Interbellum art and literature- Poland and Central Europe

[pjotr]

That Central European fascination of me has to do with the fact that in the Interbellum era (1919-1939), between the two great world wars, in that post Habsburg empire era a lot of cultural, artistic, literary, poetic, cinematographic, photographic and thus art historical developments occured in that part of Europe. It was an interesting time in Poland in Warsaw, Krakow, Poznan, Lwów (Today Lviv in Ukraine), Łódź, Gdańsk,, Bydgoszcz, Lublin and Wilno (Today Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania). In the same time interesting developments took place in Vienna, Budapest, Berlin and Prague. While in art history, culture history, the history of poetry, literature, cinema, photography and graphical development art critics, art historians and art curators of Modern art museums often point at Berlin, Vienna, Weimar and Dessau (Bauhaus was located in Weimar and Dessau inbetween 1919 and 1933) and Paris due to the fact that German Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism, Cubism (Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Andre Lhote, Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris) and other movements and forms of art developed there, but they forget about the important developments in Warsaw, Kraków, Prague and Budapest.

The impact of Cubism ofcourse was far-reaching and wide-ranging. In other countries Futurism, Suprematism, Dada, Constructivism, De Stijl and Art Deco developed in response to Cubism. It also had influence on Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Romanian artists. You had Polish Cubist, Expressionist and Surrealist artists too. Maybe their art was'nt called that way but the Polish artists were influenced by it. For instance the paintings and drawings of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Bruno Schulz clearly had Surrealist, Magic Realist, expressionist and even Dadaist influences. In the same time their work clearly had the marks of the Poland of their time and both had a tragic death due to the Second World War. Like Franz Kafka they predicted the future ahead of them. Often artists and musicians are ahead of their time. Suicide and murder ended the lives of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Bruno Schulz. In both their works dark themes, tension, alienation and intense life are present. Witkiewicz and Schulz were friends. Witkiewicz promoted emerging writers such as Bruno Schulz. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, was one of the few friends Bruno Schulz had.

Rebirth of Polish sovereignty


On November 11, 1918 the military power was transferred by the Regency Council to Josef Pilsudski, the independence activist and the founder of the Polish Legions

Polish culture in the interwar period witnessed the rebirth of Polish sovereignty. The nationhood along with its cultural heritage was no longer suppressed by the three foreign partitioners. The cultural development saw the retreat of the 19th century elite cultures of nobility as well as the traditional folk culture, and the rise of a new mass culture integrating Polish society closer to the new intelligentsia educated in the practice of democracy.

An example of the new freedom, the celebration of Polish language and Polish culture was Skamander, a Polish group of experimental poets founded in 1918 by Julian Tuwim, Antoni Słonimski, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Kazimierz Wierzyński and Jan Lechoń.

The group was initially closely related to the Pro Arte et Studio literary monthly and the Pod Picadorem (Picador) Café in Warsaw. In 1920 it created its own publication, the Skamander monthly, though its members also collaborated with Wiadomości Literackie (Literary News) and other newspapers.

Initially unnamed, in December 1919 it adopted the name Skamander, after the Scamander River in Asia Minor.

Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Antoni Słonimski, Jan Lechoń i Kazimierz Wierzyński na dworcu w Warszawie przed


Skamander


Skamander caricature - cartoon

Literature of the Second Polish Republic (1918-1939) encompasses a short, though exceptionally dynamic period in Polish literary consciousness. The socio-political reality has changed radically with Poland's return to independence. In large part, derivative of these changes was the collective and unobstructed development of programs for artists and writers. New avant-garde trends had emerged. The period, spanning just twenty years, was full of notable individualities who saw themselves as exponents of changing European civilization, including Tuwim, Witkacy, Gombrowicz, Miłosz, Dąbrowska and Nałkowska (PAL). They all contributed to a new model of the twentieth-century Polish culture echoing its own language of everyday life.


The inaugural session of the Polish Academy of Literature, 1933. Sitting from left to right: Prime Minister Janusz Jędrzejewicz, Zofia Nałkowska, Maria Mościcka, President Ignacy Moscicki, Maria Jędrzejewicz, Wacław Sieroszewski, Leopold Staff. Standing from left: Colonel Jan Głogowski, director Skowroński, Zenon Przesmycki, Wacław Berent, Piotr Choynowski, Juliusz Kleiner, Wincenty Rzymowski, Jerzy Szaniawski, Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski, Karol Irzykowski, Tadeusz Żeleński, Tadeusz Zieliński, and Bolesław Leśmian.

The period between 1918 and 1939 was characterized by richness, variety, and increasing contact with other European literatures, especially through the publication of translations. The two decades of Interbellum were marked by rapid development in the field of poetry, undivided and undiminished for the first time in over a century. Lyrical poetry predominated for nearly a decade after 1918. The periodical Zdrój (“The Fountainhead”) showed affinities with German Expressionism. In Warsaw several poets formed a group called Skamander, from the name of their monthly publication; it was united by a desire to forge a poetic language attuned to modern life. One of its founders, Julian Tuwim, was a poet of emotional power and linguistic sensitivity.

From 1918 to 1939, the gradual and successive introduction of new ideas resulted in the formation of separate and distinct trends. The first decade of Polish interwar poetry was clear, constructive, and optimistic; as opposed to the second decade marked by dark visions of the impending war, internal conflicts within the Polish society, and growing pessimism. The whole period was amazingly rich nevertheless.

Bolesław Leśmian wrote symbolic, Expressionist poetry that was remarkable for its inventive vocabulary, sensuous imagery, and philosophic content, all anticipating Existentialism. He published only three notable collections—Łąka (1920; “The Meadow”), Napój cienisty (1936; “The Shadowy Drink”), and Dziejba leśna (1938; “Woodland Tale”), published posthumously—but was considered by his admirers to be one of the most outstanding 20th-century Polish lyrical poets.

The Polish Futurist movement followed revolutionary trends in poetry—particularly in Italy and Russia. More original was a group called Awangarda Krakowska (“Vanguard of Kraków”), led by Tadeusz Peiper. It produced few works but had widespread influence on the modernization of poetic technique. Two of its adherents, Julian Przyboś and Adam Ważyk, the latter of whom was only loosely connected with the movement, rank among the outstanding poets of the post-World War II period. Also noteworthy is Józef Czechowicz, who assimilated traditional and regional elements to the catastrophic images in his poems.


