Elio Petri WRITINGS on CINEMA & LIFE

Dedicated to the value & the indispensable importance of the individual voice, to testing the boundaries of thought and experience. catalog

2015 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Only the book matters, such as it is, far from genres, outside of categories —. prose, poetry, novel, testimony — under which it refuses to be classed, and to which it denies the ability to assign its place & determine its form. A book no longer belongs to a genre; every book belongs to literature alone, as if literature possessed beforehand, in their generality, the secrets and formulæ that alone allow what is written to assume the reality of a book. It seems as if genres have vanished, and literature alone asserted itself, gleamed solitary in the mysterious clarity that it propagates, and which each literary creation reflects by multiply- ing it — as if there were, in short, an “essence” of literature. But the essence of literature is precisely to escape any essential determination, any assertion that stabilizes it or even realizes it: it is never already there; it always has to be rediscovered or reinvented.

.— Maurice Blanchot, The Book to Come Title: Gilgamesh Translated with an introduction by Stuart Kendall ISBN: 9780983697206. $18, 14£, 12€ Pub.Date: January 2012

encomiums

“The exemplary version for our time.” —Jerome Rothenberg Stuart Kendall’s Gilgamesh is the exemplary ver- Composed over 2,500 years, lost in the deserts of Iraq for 2,000 Stuart Kendall sion for our time, a reading that allows the mind more, Gilgamesh presents a palimpsest of ancient Middle Eastern cultic and courtly lyrics and lore. The story of a vision- to see what had been too long lost to us and what ary journey beyond the limits of human experience, Gilgamesh is a tale of friendship, adventure, mortality, and loss. The leg- we so much need to make us fully human. This is ends it collects ultimately informed Greek and Egyptian myths, the place to go for further sustenance. Hebrew Scriptures, and Islamic literature. Scholarly translations of Gilgamesh often dilute the .— Jerome Rothenberg expressive force of the material through overzealous erudition. Gilgamesh Popular versions of the poem frequently gloss over gaps in the text with accessible and comforting, but ultimately falsely This strikingly handsome edition ofGilgamesh ecumenical language. has the feel of picking up a fragment of the cu- In this new translation, Stuart Kendall animates the latest scholarship with a contemporary poetic sensibility, inspired by neiform tablet, miraculously lucid, magically set, the pagan worldview of the ancient work. Transcriptions of all of the available tablets and tales have been harnessed to present the solemn priestly tablets of the ‘original’ are a fluid and holistic Gilgamesh, true to the archaic mind. transformed into communiqués from the field This Gilgamesh is a poem of environmental encounter and, ultimately, ecological disaster. It is a contemporary poem of action. An exemplary translation that recovers rooted in the origins of our civilization, a record of the first the time of listening. break of light at the dawn of our consciousness. — Robert Kelly Stuart Kendall .

Image, Front Cover: isbn 978-0-9836972-0-6 Demon, called Humbaba, terracotta, c. 2000-1500 bce, 6.9 cm high, Iraq Museum, www.contramundum.net Baghdad, Iraq

Composed over 2,500 years, lost in the deserts sions of the poem frequently gloss over gaps of Iraq for 2,000 more, Gilgamesh presents a in the text with accessible and comforting, palimpsest of ancient Middle Eastern cultic but ultimately falsely ecumenical language. and courtly lyrics & lore. The story of a vi- In this new version, Stuart Kendall ani- sionary journey beyond the limits of human mates the latest scholarship with a contempo- experience, Gilgamesh is a tale of friendship, rary poetic sensibility, inspired by the pagan adventure, mortality, and loss. The legends worldview of the ancient work. Transcrip- it collects ultimately informed Greek and tions of all of the available tablets and tales Egyptian myths, Hebrew Scriptures, and have been harnessed to present a fluid and Islamic literature. holistic Gilgamesh, true to the archaic mind. Scholarly translations of Gilgamesh often This Gilgamesh is a poem of environ- dilute the expressive force of the material mental encounter and, ultimately, ecological through overzealous erudition. Popular ver- disaster.

