Edited and translated by Daniel Gerould and C.S. Durer, foreword by Jan Kott. Painter, playwrights, novelist, aesthetician, philosopher, and expert on drugs, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz - or Witkacy, as he called himself - remains Poland's outstanding figure in the arts between the two world wars. This volume brings together three of Witkiewicz's best works for the stage as well as a selection from his critical writing. The plays deal with the author's principal themes and obsessions: the dilemma of the artist in the twentieth century; the revolutions in science and politics; and the bankruptcy of all ideology, the decline of western civilization, and the coming of totalitarianism. Yet, far from being solemn or even serious in tone, these apocalyptic dramas are permeated with grotesque humor and characterized by a wild theatricality that particularly appeals to contemporary sensibility.
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Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Polish
Original Language: Polish
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A spectacular talent,
By Ignacio (Portland OR USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Mother and Other Unsavory Plays: Including The Shoemakers and They (Mother & Other Unsavory Plays) (Paperback)
Witkiewicz is so gifted that his very brilliance almost works against him at times. But "The Mother" (and in another volume "The Madman and the Nun") are masterpieces of 20th century theatre. I first ran into Witkiewicz while looking for no particular reason at an issue of Poland magazine when I was 16 years old. His work has been one of the biggest influences on my own thought (such as it ever has been and is). His novel "Insatiability" is on the level of the tremendous books by pre-Hitler German writers such as Hermann Broch, Alfred Doblin, Thomas Mann and Joseph Frank. The best comparison may be to Bruno Schulz and Witold Gombrowicz (the latter was the only one of the three to survive WWII.)
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
I MET Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz five or six years before the Second World War. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tasteless parlor, crazy locomotive, first apprentice, taking cocaine, little cook Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Vigilant Youth, The Water Hen, Antonin Artaud, New York, Pugnatsy Jawbloatski, Second World War, The Independence, Czeslaw Milosz, First World War, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Colonel Fondoloff, Lucina Beer, New Guinea, Russian Revolution, Seraskier Banga Tefuan, South Sea Islands, The Crazy Locomotive, Baroness von Oates, Basilissa Teophan, Count Tremendosa, Grove Press, Ibsen's Ghosts, Jack Cade, Madam Mother, Solomon Pillory New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
I MET Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz five or six years before the Second World War. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tasteless parlor, crazy locomotive, first apprentice, taking cocaine, little cook Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Vigilant Youth, The Water Hen, Antonin Artaud, New York, Pugnatsy Jawbloatski, Second World War, The Independence, Czeslaw Milosz, First World War, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Colonel Fondoloff, Lucina Beer, New Guinea, Russian Revolution, Seraskier Banga Tefuan, South Sea Islands, The Crazy Locomotive, Baroness von Oates, Basilissa Teophan, Count Tremendosa, Grove Press, Ibsen's Ghosts, Jack Cade, Madam Mother, Solomon Pillory New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 17
books:
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- Ghost Sonata and When We Dead Awaken (Crofts Classics) by August Strindberg on 4 pages
- The Theater and Its Double by Antonin Artaud on page 17, page 159, and page 233
- A Dream Play by Caryl Churchill on page 14, and page 15
- Beelzebub Sonata (PAJ Books) by Professor Stanislaw I. Witkiewicz in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Life of the Drama by Eric Bentley in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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