| About the book
Since the envoys had brought news of the arrival of the Emperor, Bolesław’s kingdom had been overwhelmed by an all-encompassing state of commotion. Aside from the settlers living deep within the deepest forests, there was probably no one who did not, in some way or other, (...)
more >> |
| | About the book
8
The phones are always going wrong, so my parents aren’t upset when there’s no dialling tone. They’re at the fortieth birthday party of a female friend from their class at high school. They say they’re going downstairs to the phone booth for a (...)
more >> |
|
|
Ewa KurylukViennese Apocalypse
I am glad to hear about a new edition of Viennese Apocalypse, a book on an "end-of-the-world-experiment" as Viennese culture around 1900 is now often called. However, when 25 years ago the young author published her book she was, together with Schorske, Janik and Toulmin, one of the first scholars who discovered the world of Schnitzler, Hofmannsthal, Klimt, Schiele and Trakl, and the "other Vienna", that of young Hitler and his teacher Lanz. Ever since Vienna around 1900 and Austrian culture of the 20th century have been moving to center stage.
Ewa Kuryluk's book - a study of culture as a whole - has retained its freshness and remains an essential collection of first-rate essays offering a rare insight into the imaginary and real apocalypse of our time. The updated 1999 edition ends with "Apocalypse in Action", an essay on Viennese Actionists, a group of extremely influential artists whose daring performances Kuryluk - then a teenage pupil of a Viennese Realgymnasium - saw in the early 60s. Viennese Apocalypseshould have been translated in the West in 1974, when it first appeared. But today, as we reflect on the apocalyptic character of so much of our century, this book might appeal even more, and to an even bigger readership.
Viennese Apocalypse
Vienna around 1900 - the symbol of a multinational world which is gone from the map - was an apocalyptic city in a dual sense. The horror which haunted the creators of Viennese culture and colored their work had a counterpart in the threats of those who wanted this culture destroyed: the pan-Germanic nationalists and anti-Semites. Encouraged by the slogans of racial and cultural purity, a dark underworld began to grow. There frustration was turned into resentment, mediocrity into phanaticism. As fakes and mythomans joined hands with criminals, apocalyptic ground was prepared for pre-Nazism: the grotesque product of the ex-monk Lanz, the teacher of young Hitler.
Viennese culture around 1900 was discovered by those who had a link to Austria and an interest in European history. But they, including myself, were also carried by a wave of change which reflected the new sensibility of a new generation, born right after World War II. This generation had little fascination with progress and modernity. "Bauhaus" was known to us from the triste monotony of endless city projects, "Mondrian" from the striped decoration of a milk-bar. Surrounded by the vulgar imitations of Abstraction or Constructivism, we had no desire for the purity and autonomy of form. Instead, we longed for an art that would not bypass the essence of existence and the hell of recent history. Can poems be written after Auschwitz? Certainly, we answered. But in order to write them we had to put aside heroic rhymes about electricity and gas and read again of "November destruction" in a poem by Trakl.
Ewa KURYLUK (b.1946) - an art historian, artist, essayist and writer, she was born in Cracow and studied painting and art history there. She has lived since 1981 in New York and Paris, lecturing at American universities and writing in English.
Back |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are more than 31,000 publishers registered in Poland. However, the market is highly concentrated. The 300 largest publishing firms still hold almost 98 per cent of it. More »
|
|
|
|