0 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Ghérasim Luca, Self-Shadowing Prey Translated with an introduction by Mary Ann Caws ISBN: 9780983697268. $20, 15£, 15€ Pub.Date: March 2012

encomiums

Ghérasim Luca is a great poet among the greatest: Self-Shadowing Prey, one of the final texts by the Romanian GHÉRASIM LUCA he invented a prodigious stammering, his own. poet Ghérasim Luca (1913–1994), is clearly constructed around the sought complications of language. Embodying the surrealist .— Deleuze operation of play with considerable exactitude and rigor, Self- Shadowing Prey is rich with neologistic stupors, nouns made verbs, and compelling repetitions and linguistic expansions. Mary Ann Caws’ passionate translations render Language is not merely put into play but made to participate in an erotic act, and words become the locus of an exploding self. deft, delightful facets of the formidable Ghérasim This linguistically joyous text reveals the arresting syn- Self-Shadowing Prey Ghérasim Luca Luca: virile servings of refreshment and tumult, tactic creation and creative stammering which Deleuze and Guattari both saw in Luca and what led Deleuze to call him liberating language from the yoke of Duty. Self- a great poet among the greatest. “If Ghérasim Luca’s speech is Translation & eminently poetic,” Deleuze pronounced, “it is because he makes Introduction by Shadowing Prey calls for vertiginous reading, in stuttering an affect of language and not an affectation of speech. Mary Ann Caws exhilarating reflection of the sonorous scintilla- The entire language spins and varies in order to disengage a final block of sound, a single breath at the limit of the cry, tions of Luca’s own reading performances. je t’aime passionnément.” .— Julian & Laura Semilian, translators of Ghé- Transformed for the first time into English by distinguished translator Mary Ann Caws, this bilingual edition of Self-Shadow- rasim Luca’s The Inventor of Love& Other Works ing Prey gives us yet one more important text by a key figure of the Romanian branch of Surrealism.

isbn 978-0-9836972-1-3 Bilingual French-English edition

www.contramundum.net

Self-Shadowing Prey, one of the final texts by This linguistically-joyous text reveals the the Romanian poet Ghérasim Luca (1913– arresting syntactic creation& creative stam- 1994), is clearly constructed around the mering which Deleuze and Guattari both sought complications of language. Embody- saw in Luca and what led Deleuze to call him ing the surrealist operation of play with con- a great poet among the greatest. “If Ghérasim siderable exactitude& rigor, Self-Shadowing Luca’s speech is eminently poetic,” Deleuze Prey is rich with neologistic stupors, nouns pronounced, “it is because he makes stutter- made verbs, and compelling repetitions and ing an affect of language and not an affecta- linguistic expansions. Language is not merely tion of speech. The entire language spins and put into play but made to participate in an varies in order to disengage a final block of erotic act, and words become the locus of an sound, a single breath at the limit of the cry, exploding self. JE T’AIME PASSIONNÉMENT.”

1 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Rainer J. Hanshe, The Abdication

ISBN: 9780983697220. $20, 16£, 14€ “A visionary novel of dangerous ideas” Pub.Date: April 8, 2012, Easter — Stuart Kendall

“A visionary novel of dangerous ideas” —Stuart Kendall ANR J. HANSHE RAINER Spring : an enigmatic band- lectuals, or eco-terrorists? Religious leader named Triboulet arrives and political authorities grow leery by helicopter in Rome, where his of the troupe and suspicious of Tri- carnivalesque troupe awaits with a boulet, whose true identity remains legion of animals and unruly kids. a mystery. e very future of the When provoking states of joy- world is at stake, and while touring ous panic through their ritualistic Israel during Christmas, Triboulet frenzies, the troupe’s arrival proves and his raucous band of pranksters restorative, for the world is beset bear witness to the world’s pivotal with famines, plagues, and religious crossing into a new reality.

confl icts, which Triboulet seeks to Abdication e neutralize with freeing laughter. Albert Camus noted that ‘the As Triboulet and his troupe metaphysics of the worst’ expresses begin constructing strange edifi ces itself in a literature of damna- in the Eternal City, sacred sites tion and argued that ‘we have still around the world suff er terrible, not yet found the exit’ from such often beguiling forms of vandalism, literature. With his second novel, and rumors abound that the Christ Hanshe has found the way out, of- has actually fi nally returned. Al- fering in fact something not only though radical Islamic sects claim promising, but astounding, a path- responsibility for the vandalism, way that is into a new reality, into the culprits remain unknown: is it a ‘physics of the best.’ e Abdica- the Jihadists, anarcho-atheist intel- tion is a true ero(t)icomic epic.

