), “Beating Them to It? The Vienna Group and the Beat Generation”, The Transnational Beat Generation, Eds. Grace, Nancy M. - Skerl, Jennie, New York, Palgrave MacMillan, 2012: 165-179.

Vesper, Bernward, Die Reise. Romanessay, Jossa, März Verlag, 1977, tr. it. Il viaggio. Romanzo-saggio, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1980.

Weissner, Carl, The Braille Film, San Francisco, The Nova Broadcast Press, 1970.

Witzel, Frank, Tage ohne Ende. Ein Poème Cinématique mit 249 Fotos und einem Nachwort des Autors, Hamburg, Edition Nautilus, 1980.

Published
2020-05-30
How to Cite
Bacherini, G. (2020). Subversive fragments. The evolution of the cut-up method in the German speaking area throughout the 1960s and the 1970s. Between, 10(19), 21-44. https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/4021