Awangarda Krakowska




Julian Przyboś


Adam Ważyk

Prose writing reached its ascendancy in the second decade of independence. Early novels by Zofia Nałkowska showed the influence of the Young Poland movement and focused on exploring the feminine psyche; later Nałkowska became preoccupied with social problems. Two other women writers of distinction were Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, noted for historical novels, and Maria Kuncewiczowa, who wrote psychological novels. Juliusz Kaden-Bandrowski used experimental realism in Czarne skrzydła (1928–29; “Black Wings”) and Mateusz Bigda (1933; “Matthew Bigda”), which treated social and political themes. Michał Choromański’s Zazdrość i medycyna (1933; Jealousy and Medicine) employed experimental methods of narrative sequence and was remarkable for its clinical analysis of character. A writer skilled in reflecting subtleties of perception was Bruno Schulz, author of Sklepy cynamonowe (1934; Cinnamon Shops), with prose reminiscent of Franz Kafka.


Zofia Nałkowska


Zofia Kossak-Szczucka


Maria Kuncewiczowa

All Polish poets treated the concept of freedom with extreme seriousness, and many patriotic works had emerged at that time, not to mention a particular variant of a poetic cult of Piłsudski.

For a short time during the Interbellum the liberal themes were ascendant in terms of "cultural pluralism, religious and ethnic toleration, national self-determination, free-market economics, representative and responsible government, free trade, unionism, and the peaceful settlement of international disputes through a new body, the League of Nations." But soon the dark clouds of totalitarianism of fascism, Communism and Nazism made an end to this enlightened era.

Back to the Interbelllum in Central Europe

In Poland artists, composers, musicians and writers like Witold Gombrowicz, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Karol Szymanowski, Jacek Malczewski, Bruno Schulz and Artur Rubinstein left a mark on Polish culture and were part of a Central European culture. You (Bo, with much more experience, knowledge and information about Polish general history, art history, Krakow as the center of the Polish cultural intelligentsia; artists, poets, writers, philosophers, Bohemians, intellectuals, professors, playwrights (dramatists), cultural inventors and thus developers of Modern Polish avantgarde and culture.) will know much more then I due to your acces and understanding of Polish sources. The most irritating fact for me is that I have to depend on English language, German language and Dutch language sources. Even my french is to limited to be able to rely on a forth source, French language literature, texts, essays, articles and encyclopedia about Polish art history, culture and the Interbellum in Poland.


Jacek Malczewski


Jacek Malczewski


Jacek Malczewski




Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Portret_wielokrotny


Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz


Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz


Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz




Bruno Schulz


The tragically short life of writer and artist Bruno Schulz has been summarized: "Born an Austrian, lived as a Pole and died as a Jew." Revered as the "Polish Kafka", many of the modernist master's dreamlike, mystical drawings and paintings were feared lost. A German film maker spent years seeking Bruno Schulz's last frescoes and has built an installation of projections of the long-lost works.


Fun in the park by Bruno Schulz, [ca 1920-1922]. Jagiellońska


Bruno Schulz, Spotkanie, 1920

In Polish literature, the 1920s were marked by the domination of poetry. Polish poets were divided into two groups – the Skamanderites (Jan Lechoń, Julian Tuwim, Antoni Słonimski and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz) and the Futurists (Anatol Stern, Bruno Jasieński, Aleksander Wat, Julian Przyboś). Apart from well-established novelists (Stefan Żeromski, Władysław Reymont), new names appeared in the interbellum – Zofia Nałkowska, Maria Dąbrowska, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Jan Parandowski, Bruno Schultz, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Witold Gombrowicz. Among other notable artists there were sculptor Xawery Dunikowski, painters Julian Fałat, Wojciech Kossak and Jacek Malczewski, composers Karol Szymanowski, Feliks Nowowiejski, and Artur Rubinstein, singer Jan Kiepura. Theatre was very popular in the interbellum, with three main centers in the cities of Warsaw, Wilno and Lwów. Altogether, there were 103 theaters in Poland and a number of other theatrical institutions (including 100 folk theaters). In 1936, different shows were seen by 5 million people, and main figures of Polish theatre of the time were Juliusz Osterwa, Stefan Jaracz, and Leon Schiller.

While the term Polish culture refers primarily to the Polish-language culture in Poland, the Second Polish Republic also had numerous vibrant national minorities, most notably Jewish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Lithuanian and German. It was a multicultural society whose ethno-cultural makeup was shaped over a period of centuries.

The spirit of rebirth affected not only Poland's mainstream society, but also national, ethnic, and religious minorities. By the late 1930s, the Ukrainian press could boast some 68 titles published mainly in Lwów, Stanisławów and Kołomyja.

The Jewish cultural scene was particularly vibrant, with numerous Jewish publications and over 116 periodicals. Yiddish authors, most notably Isaac Bashevis Singer, went on to achieve international acclaim. Other renowned Jewish authors included Bruno Schulz, Julian Tuwim, Marian Hemar, Emanuel Schlechter, Jan Brzechwa and Bolesław Leśmian.

Kraków


Floriańska Street in Krakow, 1936

With the emergence of the Second Polish Republic, Kraków resumed its role as a major academic and cultural centre, with the establishment of new universities such as the AGH University of Science and Technology and the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, including a number of new and essential vocational schools. I was tought by my mother that Kraków is the cradle of Polish civilisation. A center of Polish intelligentsia, academical life due to the Jagiellonian University (Uniwersytet Jagielloński), the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts, or the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts (Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Krakowie im. Jana Matejki, ASP), AST National Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków (Akademia Sztuk Teatralnych im. Stanisława Wyspiańskiego w Krakowie), the art scene there of painters, drawers, sculpturists, graphical artists, art critics, art historians, art curators, art galleryists, musicians, playwrights, theatre actors and actresses, poets, writers and probably philosophers too.


Double four wheeled vehicle with manual presented in Krakow before the Barbican. 1925


The National Museum in Krakow, 1930.



It was the same time that in Prague, Germany (Berlin and Weimar), Paris and Budapest, Franz Kafka, Rainer Maria Rilke, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weil, Hans Eisner, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, l Lissitzky, Kurt Schwitters, Bauhaus (1919-1933), the Hungarian painter, sculptor, photographer, designer, theorist, and art teacher László Moholy-Nagy, Wassily Kandinsky, Max Ernst, Tristan Tzara, Man Ray, Friedrich Wilhelm "F. W." Murnau, Josef von Sternberg and others made their work.