 ----

..

Spring 2032: an enigmatic bandleader cho-atheist intellectuals, or eco-terrorists? named Triboulet arrives by helicopter in Religious & political authorities grow leery Rome, where his carnivalesque troupe of the troupe and suspicious of Triboulet, awaits with a legion of animals & unruly whose true identity remains a mystery. The kids. When provoking states of joyous panic very future of the world is at stake, and through their ritualistic acts, the troupe’s -ar while touring Israel during Christmas, Tri- rival proves restorative, for the world is beset boulet and his raucous band of pranksters with famines, plagues, and religious con- bear witness to the world’s pivotal crossing flicts, which Triboulet seeks to neutralize into a new reality. with freeing laughter. As he and his troupe Albert Camus noted that ‘the metaphys- begin constructing strange edifices in the ics of the worst’ expresses itself in a literature Eternal City, sacred sites around the world of damnation and argued that ‘we have still suffer terrible, often beguiling forms of van- not yet found the exit’ from such literature. dalism, and rumors abound that the Christ With his second novel, Hanshe has found the has actually finally returned. way out, offering in fact something not only Although radical Islamic sects claim re- promising, but astounding, a pathway that is sponsibility for the vandalism, the culprits into a new reality, into a ‘physics of the best.’ remain unknown: is it the Jihadists, anar- The Abdication is a true ero(t)icomic epic.

2 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Miklós Szentkuthy, Marginalia on Casanova Introduction by Zéno Bianu; afterword by Mária Tompa ISBN: 9780983697244. $20, 16£, 14€ Pub.Date: September 2012

Marginalia on Casanova is the to show, through the mutations of the ﬁ rﬆ volume of the St. Orpheus Bre- European irit, all the uncertainties viary, Miklós Szentkuthy’s synthesis of contemplative man, the transiency of , years of European culture. of emotions, and the ﬆ erility of philo- Miklós Szentkuthy St. Orpheus is Szentkuthy’s Virgil, sophical syﬆ ems.” an omniscient poet who guides us Marginalia on Casanova relives not through hell, but through all of the iritualization of the main pro- recorded hiﬆ ory, myth, religion, and tagoniﬆ ’s sensual adventures, though literature, albeit reimagined as St. it is less his sex life & more his intel- Orpheus metamorphosizes himself le ual mission, the sole determinant into kings, popes, saints, tyrants, and of his being, which is the focus of this artiﬆ s. At once pagan and Chriﬆ ian, mesmeric book. rough his own glit- Greek and Hebrew, Asian & Europe- tering associations and broadly an- an, St. Orpheus is a mosaic of hiﬆ ory ning array of metaphors, Szentkuthy and mankind in one supra-person th century and on Casanova — St.Marginalia Orpheus Breviary and veil, an endless series of masks analyses & views the  and personæ, humanity in its pro- its notion of homogeneity from the th tean, futural shape, an always chang- vantage point of the  century, with ing fun ion of discourse, text, myth, the full armor of someone who was, & mentalité. perhaps, one of the laﬆ Hungarian Europeans. While a commentary on rough St. Orpheus’ method, Casanova’s memoirs, it is also Szent- di arate moments of hiﬆ ory be- kuthy’s very own philosophy of love. come synchronic, are juggled to reveal, paradoxically, mutual diﬀ erence Passion, playfulness, irony, & and essential similarity. “Orpheus a whole gamut of protean metamor- wandering in the infernal regions,” phoses are what chara erize Margi- says Szentkuthy, “is the perennial nalia on Casanova, a work in which symbol of the mind loﬆ amid the readers will experience both profun- enigmas of reality. e aim of the dity and a taking to wing of essay- work is, on the one hand, to represent writing that is intelle ually radiant the reality of hiﬆ ory with the utmoﬆ and as sensual and provocative as a possible precision, and on the other, gondola ride with Casanova.

 ---- “ e greateﬆ enterprise in scope, in worth? — undertaken in the Hungarian novel.” Csaba S ..

featured author Portrait of Miklós Szentkuthy by József Pécsi (1934).

