Presented as part of the SLL LIterary Studies Seminar Series

On 13 May 1921, the Dadaists and Surrealists held a mock trial in Paris of the Republican and right-wing politician Maurice Barrès. One of the witnesses called to testify against Barrès was Serge Romoff, an émigré Ukrainian who had been in Paris since 1906. While he may have personally known some of Barrès’s accusers, there are no traces of his having been involved with their activities or publications in previous years. From 1920-21 he became increasingly involved, however, in the cultural and artistic world of the Montparnasse district of the capital. Documentation is thin but we know that he was employed for several years by a major printing firm, helped organize art exhibitions, collaborated with several cultural revues, produced some translations, and in 1927 became art critic for the Communist daily paper L’Humanité. In 1928 he returned to Moscow enthusiastic about the new society he believed he would find there, but his sudden and mysterious death—perhaps in one of the brutal Stalinist purges—was announced on 12 February 1939.

In this paper, John Flower will discuss the successes and pitfalls encountered during the course of his research into the life of this little known Ukrainian wheeler-dealer, and explore its significance for our understanding of the Parisian artistic community of the early 20th century.

John Flower is Emeritus Professor of Twentieth-Century French Literature at the University of Kent (UK). He has published extensively in the UK and in France, with more than twenty single-authored books, seventy articles and invited contributions, and a dozen edited volumes. His work covers French literature and culture since the late nineteenth century.