Sun. May 19, 2024, 3:00-4:30 pm, Los Angeles Time
CONTENTS
Updated 4/18/24
Posted 4/15/24 - Check for updates
I. THE BOOK
II. ROAD MAP
III. SPECIAL GUEST David Goldfarb
IV. BLOGSPOT V. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
VI. OTHER SOURCES
VII. HOW TO JOIN A SHMOOZE
I. THE BOOK
The new translation of Bruno Schulz, Collected Stories, by Madeline G. Levine (Northwestern U Press) is highly recommended. The book won the Polish Cultural Institute's Found in Translation Award in 2019. There is also the important 1963 Penguin edition with translation by Celina Wieniewska.
The visual artist and author Bruno Schulz 1892-1942.
II. ROAD MAP
Page numbers are to the Levine translation except as indicated.
A. Mannequins in Schulz and Vogel
Schulz, A Treatise on Mannequins; or The Second Book of
Genesis, 25-28
Schulz A Treatise on Mannequins, Continued, 29-30
Schulz Treatise on Mannequins, Continued, 31-34
Vogel, Selections from Mannequins (1934), in Lyubas (2020):
Mannequins, 176; Drinking Songs, 190; Shoddy Ballads, 200;
Afterword to Mannequins, 216
B. The Encounter with Modernity in Stories by Schulz
Goldfarb, Introduction (Penguin Edition)
Intro, Schulz
.pdf
Download PDF • 9.67MB
Schulz, Street of the Crocodiles, 45-53
C. The Fantastic and the Grotesque in Schulz's Oeuvre
The Sanatorium Under the Hourglass, 185-204
Essay by Eva Kuryluk, in J. Ficowski, The Drawings of Bruno
Schulz (Northwestern U Press, 1990)
Schulz, Kuryluk
.pdf
Download PDF • 1.61MB
Schulz, The Mythologizing of Reality, in J. Ficowski, The
Drawings of Bruno Schulz (Northwestern U Press, 1990)
Schulz, Mythologizing of Reality
.pdf
Download PDF • 473KB
D. Bruno Schulz in Yiddishland
Start with this video of David Goldfarb interviewing Karen Underhill, author of the forthcoming book in May 2024, Bruno Schulz and Galician Jewish Modernity (Indiana U Press).
From the book jacket:
"In the 1930s, through the prose of Bruno Schulz (1892–1942), the Polish language became the linguistic raw material for a profound exploration of the modern Jewish experience. Rather than turning away from the language like many of his Galician Jewish colleagues who would choose to write in Yiddish, Schulz used the Polish language to explore his own and his generation's relationship to East European Jewish exegetical tradition, and to deepen his reflection on golus or exile as a condition not only of the individual and of the Jewish community, but of language itself, and of matter. Drawing on new archival discoveries, this study explores Schulz's diasporic Jewish modernism as an example of the creative and also transient poetic forms that emerged on formerly Habsburg territory, at the historical juncture between empire and nation-state." https://iupress.org/9780253057273/bruno-schulz-and-galician-jewish-modernity/
Then:
Itzik Manger reads his poem (in Yiddish): Afn veg shteyt a boym
(On the road stands a tree) with English subtitles:
Schulz, Birds, 16-19
III. SPECIAL GUEST
David A. Goldfarb will join the conversation on 5/19, to very great appreciation from the Shmoozers. Dr. Goldfarb (David) is a scholar of
scholar of Polish literature and literary theory; he is also a literary translator from Polish to English. The present session on Bruno Schulz would not have its richness and depth without David Goldfarb's acting as a consultant and guide to Schulz' work and world. Among the readings below is the Introduction to the 1963 Penguin edition of Bruno Schulz's stories written by David Goldfarb. David also hosts the monthly video series Encounters with Polish Literature (produced in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Institute New York) . See the episodes on Bruno Schulz, Debora Vogel (with Anastasia Luybas and Karolina Syzmaniak), and others whose works we have read, heard about, or undoubtedly should read. A fun fact about David for anthropologist Shmoozers: David's dissertation "The Discourse of the 'Primitive' in Eastern and Western European Modernism" was supervised by Vincent Crapanzano. (Source: http://mosaic.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/vitae.htm ).
IV. BLOGSPOT
May be Coming Soon
V. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Very Likely Coming Soon
VI. OTHER SOURCES
Goldfarb, D. A.(1997) The Vortex and the Labyrinth: Bruno Schulz and the Objective Correlative
The_Vortex_and_the_Labyrinth_Bruno_Schul (1)
.pdf
Download PDF • 573KB
"Territory of Dreams: The World of Bruno Schulz," by Becca Rothfeld, Book Review of Collected Stories, Trans. Madeline G. Levine. The Nation, July 29, 2019
Roth and Singer on Bruno Schulz, The New York Times, February 13, 1977
VII. HOW TO JOIN A SHMOOZE
The Yiddish Shmoozers (In Translation) started in 2018, when an anthropologist (Gelya Frank) and a rabbi (Haim Dov Beliak) didn't walk into a bar.
You, too, can drop in any time by showing up on Zoom. We welcome anyone to the conversation who makes comments related to the book's text and/or context. We're also happy to have you drop by if you want to listen.
Expect a small group of about 12-15 people per session. The tone is reliably friendly and respectful. Questions? Suggestions?
Contact us:
Gelya Frank
Anthropologist, Writer, Shmoozamama