A Centrifugal Reading of De Stijl’s Constructivist Poetics: On the Literature of Blaise Cendrars, Georges Vantongerloo, Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg and László Moholy-Nagy

Abstract

The type of literature promoted by the Constructivist avant-garde magazine De Stijl is often reduced to the writings of its editor-in-chief, Theo van Doesburg. In this article we look beyond van Doesburg’s work and explore a more open approach to the diverse literary output published in the magazine. Not so much the literary aesthetic at the centre of the magazine, but the many experiments in the margins of the journal are paid attention to. This ‘centrifugal’ reading of the magazine not only casts new light on Van Doesburg’s work at the centre of De Stijl. It also unearths how Blaise Cendrars, Georges Vantongerloo, Piet Mondrian and László Moholy-Nagy deserve to be ranked among the magazine’s key literary figures.