Marginalia on Casanova, the first book of is an omniscient poet who guides us not Szentkuthy’s St. Orpheus Breviary, has been through hell, but through all of recorded translated into English for the very first time. history, myth, religion, and literature, albeit Originally published in Hungary in 1939, reimagined as St. Orpheus metamorphosizes as Csaba Sík noted, St. Orpheus Breviary himself into kings, popes, saints, tyrants, & “represents the greatest enterprise in scope, artists. At once pagan and Christian, Greek in worth? — undertaken in the Hungarian and Hebrew, Asian and European, St. Or- novel.” pheus is a mosaic of history and mankind in Marginalia on Casanova is the first volume one supra-person and veil, an endless series of the St. Orpheus Breviary, Miklós Szent- of masks and personae, humanity in its pro- kuthy’s synthesis of 2,000 years of European tean, futural shape, an always changing func- culture. As Szentkuthy’s Virgil, St. Orpheus tion of discourse, text, myth, and mentalité.

3 Through St. Orpheus’ method, disparate encomiums moments of history become synchronic, are juggled to reveal, paradoxically, mutual differ- Szentkuthy’s objective is not the sanctioned ence and essential similarity. “Orpheus wan- masterpiece, but the circus where the carnal and dering in the infernal regions,” says Szent- material origin & purpose of all art are revealed kuthy, “is the perennial symbol of the mind in their total nakedness. In his circus, the tent lost amid the enigmas of reality. The aim of arches over all of human history and the whole the work is, on the one hand, to represent the of existence; Casanova treads the tightrope with reality of history with the utmost possible Elizabeth of England, and Mozart conducts the precision, and on the other, to show, through orchestra. the mutations of the European spirit, all the .— Csaba Sík uncertainties of contemplative man, the transiency of emotions, & the sterility of philo- A genuine avant-gardist. Just to know that Hun- sophical systems.” gary has such a writer is, in itself, enriching for Marginalia on Casanova relives the spiri- ourselves and for Hungarian literature as a whole. tualization of the main protagonist’s sensual .— István Vas adventures, though it is less his sex life and more his intellectual mission, the sole determi- Szentkuthy is a poet to the core: this is evidenced nant of his being, which is the focus of this in the vibrating emotional tension of every sen- mesmeric book. Through his own glittering tence, the high sensitivity of the inner recorder, associations and broadly spanning array of the novel, often daring, but always suggestive metaphors, Szentkuthy analyses and views images, comparisons, and associations in which the 18th century and its notion of homogene- his recitation moves. His attention turns to all ity from the vantage point of the 20th century, manifestations of life with the same intensity and with the full armor of someone who was, per- offers the reader stimulation& immersion and haps, one of the last Hungarian Europeans. deserves to be regarded as one of the values of the While a commentary on Casanova’s memoirs, new Hungarian literature. it is also Szentkuthy’s very own philosophy .— Maria Herz, Pester Lloyd of love. Passion, playfulness, irony, and a whole gamut of protean metamorphoses are what characterize Marginalia on Casanova, a work Original cover design by István Orosz in which readers will experience both profun- Finalist for the Da Vinci Eye Award, 2012 dity and a taking to wing of essay-writing that is intellectually radiant and as sensual and Voted one of the Best Paperback Books provocative as a gondola ride with Casanova. of 2013 by The Guardian

4 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Walter Jackson Bate, Negative Capability Introduction by Maura Del Serra ISBN: 9780983697237. $18, 14£, 12€ Pub.Date: June 2012

NEGATIVE CAPABILITY Walter Jackson Bate’s canonical 1939 study of Keats’s concept THE INTUITIVE APPROACH IN KEATS of Negative Capability is a genealogical treatise that eluci- Walter Jackson Bate dates the socio-political, aesthetic, and intellectual composition Walter Jackson Bate of Keats’s most famous poetic idea. He discloses its relation to Introduction by Maura Del Serra Hazlitt’s idea of gusto and to Shakespearean notions of impersonality and intensity while also demonstrating howNegative Capability presages Bergson’s notions of intellect & intuition. Bate reveals how the key elements of Keats’s poetic concept are disinterestedness, sympathy, impersonality, and dra- matic poetry, definingNegative Capability as “the ability to negate or lose one’s identity in something larger than oneself n .— a sympathetic openness to the concrete reality without, an egative imaginative identification, a relishing and understanding of it.” c With Negative Capability, Keats railed against the apability rampant egotism of his epoch and challenged the certainty of its

