A prominent figure in early 20th-century Czech avant-garde literature, this author was also a co-founder of the Surrealist movement within Czechoslovakia. Their prolific output significantly shaped the literary landscape of the era.
Czech writer Vitezslav Nezval (1900-58) was one of the leading Surrealist poets of the 20th century. Prague with Fingers of Rain is his classic 1936 collection in which Prague’s many-sided life – its glamorous history, various weathers, different kinds of people – becomes symbolic of what is contradictory and paradoxical in life itself.
Alphabet by Vítezslav Nezval (1900-1959) is widely recognized today as a consummate Czech contribution to European modernism and a unique distillation of the creative spirit of the 1920s. Published originally in 1926, it is a composite of experimental poetry, modern dance, and photomontage typography, by the poet Vítezslav Nezval, dancer Milca Mayerová, and typographer Karel Teige. This idiosyncratic and idiomatic work transports the reader-viewer through the discipline and fantasy of the modern age. The contributions of Karel Teige, the leading spokesperson for Devetsil and avant-garde ideas in interwar Czechoslovakia, has secured the book international fame in recent years. Teige's original layout, designed to create an optical language, a system of signs capable of embodying words in graphic figures, has been preserved in this facsimile edition.
Kniha "Woman in the Plural" spadá do žánru Cizojazyčná literatura. Kniha je vázaná. Přejeme příjemné čtení.
Poetistischer Schauerroman
Die junge Valerie erlebt ihr erotisches Erwachen. Sie wird von einem geheimnisvollen Vampir heimgesucht, verliebt sich zum ersten Mal, Traum und Wirklichkeit verschmelzen zu einer unwiderstehlich spannenden Abfolge von Wundern. Der tschechische Poetismus wurde zeitgleich mit dem französischen Surrealismus entwickelt und ist «eine Methode, das Leben als Gedicht zu sehen». Der vorliegende Roman, verfasst 1935, publiziert 1945, diente 1970 als Vorlage für den berühmten gleichnamigen Film von Jaromil Jireš. Übersetzt von Ondřej Cikán. – Vitezslav Nezval, Ondrej Cikan –
First published as an Oxford World's Classics paperback 2004; Reissued 2008.-- Title page verso.
Básnicky pojatý "černý román", příběh odehrávající se na pomezí snu a skutečnosti.
This book, published by Twisted Spoon Press in Prague, showcases the work of Vítězslav Nezval, an avant-garde poet whose 1937 collection represents a peak in his artistic evolution. Merging Poetism and Surrealism with political themes from the pre-World War II era, the collection is marked by remarkable verbal and visual creativity. Nezval's imagination is unrestrained, exploring a variety of forms, including imaginative free verse, formally rhymed quatrains, prose, and visual art, featuring six of his decalcomania images. Alongside his earlier collections, this work is crucial to interwar Surrealist poetry. It shifts focus to darker themes of decay and entropy, with line breaks in shorter poems creating fragmented language that invites multiple interpretations. Influenced by Salvador Dalí's method of "hand-painted dream photographs," the poems venture into unexpected realms, evolving until they either resolve or dissolve, much like electron clouds. Nezval's language remains meticulously controlled, allowing him to navigate the vibrant uncertainties of Surrealism, crafting recognizable yet surprising shapes that meld images and concepts into a dazzling kaleidoscope.
Tato kniha byla vydána českým nakladatelstvím Twisted Spoon Press, které sídlí v Praze a vydává díla českých a slovanských autorů v anglickém jazyce. Oficiální anotace nakladatele: Launched in 1931 by Jindřich Štyrský, the series Edition 69 comprised six volumes of erotic literature and illustration that followed the path marked out by Louis Aragon's Irene's Cunt and Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye. Given the censorship laws of the day, the Edition 69 series was not for sale, and print runs numbered no more than 200. This volume brings together English translations of the two most important texts in the series: Nezval's “Sexual Nocturne” and Štyrský's “Emilie Come to Me in a Dream,” supplemented by the original essay from psychoanalyst Bohuslav Brouk, a fellow founding member of The Surrealist Group of Czechoslovakia. Edition 69 represented a sustained attempt by the interwar Czech avant-garde to investigate the taboos of bourgeois culture.
