Bruno Jasieński war eine Schlüsselfigur der polnischen futuristischen Bewegung, dessen Werk die Dynamik der Moderne und gesellschaftliche Veränderungen mit ausdrucksstarker und experimenteller Poesie erforschte. Seine Schriften spiegelten oft seine radikalen politischen Überzeugungen und seine Suche nach einer neuen künstlerischen Sprache wider, die der turbulenten Zeit entsprechen konnte. Jasieńskis Leben, das tragisch inmitten der sowjetischen Säuberungen endete, verleiht seinem literarischen Erbe eine tiefgründige Dimension und dient als eindringliche Erinnerung an die komplexen Beziehungen zwischen Kunst, Politik und persönlichem Schicksal. Sein Einfluss als Avantgarde-Dichter und Theoretiker wird bis heute in modernistischen Kunstkreisen anerkannt.
Ein junger Pariser erlebt, dass seine Liebe nicht ausreicht, um seine Geliebte zu halten. Als die Pest ausbricht, herrscht Anarchie in der Stadt, während politische und ethnische Konflikte eskalieren. Bruno Jasieńskis Roman von 1928 thematisiert die Gefahren von Seuchen und die radikale Ablehnung des Kapitalismus.
This book, published by Twisted Spoon Press in Prague, presents a powerful narrative that has remained a significant piece of Polish literature since its controversial serialization in 1928. It follows a disgruntled factory worker who, after losing his job, decides to poison Paris's water supply. As chaos ensues, the story unfolds against a backdrop of diverse characters, including Chinese communists, rabbis, disillusioned scientists, and American millionaires, all navigating a city fracturing into ethnic enclaves. Central to the narrative is a pervasive xenophobia that unites these groups amid the city's descent into ruin. The author issues a rallying cry for the oppressed, blending revolutionary themes with popular music. Employing montage techniques reminiscent of early avant-garde cinema, the novel dissects utopian fantasies with visceral metaphors. It transforms Paris into a landscape shaped by disease and despair, illustrating a world where factories and machines dominate, reducing human relationships to mere transactions. Despite its grim depiction, the writing possesses an immediacy that transcends simplistic propaganda, revealing the metropolis as superficially cosmopolitan yet fundamentally hostile. This English translation addresses a significant gap in the interwar Polish avant-garde literature, an artistic movement that is gaining renewed interest.
This publication by Twisted Spoon Press showcases the work of Bruno Jasieński, a controversial figure in the Polish avant-garde. Following the release of his short “novel” The Legs of Izolda Morgan in 1923, Jasieński proclaimed the end of Futurism in Poland. His extraordinary prose serves as a cautionary tale against the dominance of machines over humanity, while also exploring the fetishization of the human body. The text is framed between two key manifestoes and the essay “Polish Futurism,” which reflects on the movement's complex reception in Poland, the influence of Mayakovsky, and its distinctions from Italian and Russian futurisms. The story “Keys” marks Jasieński's shift toward satire, critiquing the hypocrisies of powerful institutions. This theme is further developed in two longer grotesques from his time in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. Translated into English from Russian for the first time, these late stories reveal the absurdity of racial persecution and warmongering, highlighting the extremes to which social and political systems will go to sustain such injustices. Contents include manifestoes and stories from 1921 to 1936, illustrating Jasieński's evolving critique of society and politics.