claims to knowledge. While embracing reality, Keats urged the —

necessity of abiding in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts. intuitivethe approach in This new edition brings back into print Bate’s indispensable work, and features an introduction by the distinguished Italian poet, playwright, & literary critic Maura Del Serra. With its re- publication, Eliot’s proclamation on Keats is given new force: that “there is hardly one statement of Keats about poetry which …

will not be found to be true …” k eats

isbn 978-0-9836972-3-7

www.contramundum.net

encomiums

Bate sees the creative process as an imaginative penetration or vitalization of the concrete and the actual. Following his broader study of the backgrounds of the Romantic imagination in the philosophy and æsthetic theorizing of an earlier age, Bate interprets the nature of creative appre- hension, as Keats describes and conceives it, as a harmonious coalescence of the perceiving mind and its objects within a common ground they share between them. .— Stuart M. Sperry

5 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Fernando Pessoa, Philosophical Essays: A Critical Edition Edition, Notes, & Introduction by Nuno Ribeiro; afterword by Paulo Borges ISBN: 9780983697268. $20, 15£, 15€ Pub.Date: December 2012

encomiums

Beautifully edited and presented with a spirited fernando Pessoa afterword, these essays abound in arresting and Fernando Pessoa claimed to be inhabited by “thousands of philosophies,” all of which he intended to develop in his surprising insights and this book will be of ab- unfi nished proje of English-language Philosophical Essays. sorbing interest not only to those who love Pessoa Pessoa himself never published the resulting fragments and nearly the entirety of them are presented in this edition for PESSOA but also anyone who wants philosophy to be more the very fi rﬆ time in hiﬆ ory. than the dull rehearsal of commonplace pieties. It is volume exhibits Pessoa’s musings and wild insights PHILOSOPHICAL on the hiﬆ ory of philosophy, the failures of subje ivity, is a cause for celebration that more of his writings and the ﬆ ru ure of the universe to reveal an unexpe edly Essays Philosophical ESSAYS scholarly, facetious, and vigorous theoretical mind. Written are coming into print. mainly under the pre-heteronyms of Charles Robert Anon and Alexander Search, these texts conﬆ itute the foundation .— John Gray, The New Statesman for the fabrication of Pessoa’s future heteronyms. ey are the teﬆ imony of a writer who referred to himself as a “poet animated by philosophy.” rough editor Nuno Ribeiro’s careful critical eff orts, a new and fundamental facet of the work of one of modernity’s moﬆ seminal geniuses has now been brought to light in a remarkably reliable and clear fashion. world premiere publication! Original cover design by István Orosz

 ----

..

Fernando Pessoa claimed to be inhabited by mind. Written under the pre-heteronyms “thousands of philosophies,” all of which he of Charles Robert Anon and Alexander intended to develop in his unfinished project Search, these texts constitute the foundation of English-language Philosophical Essays. The for the fabrication of Pessoa’s future hetero- resulting fragments were never published nyms. They are the testimony of a writer who by Pessoa himself and almost the entirety referred to himself as a “poet animated by of them are presented in this edition for the philosophy.” very first time in history. Through editor Nuno Ribeiro’s careful This volume exhibits Pessoa’s musings critical efforts, a new and fundamental facet and wild insights on the history of philoso- of the work of one of modernity’s most semi- phy, the failures of subjectivity,& the struc- nal geniuses has now been brought to light ture of the universe to reveal an unexpectedly in a remarkably reliable and clear fashion. scholarly, facetious, and vigorous theoretical

6 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Elio Petri, Writings on Cinema & Life Edited with an introduction by Jean A. Gili Translated by Camilla Zamboni & Erika Marina Nadir ISBN: 9780983697251. $25.95, 18£, 20€ Pub.Date: January 29, 2013 ELIO PETRI Italian writer/director Elio Petri ascia’s novels, Miller’s The American (1929–1982) is of the cinematic era of Clock, and Sartre’s Dirty Hands, as well Bertolucci, Bellocchio, and Pasolini, as in his use of Pop and Abstract Art and although he is recognized by film in The Tenth Victim, A Quiet Day in a book by scholars as one of the major figures the Country, and other films. of Italian cinema, his work remains Elio Petri Available for the first time in Eng- largely unknown and unavailable out- lish, is