In 1910 there were only 4.5% of the German-speaking population in Prague, yet there was a world-famous literature. Writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Kafka, Max Brod, Franz Werfel, Egon Erwin Kisch, Friedrich Torberg, Oskar Baum, Johannes Urzidil, Felix Weltsch and Paul Leppin by some Germanists using a specific style, rather than to the Prague German refers to the literary patterns.

The turn of the 20th century marked a profound shift in Czech literature — after nearly a century of work, literature finally freed itself from the confines of needing to educate and serve the nation and spread Czech culture, and became literature simply for the sake of art. The orientation toward France, Northern Europe, and Russia intensified, and new demands were laid on the cultural knowledge of authors and their audience.

The interwar period, coinciding with the First Republic, is one of the apogees of Czech literature — the new state brought with it a plurality of thinking, religion, and philosophy, leading to a great flowering of literature and culture. The first major theme of the interwar period was the war — the inhumanity, violence, and terror, but also the heroic actions of the Czech Legion (Rudolf Medek, Josef Kopta, František Langer, Jaroslav Hašek). An antiwar comedy novel The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek is the most translated novel of the Czech literature (58 languages as of 2013).

A new generation of poets ushered in the return of the avantgarde: poetry of the heart (early Jiří Wolker, Zdeněk Kalista) and naivism (Čapek brothers, Josef Hora, Jaroslav Seifert, and S. K. Neumann).

Vienna


1925. Vienna, Tegetthoffstraße

In the late 19th century, distinctly Austrian literary styles and mannerisms emerged. The writer Hermann Bahr was associated with an era of literary impressionism, the expressly Austrian characteristics of which—a heightened self-consciousness and feelings of ambivalence and tentativeness—were coupled with forebodings of being at the end of an overripe civilization. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, poet, dramatist, essayist, and librettist of six operas by Richard Strauss, and Arthur Schnitzler, whose dramas are thought to epitomize a hothouse Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, have best conveyed these sensibilities. Karl Kraus, whose literary, political, and social criticism and satire contemplated an entire era in his review Die Fackel (1899–1936), focused on the importance of language. Coming from Prague to Vienna, Franz Kafka, with his haunting works of the individual confronted with anonymous, unheeding power, has entered the canon of world literature.

Robert Musil’s unfinished novel Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (1930–43; “The Man Without Qualities”) is said to be a metaphor for Austria itself. The Expressionist poet Georg Trakl wrote elegiacally of decay and death. Franz Werfel, another Expressionist, excelled as a poet, playwright, and novelist. Stefan Zweig, poet, dramatist, and story writer of imaginary and historical characters, was influenced by another Viennese, Sigmund Freud. Also writing in the first half of the 20th century were the Vienna-born philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and innovative novelist Hermann Broch.

The novelist Heimito von Doderer, who took an earlier Austria as his milieu, is a link between the vanished literary world of the pre-Anschluss years and the later 20th century.

Budapest



lthough the city’s roots date to Roman times and even earlier, modern Budapest is essentially an outgrowth of the 19th-century empire of Austria-Hungary, when Hungary was three times larger than the present country. Hungary’s reduction in size following World War I did not prevent Budapest from becoming, after Berlin, the second largest city in central Europe. One out of five Hungarians now lives in the capital, which, as the seat of government and the centre of Hungarian transport and industry.

Hungary’s composers: Ferenc Erkel, Ernst von Dohnányi, Béla Bartók, and Zoltán Kodály all lived in the capital.


Váci street, Budapes, 1935

Explosive urban and industrial growth created social tension and the emergence of a working-class movement before World War I. After the disintegration of Austria-Hungary in the autumn of 1918, the National Council, a revolutionary body headed by Count Mihály Károlyi and supported by antiwar radicals and socialists, took power in Budapest. The following March the Károlyi regime collapsed; communists seized power in the capital and held it for four months while also controlling the central regions of the country. Romanian troops occupied and sacked Budapest before the old social order was restored by a counterrevolutionary army marching into the bűnös város (“sinful town”) in November 1919.

After the signing of the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, Budapest—now the capital of an independent Hungary—became disproportionately large compared with the rest of the country. Social conditions deteriorated in the interwar years. Buda Castle, where Miklós Horthy, the country’s regent, resided after 1920, played a fateful role in World War II.


Chapel Jak Portal Vajdahunyad Castle Budapest 1927

Cheers,
Pieter

[Bonobo]

Another wonderful presentation.

Nov 6, 2017 0:01:59 GMT 1 pjotr said:

You (Bo, with much more experience, knowledge and information about Polish general history, art history, Krakow as the center of the Polish cultural intelligentsia; artists, poets, writers, philosophers, Bohemians, intellectuals, professors, playwrights (dramatists), cultural inventors and thus developers of Modern Polish avantgarde and culture.) will know much more then I due to your acces and understanding of Polish sources. The most irritating fact for me is that I have to depend on English language, German language and Dutch language sources. Even my french is to limited to be able to rely on a forth source, French language literature, texts, essays, articles and encyclopedia about Polish art history, culture and the Interbellum in Poland.

I understand you. It must be a bit painful.

Nov 6, 2017 0:01:59 GMT 1 pjotr said:

I was tought by my mother that Kraków is the cradle of Polish civilisation.

I`d prefer to stay modest and say: one of the cradles, especially that your mother was reluctant to German culture which contributed to Krakow`s development.

Nov 6, 2017 0:01:59 GMT 1 pjotr said:

From 1918 to 1939, the gradual and successive introduction of new ideas resulted in the formation of separate and distinct trends. The first decade of Polish interwar poetry was clear, constructive, and optimistic; as opposed to the second decade marked by dark visions of the impending war, internal conflicts within the Polish society, and growing pessimism. The whole period was amazingly rich nevertheless.

The second decade is naturally darker due to Great Depression.

Nov 6, 2017 0:01:59 GMT 1 pjotr said:

The Jewish cultural scene was particularly vibrant, with numerous Jewish publications and over 116 periodicals. Yiddish authors, most notably Isaac Bashevis Singer, went on to achieve international acclaim. Other renowned Jewish authors included Bruno Schulz, Julian Tuwim, Marian Hemar, Emanuel Schlechter, Jan Brzechwa and Bolesław Leśmian.

I didn`t know that Tuwim and Brzechwa wrote Jewish texts. I thought they primarily created in Polish.

[pjotr]

Nov 9, 2017 22:57:14 GMT 1 Bonobo said:

Another wonderful presentation.

