BRUNO SCHULZ -- part 2 -- (*) English Text (July 12, 1892, Drohobycz, Poland - November 19, 1942, Drohobycz, Poland) THE STREET OF CROCODILES -- CINNAMON SHOPS Schulzs first book was published in 1934 and its title derived from one of the stories in the book - CINNAMON SHOPS. The book was translated into English under a title of another story included in that same collection - THE STREET OF CROCODILES. Perhaps Schulz intended to illustrate CINNAMON SHOPS, but he only managed to do the book cover and two other illustrations, included. Several versions of the book cover illustrations depict the subject matter of the stories included in the book. Celina Wieniewska, Schulzs translator, relates that he writes about his parents, uncles, aunts and cousins each described with deadly accuracy...These were Schulzs people, the people of Drohobycz -- at one time the Klondike of Galicia when oil was struck near the city and prosperity entered it and destroyed the old patriarchal way of life, bringing false values, bogus Americanization, and new ways of making a quick fortune - when the white spaces of an old map of the city were transformed into a new district, when the Street of Crocodiles became its centre, peopled with a race of rattle-headed men and women of easy morals. Mother, Father and Adela the maid make regular appearances in the stories together with numerous uncles and aunts as well as shop assistants some of whom were employed in the family business. From CINNAMON SHOPS: ...at that late hour the strange and most attractive shops were sometimes open, the shops which on ordinary days one tended to overlook.....These truly noble shops, open late at night, have always been the objects of my ardent interest. Dimly lit, their dark and solemn interiors were redolent of the smell of paint, varnish and incense; of the aroma of distant countries and rare commodities...[where] old distinguished merchants ...served their customers with downcast eyes, in discreet silence, and who were full of wisdom and tolerance for their customers most secret whims. In THE STREET OF CROCODILES Schulz describes a tailors shop which served as a facade behind which there was an antique shop with a collection of highly questionable books and private editions...These engravings and etchings were beyond our boldest expectations: not even in our dreams had we anticipated such depths of corruption, such varieties of licentiousness. In 1937, Schulz introduces CINNAMON SHOPS as ... an attempt to depict a particular family, a particular provincial home, built up not of real elements, events, characters, or facts, but of a search extended above all theses, a search for mythical content, for an ultimate sense of this story. ================================================ You may also want to have a look at part I of examining Schulz, on May 14, where we featured a gallery of very special drawings -- the dominatrix view of woman.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 20:25:14 +0000
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