Writings on Cinema and Life Writings Cinema on side of Italy. Hardly a marginal figure, a collection of texts Petri originally Petri began as an assistant to Giuseppe edited by published mainly in French and Ital- De Santis and his future collaborators ian journals. Also included are several Jean A. Gili would include many of the most re- art reviews, as well as Petri’s essay on nowned film artists of the th20 century: Sartre’s Dirty Hands. Petri’s affinity for Marcello Mastroianni, Gian Maria subtle analysis is evident in his clear translated by Volonté, Dante Ferretti, Ennio Mor- & precise writing style, which utilizes ricone, Ugo Pirro, and Tonino Guerra. & Camilla Zamboni & concrete concepts and observations, Life Erika Marina Nadir Due to Petri’s belief that culture cinematographic references, and ideas is inextricable from political struggle, drawn from literature, philosophy, & he was a central figure in the fervent psychoanalysis. There is as well an debates of his time on both Italian cin- acute and scathing sense of humor that ema and culture that arose from the af- permeates many of the texts. termath of World War II to the 1980s. However, while generally characterized Petri was the recipient of the Palme as a political filmmaker, this view is lim- d’Or, an Academy Award, and the Edgar ited and reductive, for Petri’s films are Allan Poe Award as well as others, and polemical interrogations of social, reli- in 2005 he was the subject of the docu- gious, and political phenomena as well mentary Elio Petri: appunti su un autore. WRITINGS ON as acute analyses of moral, psychologi- This collection of Petri’s writings is an cal, and existential crises. His cinema is important contribution to the history CINEMA & LIFE also informed by a rich and profound of cinema and offers further insight into understanding of and engagement with the work, thought, and beliefs of one of literature, philosophy, and art, evident cinema’s most ambitious& innovative for instance in his adaptations of Sci- practitioners.

Petri was so alive, and inside the cinema, inside the images, so inside the strength of a vision. He should not be forgotten. isbn 978-0-9836972-5-1 — Tonino Guerra

www.contramundum.net

Italian writer/director Elio Petri (1929–1982) most renowned film artists of the 20th cen- is of the cinematic era of Bertolucci, Belloc- tury: Marcello Mastroianni, Gian Maria Volo- chio, and Pasolini, and although recognized nté, Dante Ferretti, Ennio Morricone, Ugo by film scholars as one of the major figures Pirro, and Tonino Guerra, amongst others. of Italian cinema, his work remains largely Due to Petri’s belief that culture is inextri- unknown and unavailable outside of Italy. cable from political struggle, he was a central Hardly a marginal figure, Petri began as an figure in the fervent debates of his time on assistant to Giuseppe De Santis, and his fu- both Italian cinema and culture that arose ture collaborators would include many of the from the aftermath of World War II to the

7 1980s. However, while generally character- encomiums ized as a political filmmaker, that view is limited and reductive, for Petri’s films are po- Through a mixture of expressionism, Brecht, lemical interrogations of social, religious, and and the bizarre, Petri’s films brought together political phenomena as well as acute analyses Marx and Gramsci, but also Freud and Reich. of moral, psychological, and existential crises. He dove into the world of dreams with Kafkian His cinema is also informed by a rich and lunges and into the maze that divides being and profound understanding of and engagement schizophrenia. with literature, philosophy, psychology, & .— Jean A. Gili art, evident for instance in his adaptations of Sciascia’s novels, Miller’s The American The thing that struck me aboutI giorni contati, in Clock (for the stage), and Sartre’sDirty fact, more than one thing. First: it places itself in Hands, as well as in his use of Pop and Ab- a strange territory, actually still unexplored in Italy, stract Art in The Tenth Victim, A Quiet halfway between realism and existentialism. Sec- Day in the Country, & other films. ond: it risked looking for a cinema that was different from the cinema done in Italy up to that mo- Now available for the first time ever in Eng- ment. I’m sure that I giorni contati influenced me lish, Writings on Cinema & Life is a collection somehow. It influenced me the same way that all of texts Petri originally published mainly in the films I loved at that time did. I wanted them French and Italian journals. Also included to influence me, and I wanted to be influenced by are several art reviews, as well as Petri’s essay Elio’s films. on Sartre’s Dirty Hands, a text forgotten .— Bernardo Bertolucci until recently. Petri’s affinity for subtle analysis is evident in his clear and precise writing Elio Petri is the greatest Italian director of the style, which utilizes concrete concepts and past, the only Italian director who made ten films observations, cinematographic references, that were completely different from one another. and ideas drawn from literature, philosophy, .— Franco Nero and psychoanalysis. There is as well an acute and scathing sense of humor that permeates The menace Petri posed doomed him to an ostra- many of the texts. cism from which he would never recover. In 2007, Petri was the recipient of the Palme d’Or, when Jean A. Gili published the volume Elio Petri: an Oscar, and the Edgar Allan Poe award Scritti di cinema e di vita, he opened a new chapter among many others, and in 2005 he was the in film history. And more than thirty years after subject of the documentary Elio Petri: ap- Petri’s death, the translation of these writings for punti su un autore. This collection of Petri’s the English-speaking public represents an enor- writings is an important contribution to the mous step in the vindication of this director’s history of cinema and offers further insight life and work. A reading of Writings on Cinema into the work, thought, and beliefs of one and Life obliges one to cast aside the predigested of cinema’s most ambitious and innovative labels furnished by cinema critics and historians. practitioners. .— Beatriz Leal Riesco, Asymptote