Nov 6, 2017 0:01:59 GMT 1 pjotr said:

You (Bo, with much more experience, knowledge and information about Polish general history, art history, Krakow as the center of the Polish cultural intelligentsia; artists, poets, writers, philosophers, Bohemians, intellectuals, professors, playwrights (dramatists), cultural inventors and thus developers of Modern Polish avantgarde and culture.) will know much more then I due to your acces and understanding of Polish sources. The most irritating fact for me is that I have to depend on English language, German language and Dutch language sources. Even my french is to limited to be able to rely on a forth source, French language literature, texts, essays, articles and encyclopedia about Polish art history, culture and the Interbellum in Poland.

I understand you. It must be a bit painful.

Nov 6, 2017 0:01:59 GMT 1 pjotr said:

I was tought by my mother that Kraków is the cradle of Polish civilisation.

I`d prefer to stay modest and say: one of the cradles, especially that your mother was reluctant to German culture which contributed to Krakow`s development.

It would surprise you Bo how much German culture my mother had or has to deal with in the Netherlands as part of European and West-European cultural tradition. For instance the Matthäus-Passion (BWV 24), (St Matthew Passion in English and Pasja według św. Mateusza in Polish) tradition in the Netherlands. A Passion, a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici). It sets chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew (in the German translation of Martin Luther) to music, with interspersed chorales and arias. It is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of classical sacred music. My father and mother every year again listen for hours to the Matthäus-Passion sung in German with great intensity by Dutch and foreign singers from many nationalities and international musicians.


The Dutch elite of ministers, politicians and well known Dutch personalities are present in this Naarden performance of Bach's Matthew Passion.

Bach's St Matthew Passion is deeply Lutheran and German, has a great intensity and is loved by people from many backgrounds in the Netherlands. Protestants, Roman-Catholics, Jews, atheists, muslims, Hindu's, humanists and etc. It is part of our classical tradition like also we have a Gustav Mahler tradition. The latter is very Central European, very Austrian and rooted in the Austrian-German culture. When I hear Mahlers music I think about Vienna, Salzburg, Linz, Innsbruck and Alp mountains.







The Great Church (Grote Kerk) is situated on the Markstraat and dates from the 15th century. Prior to the Protestant Reformation it was named for St Vitus. It is one of the oldest surviving churches in The Netherlands, having had the good fortune to survive the Spanish invasion of 1572 and the subsequent burning of the town. The church has numerous wooden vaults that are painted with scenes from the Old and New Testaments. These were hidden for many years and were only rediscovered in a recent restoration. The church is the venue for a number of cultural activities such as organ music nights and the bi-annual Naarden Photo festival.

Every year the Matthew Passion is sung and played in this church with an international audience. For some hard core Bach fans it is a sort of Bach pilgrimage to go there to lissten to Bach's masterpiece.

Johann Sebastian Bach is part of our classical tradition like Chopin of Polands tradition. We also we have a Gustav Mahler tradition. The latter is very Central European, very Austrian and rooted in the Austrian-German culture. When I hear Mahlers music I think about Vienna, Salzburg, Linz, Innsbruck and Alp mountains.

In like this very melancholic Mahler piece


And next to that my mother had to coop with my and my fathers fondness of German tv detectives.






en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatort

Tatort (pol. Miejsce zbrodni) – niemieckojęzyczny serial telewizyjny gatunku kryminalnego, kręcony w Niemczech (od 1970), Austrii (od 1972) i Szwajcarii (1972-2001, od 2011). Jest najdłużej kręconym serialem w tych krajach (od 1970). Pierwszy odcinek serialu został wyemitowany 29 listopada 1970 roku.

Serial pojawia się w kanałach ARD (Niemcy), ÖRF (Austria) i SRF (Szwajcaria) w każdą niedzielę o 20:15. 13 listopada 2016 roku wyemitowano 1000 odcinek serialu.

Od 2009 roku jest emitowany w Stanach Zjednoczonych na kanale MHz Worldview, pod nazwą Scene of the Crime.

Tatort sprowokował konkurencyjną stację DFF (obecnie Das Erste) do emisji własnego, trwającego do dziś serialu, Telefon 110.

Serial bywa krytykowany za pokazywanie czy wręcz promowanie nielegalnych metod operacyjnych.

And we liked this German history show about the 20th century history and the literary German tv program Das Literarische Quartett of the ZDF

Nov 6, 2017 0:01:59 GMT 1 pjotr said:

From 1918 to 1939, the gradual and successive introduction of new ideas resulted in the formation of separate and distinct trends. The first decade of Polish interwar poetry was clear, constructive, and optimistic; as opposed to the second decade marked by dark visions of the impending war, internal conflicts within the Polish society, and growing pessimism. The whole period was amazingly rich nevertheless.

The second decade is naturally darker due to Great Depression. [/quote]

You are very correct Bo. The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday (October 29) was the start of a tragic decade in which Stalinist purges costed the lives of thousands of people in the SovjetUnion and in Germany the Nazi's came to power in 1933. The thirties was a decade of poverty, unemployment and the rise of anti-democratic forces all over Europe. The authoritarian Austrofascists ruled in Austria. A short and bloody civil war took place between socialist and conservative-fascist forces between 12 February and 16 February 1934 in Austria. Authoritiarian regimes ruled in Hungary, Romania, Italy (Mussolini's fascist regime) and authoritarian, reactionary, Ultra-rightwing movements and governments on one side and Communist and radical left Socialist movements on the other side. Communists, socialists, anarchists and leftwing republicans in the Spanish civil war vs righting monarchists, Carlists, Franco fascists and etc. Pablo Picasso's t Pablo Guernica showed the suffering of people wrenched by violence and chaos after a bomardment by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italian warplanes of a Basque Country village in northern Spain, Guernica.

Nov 6, 2017 0:01:59 GMT 1 pjotr said:

The Jewish cultural scene was particularly vibrant, with numerous Jewish publications and over 116 periodicals. Yiddish authors, most notably Isaac Bashevis Singer, went on to achieve international acclaim. Other renowned Jewish authors included Bruno Schulz, Julian Tuwim, Marian Hemar, Emanuel Schlechter, Jan Brzechwa and Bolesław Leśmian.

I didn`t know that Tuwim and Brzechwa wrote Jewish texts. I thought they primarily created in Polish. [/quote]

Julian Tuwim



Julian Tuwim, (born September 13, 1894 , Łódz, Poland, Russian Empire [now in Poland]—died December 27, 1953, Zakopane), lyric poet, satirist, translator, and editor
who was one of the leaders of the 20th-century group of Polish poets called Skamander.