8 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Friedrich Nietzsche, The Greek Music Drama Translated by Paul Bishop; introduction by Jill Marsden ISBN: 9780983697275. $15.95, 15£, 15€ Pub.Date: February 2013

The Greek Music Drama marks an in triguing moment in the devel op ment of “The Greek Music Drama” marks an intriguing moment in the development of Nietzsche’s thought. Delivered in 1870 at the Friedrich Nietzsche Nietzsche’s thought. Delivered in 1870 at Basel Museum, it was the first public enunciation of the great Friedrich Nietzsche themes that would echo throughout Nietzsche’s philosophy: the importance of aesthetic experience for culture, the primacy the Basel Museum, it was the first public of the body and physiological drives, and the centrality of music Das griechische Musikdrama to Greek tragedy. Here we see Nietzsche’s genealogical method- enunciation of the great themes that would ology in embryonic form alongside the anti-humanist aesthetics that will bloom in his later work. The Greek Music Drama echo throughout Nietzsche’s philosophy: Addressing the material conditions of Greek theater in detail, Nietzsche repudiates the abstract scholarly approach to the art the importance of æsthetic experience for d

of classical antiquity, proposing that in its stead we cultivate dif- griechische as ferent emotional and intellectual powers in order to gain greater Translated by culture, the primacy of the body and physi- insight into that art. This seminal lecture offers an account of tragic experience from the sole perspective of the Dionysian, Paul Bishop presenting a reading of nature of startling and far-reaching ological drives, and the centrality of music m implications. usikdrama · to Greek tragedy. Here we see Nietzsche’s While “The Greek Music Drama” is a text written on the brink Introduction by of the insights that inform The Birth of Tragedy, it stands on its t own right as a singular text. This work is of considerable impor- he Jill Marsden genealogical methodology in embryonic g

tance and is now made available in English for the very first time, reek with the translation set parallel to the original German in this

m form alongside the anti-humanist æs

elegant bilingual edition. Paul Bishop’s preface and informative usic critical notes and Jill Marsden’s illuminating introduction not d only serve to make good the comparative neglect this seminal rama thetics that will bloom in his later work. text has suffered in Nietzsche studies, they also lend the unique expertise of two Nietzsche scholars to the early thought of a While The Greek Music Drama is a text philosopher who is crucial not just to philosophy scholars and aficionados, but to anyone interested in theater, performance, & the art of tragedy. written on the brink of the insights that inform The Birth of Tragedy, it stands on its own right as a singular text. This work is of isbn 978–0–9836972–7–5 Image, Front Cover: Statue of Melpomene, muse of tragedy. considerable importance and is now made Monte Calvo, 2nd century ad. Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen, www.contramundum.net Denmark. available in English for the very first time, with the translation set parallel to the original German in this elegant bilingual edition. Bilingual German-English edition, Paul Bishop’s preface & informative criti- text synched typographically cal notes and Jill Marsden’s illuminating introduction not only serve to make good the comparative neglect this seminal text has suffered in Nietzsche studies, they also lend the unique expertise of two Nietzsche scholars to the early thought of a philosopher who is crucial not just to philosophy scholars and aficionados, but to anyone interested in theater, performance,& the art of tragedy.