Closely associated with and cofounder of Skamander, Tuwim began his career in 1915 with the publication of a flamboyant Futurist manifesto that created a scandal. His poetry was marked by explosive energy, great emotional tension, and linguistic inventiveness, demonstrated not only in his lyrical poems but also in nursery rhymes. Among his works published before World War II are Czyhanie na Boga (1918; “Lying in Wait for God”), Sokrates tańczący (1920; The Dancing Socrates and Other Poems), and his most important collections, Słowa we krwi (1926; “Words in Blood”) and Biblia cygańska (1933; “The Gypsy Bible”). Because of his Jewish background, Tuwim fled the country at the outbreak of the war. He eventually spent seven years abroad, first in Brazil—where he wrote his long, quasi-epic poem Kwiaty polskie (1949; “Polish Flowers”)—and then in the United States. He returned to Poland in 1946 but wrote little of poetic value thereafter.

Life

Born in Łódź into an assimilated family, Julian Tuwim was the grandson of Leon Krukowski, the publisher of Dziennik Łódzki. In 1916, Tuwim moved to Warsaw, where he studied law and philosophy. One of the most popular Polish interwar poets, he belonged both to the innovative group Skamander, which helped revitalize Polish poetry after 1918, and to the prestigious literary circle around the journal Wiadomości Literackie. Successfully combining intellectual and popular literature, Tuwim excelled in several fields: he was an outstanding lyricist and political satirist, and he also wrote poetry for children, texts of songs, operetta librettos, theater adaptations, and texts for cabaret. After World War II, which he spent in exile in the United States, he returned to Poland in 1946.

Tuwim published several volumes of poetry, including Czyhanie na Boga (Lying in Wait for God; 1918), Sokrates tańczący (The Dancing Socrates; 1920), Siódma jesień (Seventh Autumn; 1922), Biblia cygańska (Gypsy Bible; 1933), Słowa we krwi (Words in Blood; 1936), and Treść gorejąca (Contents Aflame; 1936); a volume of satire, Jarmark rymów (Market of Rhymes; 1934); followed by poems Bal w operze (Ball at the Opera; written 1936, published 1946) and Kwiaty polskie (Polish Flowers; 1949); volumes of children’s verse, Lokomotywa (Locomotive; 1938), Słoń Trąbalski (Elephant Trąbalski; 1938), and Zosia Samosia (Self-Willed Sophie; 1938); and sketches Pegaz dęba (Pegasus Rampant; 1950). He edited several anthologies, dictionaries, and lexicons covering fields as diverse as Polish witchcraft and demons, Polish vocabulary related to alcohol consumption, and Polish literature. He also translated Latin, Russian, and French literary works, as well as Polish poetry into Esperanto. Tuwim’s poetry for children quickly found its way into Polish school textbooks and became part of the canon of children’s literature.

Tuwim’s early poetry was influenced by futurism and expressionism but did not break completely with literary tradition. It was marked by vitalism inspired by Bergson’s philosophy, a fondness for everyday, proselike language and urban motifs, and a tendency to feature ordinary people as protagonists. With time, this approach gave way to a classicist tendency, existential, and metaphysical themes, catastrophic motifs, and a vision of poetry as “an alchemy of words.” Tuwim’s political poetry and its distinctive pacifist overtones attracted a great deal of attention. His linguistic experimentation revealed the influence of Russian futurism and its view of language. His “philosophy of language” focused on the relationship between word and object, sound and name, and the concept of poetry as words returning to their origins.

Tuwim’s feelings about his Jewishness were ambivalent and assumed a variety of forms. In a 1924 interview, the poet told Nasz Przegląd (no. 6): “I am a Polonized Jew, that is, a Jew-Pole, and I don’t care what people say about it. I was raised in Polish culture; instinctively, guided by a sincere impulse, I would say subconsciously, I have become attached with all my soul to Polishness.” He added that assimilation was the only logical solution to the Jewish question in Poland but the antisemitism poisoning Polish society caused him not to believe in it.

Thus, antsemitism became an issue of key importance to Tuwim. At times, in his early poetry, he seemed to present himself in conformity to antisemitic stereotypes. This perspective, apparent in Semi-Eros, Bank (Bank), and Giełdziarze (Stock Brokers), prompted protests from Jewish readers. By contrast, in Żydek (Little Jew) a sense of solidarity unites two Jewish marginals: an assimilated poet and a mad beggar. Tuwim decided not to publish some of his more dramatic poems on the subject of Polish–Jewish relations, among them “Pieśni o biciu” (Songs about a Beating; written in 1914 in reaction to antisemitic incidents in Łódź), or youthful poems identifying with the persecuted and expressing the internal conflict created by belonging simultaneously to Jewish and Polish worlds (“Tragedia”). Writing for the cabaret, he excelled in szmonces, the cabaret genre that portrayed a Jewish milieu and drew on comic interaction between Polish and Yiddish (e.g., "Mistyka finansów" [Finance Mystique; 1933] and "Elegia starozakonna" [Old Testament Elegy; 1928]), and mocked the forms of assmiliation of the Jewish bourgeoisie.

During the interwar period, Tuwim was viciously attacked by right-wing critics who depicted his work as a reflection of Jewish “racial” characteristics and thus as “alien” to Polish art, corrupting and amoral. In the late 1930s, demands were voiced for the removal of Tuwim’s poetry from school textbooks and for the confiscation of his books. Some nationalist Jewish groups also treated him as a renegade; for example, he was attacked in Marek Turkow’s brochure “Polacy, Żydzi i mechesi” (Poles, Jews and the Apostates; 1930).

Tuwim responded to antisemitic nationalist attacks with biting satire, mocking anti-Jewish stereotypes. His support for the new political regime after 1945 can be interpreted in this political context. In the ironic poem Kwiaty Polskie, written during the war, Tuwim condemned fascism and expressed hope for a new democratic and tolerant Poland.

Defending himself from antisemitic attacks, Tuwim stressed his family’s rootedness in Polish culture and his dislike of Jewish Orthodoxy and of Yiddish (e.g., Wspomnienie o Łodzi [Remembering Łódź; 1934]).

However, the Holocaust had modified his position. In My, Żydzi Polscy (We, the Polish Jews), written in 1944 while he was living in exile in the United States, the declaration “I am a Pole” is accompanied by a confession of deep and unconditional solidarity with Jewish victims of Nazism. Tuwim’s love for the Polish language, however, was free of ambivalence. In his best-known declaration of this linguistic affinity, he stated, “This is my home: four walls of verse / The Polish language, my beautiful homeland” (from the poem “Zieleń”).

[pjotr]

[pjotr]

Nov 9, 2017 22:57:14 GMT 1 Bonobo said:

Another wonderful presentation.

Nov 6, 2017 0:01:59 GMT 1 pjotr said:

You (Bo, with much more experience, knowledge and information about Polish general history, art history, Krakow as the center of the Polish cultural intelligentsia; artists, poets, writers, philosophers, Bohemians, intellectuals, professors, playwrights (dramatists), cultural inventors and thus developers of Modern Polish avantgarde and culture.) will know much more then I due to your acces and understanding of Polish sources. The most irritating fact for me is that I have to depend on English language, German language and Dutch language sources. Even my french is to limited to be able to rely on a forth source, French language literature, texts, essays, articles and encyclopedia about Polish art history, culture and the Interbellum in Poland.

I understand you. It must be a bit painful.

It is Bo. I found out that my limited talent in language lies in Germanic languages, Dutch, English and German. I tried several times to learn Polish, but haven't got great talent for the very complicated, elegant (charming) (how my ears hear it). sophisticated, Western slavic Polish language with it's latin grammar. I like the sound of various slavic languages, but Polish has a more intimate, close by sound to me, because ofcourse I must have heard Polish as a baby, toddler and child by my Polish mother, Polish grandmother who spend long times in the Netherlands and our Polish nanny from Poznan. I like to hear Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Russian, Belarussian, Servo-Croation, Macedonian and Slovenian, but Polish is closer. It was the language of my Polish grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends of my mother and her polish family.

[pjotr]

I want to add this to the previous post.

I am stuck in the Germanic linguistic world of Dutch, German, English, Flemish, Afrikaans, Low Saxon and a little bit of Frisian and Yiddish. For me it is very weird fact that I can't understand Polish, but do understand Yiddish (on of the languages of Poland) to a certain extend, because Yiddish is a West-Germanic language with Hebrew and Slavic elements. Sometimes Yiddish comes close to German dialects and some very difficult Dutch dialects, which are even for me hard to understand.

With great effort and due to the fact that I have a Germanistic linguistic interest I can understand some dialects and regional language, because they interested me and I put some effort in understanding them. Maybe due to that fact I could and can understand some Yiddish. Just before I left Amsterdam to study fine art in Arnhem I considered studying German language, Sociology or what we call German studies (the field of humanities that researches, documents, and disseminates German language and literature in both its historic and present forms) at the Free University in Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).


This is very difficult for me to understand, but due to the German foundation of this Polish Yiddish accent, I can understand many words and verbs of this conversation. I don't understand the part of Yiddish which has a hebrew or slavic background. I can understand the German part of it.

Cheers,
Pieter

[pjotr]

The last time in which Yiddish literature, poetry, journalism, culture and theatre existed in Poland was during these Interbellum years. It was a time with a sort of Renaissance or enlightenment of Yiddish culture.



They were not just jews, they were Polish jews


The strong connection of the Polish jews to the Polish soil and Polish nation


Chone Shmeruk was one of the last Polish jewish experts on Polish Yiddish


Chone Shmeruk



Chone Shmeruk, an authority on Yiddish, died on July 5 1997 in Warsaw, his native city. He was 76 and taught Yiddish literature in Poland in the years after his retirement from a professorship in Israel.

When his death was announced in Jerusalem by Hebrew University, the cause was not disclosed.

Professor Shmeruk rose to be a professor of Yiddish literature and chairman of the Yiddish department at the university after emigrating from Poland to Israel in 1949. After his death The Times of London called him ''the world's foremost scholar of Yiddish literature and folklore.''

A dapper, cosmopolitan figure who liked to visit Oxford and London, he was also a prolific writer on Jewish history in Eastern Europe. He was awarded a high Israeli honor, the Israel Prize, in 1996 and was a member of the Israeli Academy of Science.

Professor Shmeruk's first name was sometimes spelled Khone, and it is as Khone Shmeruk that he is listed as a co-editor, along with Irving Howe and Ruth R. Wisse, of ''The Penguin Book of Modern Yiddish Verse,'' a bilingual anthology. It includes work by European, American and Israeli writers and is intendedfor the ordinary reader.

After it was published in 1987, Harold Bloom, then Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard, wrote in The New York Times Book Review that it was a distinguished work.

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chone_Szmeruk (Polish)
he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%97%D7%A0%D7%90_%D7%A9%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A7 (for people who can read Hebrew)

[Bonobo]

Nov 11, 2017 18:38:15 GMT 1 pjotr said:

The strong connection of the Polish jews to the Polish soil and Polish nation

Yes, despite tensions, most Polish Jews really thought they were Polish Jews.

[Bonobo]

Nov 11, 2017 18:26:11 GMT 1 pjotr said:

This is very difficult for me to understand, but due to the German foundation of this Polish Yiddish accent, I can understand many words and verbs of this conversation. I don't understand the part of Yiddish which has a hebrew or slavic background. I can understand the German part of it.
Cheers,
Pieter

I learnt German as a child and teenager but the German-based Yiddish is complete Greek to me now.

[Bonobo]

Nov 10, 2017 1:55:03 GMT 1 pjotr said:

I found out that my limited talent in language lies in Germanic languages, Dutch, English and German. I tried several times to learn Polish, but haven't got great talent for the very complicated, elegant (charming) (how my ears hear it). sophisticated, Western slavic Polish language with it's latin grammar. I like the sound of various slavic languages, but Polish has a more intimate, close by sound to me, because ofcourse I must have heard Polish as a baby, toddler and child by my Polish mother, Polish grandmother who spend long times in the Netherlands and our Polish nanny from Poznan.

Don`t give up. After an initial shock, it gets only easier. The opposite to learning English.

[Bonobo]

Nov 10, 2017 1:33:03 GMT 1 pjotr said:

It would surprise you Bo how much German culture my mother had or has to deal with in the Netherlands as part of European and West-European cultural tradition. For instance the Matthäus-Passion (BWV 24), (St Matthew Passion in English and Pasja według św. Mateusza in Polish) tradition in the Netherlands. A Passion, a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander (Christian Friedrich Henrici). It sets chapters 26 and 27 of the Gospel of Matthew (in the German translation of Martin Luther) to music, with interspersed chorales and arias. It is widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of classical sacred music. My father and mother every year again listen for hours to the Matthäus-Passion sung in German with great intensity by Dutch and foreign singers from many nationalities and international musicians.

Of course, I was too quick with putting my thoughts onto paper so I forgot to add that I didn`t mean German high culture which is so amazingly rich. I meant everyday culture, life style and language issues, of course.

[pjotr]

Typical deep Central European Autumn atmosphere. Dark, grey and somber.

[pjotr]

Nov 11, 2017 20:02:50 GMT 1 Bonobo said:

Nov 11, 2017 18:38:15 GMT 1 pjotr said:

The strong connection of the Polish jews to the Polish soil and Polish nation

Yes, despite tensions, most Polish Jews really thought they were Polish Jews.

Bonobo,

It is true that Polish Jews were Patriots too. During their thousand-year sojourn in Poland Jews helped the country flourish, making great contributions in the fields of commerce, industry, crafts, agriculture, and finance, and in the Polish military as well.

Throughout the period in which Jews lived in Poland many Jews served in the Polish army, taking part in the country’s wars and its battles to achieve independence or defend its independence.

They fought for Poland not only during the Second World War in the Polish armies in the West and East, they also fought in the Polish uprisings in the 19th century.

Due to the Jewish enlightenment of the 18th century, the Haskalah, the Jews transformed themselves into model citizens—enlightened, unsuperstitious, devoted to secular learning and productive occupations.

The most outstanding figure of the 18th-century Jewish Enlightenment was the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86), a devoted adherent of traditional Judaism who turned away from the historic Jewish preoccupation with the Talmud and its literature to the intellectual world of the European Enlightenment. Mendelssohn did not attempt a philosophical defense of Judaism until pressed to do so by Christians who questioned how he could remain faithful to what they saw as an unenlightened religion. In his response, Jerusalem, published in 1783, Mendelssohn defended the validity of Judaism as the inherited faith of the Jews by defining it as revealed divine legislation, and he declared himself at the same time to be a believer in the universal religion of reason, of which Judaism was but one historical manifestation. Aware that he was accepted by Gentile society as an “exceptional Jew” who had embraced Western culture, Mendelssohn’s message to his own community was to become Westerners, to seek out the culture of the Enlightenment. To that end he joined with a poet, Naphtali Herz (Hartwig) Wessely (1725–1805), in translating the Torah into German, combining Hebrew characters with modern German phonetics in an effort to displace Yiddish, and wrote a modern biblical commentary in Hebrew, the Beʾur (“Commentary”). Within a generation, Mendelssohn’s Bible was to be found in almost every literate Jewish home in central Europe, serving to introduce its readers to German culture. Through his personal example and his life’s work, Mendelssohn made it possible for his fellow Jews to join the Western world without sacrificing their Judaism; indeed, he convinced them that Judaism is compatible with an intellectual commitment to universal reason.


Moses Mendelssohn (6 September 1729 – 4 January 1786) was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the Haskalah, the 'Jewish enlightenment' of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is indebted.

Moses Mendelssohn's Haskalah ofcourse also influenced Polish jews to reform themselves, whom intelligentsia and academics of the cities and towns embraced the culture of the Enlightenment. Next to Yiddish speaking Hassidic jews of the Shtetlekh (small towns with large Jewish populations), and some of the Polish workers and middle classes who remained in the Yiddish culture and linguistic world, you had Polonised jews who spoke Polish, German and/or Russian (due to the occupation by the Prussians, Austrians and Russians).

Many Jews took part in the Polish insurrections, particularly against Russia (since the Tsars discriminated heavily against the Jews). The Kościuszko Insurrection, January Insurrection (1863) and Revolutionary Movement of 1905 all saw significant Jewish involvement in the cause of Polish independence.

Many of the Jewish fighters, some of them senior officers, became legends in the Polish army, such as the Jewish-Polish merchant and Lieutenant Colonel Berek Joselewicz, a hero of the Kościuszko uprising in 1794 and the battles against the Russians, Austrians, and Prussians in the years following the uprising. Joselewicz commanded the first Jewish military formation in modern history excluding Prince Potemkin's Israelovsky.


Berek Joselewicz, colonel of the Polish Army during the Kościuszko Uprising.

Joselewicz fell in 1809 in a battle with the Austrians near the city of Kock, becoming a symbol of the joint Polish-Jewish struggle for Polish independence. The Jewish officer was commemorated in history books, stories of heroism studied in military academies, and in a painting by Juliusz Kossak, who showed Joselewicz on horseback with his soldiers.


Death of Berek Joselewicz

The Jewish City Guard (Polish: Gwardia Miejska Starozakonna) was a paramilitary militia force in Poland during the November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution.
On 20 December 1830 the representatives of the Polish Jews demanded that their community be allowed to join the Polish Army along with followers of other denominations. The government agreed and Jews were allowed to join all sorts of military formations, including the Polish Army, Security Guard paramilitary organisation and the National Guard.

However, soldiers and officers of all Polish forces were expected to shave their beards when in uniform, while Orthodox Jews argued that "shaving beards adds neither love for one's country nor bravery". To allow them to serve in the armed forces in accordance with their faith, on 28 February 1831 Jewish City Guards were created in each voivodeship capital. By August 1831 the Warsaw Jewish City Guard had 1098 soldiers. The unit took part in the Battle of Warsaw of 1831.

While most Polish Jews were neutral to the idea of a Polish state, many played a significant role in the fight for Poland's independence during World War One; around 650 Jews joined the Legiony Polskie formed by Józef Piłsudski, more than all other minorities combined. Prominent Jews were among the members of KTSSN, the nucleus of the interim government of re-emerging sovereign Poland including Herman Feldstein, Henryk Eile, Porucznik Samuel Herschthal, Dr. Zygmunt Leser, Henryk Orlean, Wiktor Chajes and others.

Wars

Many Jews fought in the war from 1919-1921, when Poland once again was fighting for its independence, this time against the Soviet Union. They excelled in battle and gained their commanders’ esteem for their courage.

During the Nazi occupation from 1939-1945 Jews also did their part as soldiers in the Free Polish Army and as partisans behind enemy lines. It is true that there were partisan units that did not accept Jewish fighters or even harmed them, but this did not prevent Jews from fighting the Germans in all-Jewish units or units with Poles who considered them comrades in arms.


General Anders salutes his fallen Polish Jewish soldiers of the Polish Corps at Monte Cassino, Italy.

Jews who hid and lived under a Polish identity, and even those who managed to leave the Warsaw Ghetto, which was completely destroyed following the 1943 uprising, took part in the Warsaw uprising led by Bór-Komorowski in the summer of 1944, and many of them were killed.


Jewish Fighters during Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943 in which the majority of them died in their battle with the Nazi Waffen-SS troops of SS- und Polizeiführer Jürgen Stroop

[pjotr]

Polish jews of the Żydowski Związek Wojskowy (ŻZW) and Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ŻOB) attack the German Waffen-SS troops in the Warsaw Ghetto


The Polish jews had nothing to lose and decided to fight until their end in the Getto Uprising in Warsaw in 1943

In my personal opinion the Getto Uprising must have inspired the greater Warsaw Uprising.
There is a difference however between both uprisings. The Jews knew that they would die if they did nothing and they knew that they would die if they fought back, they decided to fight back the German and Austrian Nazi Waffen-SS and Police forces in the Warsaw Getto.

Hundreds of people in the Warsaw ghetto were ready to fight, adults and children, sparsely armed with handguns, gasoline bottles, and a few other weapons that had been smuggled into the Ghetto by resistance fighters. Most of the Jewish fighters did not view their actions as an effective measure by which to save themselves, but rather as a battle for the honour of the Jewish people, and a protest against the world's silence.

On the afternoon of 19 April 1943, a symbolic event took place in the Warsaw Ghetto when two boys climbed up on the roof of a building on the square and raised two flags, the red-and-white Polish flag and the blue-and-white banner of the ŻZW (Żydowski Związek Wojskowy). These flags remained there, highly visible from the Warsaw streets, for four days. After the war, Stroop recalled:

The matter of the flags was of great political and moral importance. It reminded hundreds of thousands of the Polish cause, it excited them and unified the population of the General Government, but especially Jews and Poles. Flags and national colours are a means of combat exactly like a rapid-fire weapon, like thousands of such weapons. We all knew that – Heinrich Himmler, Krüger, and Hahn. The Reichsfuehrer [Himmler] bellowed into the phone: "Stroop, you must at all costs bring down those two flags!"

— Jürgen Stroop, 1949


The red-and-white Polish flag, which hang on one of the buildings of the Jewish resistance fighters next to the blue-and-white banner of the ZZW.


The blue-and-white banner of the Żydowski Związek Wojskowy -Jewish Military Union- ZZW.

Cheers,
Pieter

[Bonobo]

I burn Paris was one of the most scandalous literary works during the period.



I Burn Paris remains one of Poland's most incovenient masterstrokes of literature since the initial controversial publication of its installments by Henri Barbusse in the journal L'Humanité in 1928. It is translated into English by Soren A. Gauger and Marcin Piekoszewski and recently released by the Prague-based publisher Twisted Spoon.

The novel was written by Jasieński link opens page in new window in retaliation to a frivolous novella from Paul Morand, who spent time as a French diplomat in Moscow. That Je brûle Moscou / I Burn Moscow in French was considered by Jasieński a mockery of the world’s proletarian capital, and he was determined to strike back. The publication of the subversive I Burn Paris in fact led to Jasieński’s deportation from Paris.

In her recent review for the Times Literary Supplement, Marci Shore states:

While much has by now been written about the relationship between the avant-garde and Stalinist literature, Jasieński's I Burn Paris reveals a still largely forgotten moment: post-avant-garde and pre-Socialist Realist. Aesthetically, the moment was a fantastical one: quasi-Surrealist, hallucinogenic, and grotesque.

The novel tells the story of a disgruntled factory worker who, finding himself on the streets, takes the opportunity to poison the French capital’s water supply. As victims grow in numbers, we encounter Chinese communists, rabbis, disillusioned scientists, embittered Russian émigrés, French communards and royalists, American millionaires and a host of others as the city sections off into ethnic enclaves and everyone plots their route of escape. At the heart of the cosmopolitan city is a deep-rooted xenophobia and hatred — the one thread that binds all these groups together. As Paris is brought to ruin, Jasieński issues a rallying cry to the downtrodden of the world, mixing strains of The Internationale with a broadcast of popular music.

With its montage strategies reminiscent of early avant-garde cinema and fist-to-the-gut metaphors, I Burn Paris loses none of its vitality and vigor when read today. Ruthlessly dissecting various utopian fantasies, Jasieński is out to disorient, and he has a seemingly limitless ability to transform the Parisian landscape into the product of disease-addled minds. An exquisite example of literary Futurism and Catastrophism, the novel presents a filthy, degenerated world where factories and machines have replaced the human and economic relationships have turned just about everyone into a prostitute. Yet rather than a clichéd simplistic propaganda, there is an immediacy to the writing, and the modern metropolis is starkly depicted as only superficially cosmopolitan, and in reality hostile and animalistic at its core.

This English translation of I Burn Paris fills a major gap in the availability of works from the interwar Polish avant-garde, an artistic phenomenon receiving growing attention with recent publications such as Ms. Shore's Caviar and Ashes. Her book was released in 2006, and it tells the story of Polish writers in the era between the two World Wars, enchanted with communist ideology. Among the protagonists of the story are the activist poets Władysław Broniewski, Aleksander Wat and Bruno Jasieński.

I Burn Paris features an introductory note written by Anatol Stern and an afterword by the translator Soren A. Gauger. Another novel from Jasieński which has previously appeared in English is The Mannequins' Ball (Routledge, 2000). In 2013, the Czech-based publishing house Twisted Spoon, founded by two Americans, plans to release Jasieński’s The Legs of Izolda Morgan.

Bruno Jasieński (1901-1938) rose to fame at 20 as a poet, and the author of avant-garde verse that introduced the futuristic trend to Poland. His poems, such as the But w butonierce / The Shoe in the Buttonhole and Marsz / The March shocked readers as the author employed phonetic spelling and broke with any orthographic rules. Jasieński was a revolutionary and a futurist both in his use of language and in the actual content of his writings.

Following repression from the police and censorship, he fled to France in 1925. After his expulsion, he stayed in the Soviet Union until 1929. Towards the end of the 1930s, Bruno Jasieński was charged with "ideological alienation" and would find no more freedom in his life. He is believed to have been executed and buried in a mass grave near Moscow. In his article, Piotr Mitzner writes that according the NKVD files Jasieński was executed on the 17th of September 1938.

I Burn Paris
by Bruno Jasieński
translated from the Polish
by Soren A. Gauger & Marcin Piekoszewski
artwork by Cristian Opriș
Twisted Spoon Press, Praga 2012
ISBN 978-8086264370
135 x 190, 309 pgs, hardcover
e-book: ISBN 978-8086264752

Editor: Paulina Schlosser
Source: www.twistedspoon.com, www.polishculture.org.uk
culturepl

culture.pl/en/work/i-burn-paris-bruno-jasienski