9 Title: Richard Foreman, Plays with Films Edited by Rainer J. Hanshe; introduction by George Hunka ISBN: 9780983697282. $25.95, 18£, 20€ Pub.Date: April 30, 2013

Plays with Films brings together texts of the final three productions of Richard Fore- las with Films Richard Foreman brings together the ﬁ nal three produc- has been exploring with indefatigable man’s Ontological-Hysteric Theater at St. tions of Richard Foreman’s Ontological- intensity since the eﬆ ablishment of his Hyﬆ eric eater at St. Mark’s Church- theater in . e bodied reality of RICHARD Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery: Zomboid!, in-the-Bowery: Zomboid! (), Wake theatrical experience, and the recogni- U Mr. Sleepy! our Unconscious Mind is tion of unconsciousness within that Wake Up Mr. Sleepy! Your Unconscious Dead! (), and Dee Trance Beav- experience, becomes more fraught with FOREMAN ior in Potatoland (). In these three peril in today’s screened world. ese exhilarating and challenging works, plays, originally conceived as his ﬁ nal Mind is Dead!, and Deep Trance Behavior Foreman turns to a meditation on the theater works (though he did change Plays with Films mechanical & digital reprodu ions of his mind), engage in ways that continue . In these three exhilarating screen images within the discipline of his ambition to upend habitual think- in Potatoland theater, and thereby recalibrates and ing and may prove transformative for

expands the potential relationship we the individual’s ability to interpret and Films with Plays and challenging works, Foreman turns to can have with the live art that is theater. underﬆ and the threats of deadening Extending the model of theater conformity & loss of identity through a meditation on the mechanical and digital as a “reverberating machine,” Foreman’s the new digital culture. use of ﬁ lm in these plays is intimately Employing an innovative typogra- reproductions of screen images within the integrated into the complex network of phical presentation, las with Films impulse generators, creating an unprec- demonﬆ rates how America’s moﬆ dar- discipline of theater, and thereby recali- edented experience of multi-dimension- ing theater artiﬆ alchemizes reproduc- al scriptural ace, a new kind of total ible and non-reproducible reality into theater that eﬀ e ively recharges and a unique contemplation of the proje brates and expands the potential relation- redire s the issues of consciousness he of self-conﬆ ru ion in the ﬆ century. ship we can have with theater. Richard Foreman has reinvented dialogue, Richard Foreman’s theater, for me, repre- action, sound, stage design, and philosophi- sents an extraordinary, mental, spiritual, and cal groundwork as no other stage artist in aesthetic adventure. It’s a theater that ques- Extending the model of theater as a our history. tions, probes, and challenges the frontier of — From the citation for the PEN/LAURA PELS art & being. MASTER AMERICAN DRAMATIST AWARD — Jonas Mekas “reverberating machine,” Foreman’s use of

Richard Foreman’s mastery of the mysteries, Each year, Mr. Foreman, a titan of the Ameri- rites, and actions of theatrical space is witty, can avant-garde, invents remarkably spe- film in these plays is intimately integrated terrifying, & beautiful. ci c interior landscapes that come as close — JoAnne Akalaitis to capturing the geography of dreams as theater can. into a new kind of total theater that effec- — Ben Brantley, The New York Times tively recharges and redirects the issues of  –––– consciousness he has been exploring with .. indefatigable intensity since the establish- ment of his theater in 1968. The bodied first richard foreman publication in 7 years! reality of theatrical experience, and the recognition of unconsciousness within that encomiums experience, becomes more fraught with peril in today’s screened world. These plays Richard Foreman has reinvented dialogue, action, engage in ways that continue his ambition sound, stage design, and philosophical ground- to upend habitual thinking and may prove work as no other stage artist in our history. transformative for the individual’s ability .— From the citation for the pen/ laura pels to interpret and understand the threats of master american dramatist award deadening conformity & loss of identity through the new digital culture. Each year, Mr. Foreman, a titan of the American Employing an innovative typographi- avant-garde, invents remarkably specific interior cal presentation, Plays with Films demon- landscapes that come as close to capturing the ge- strates how America’s most daring theater ography of dreams as theater can. artist alchemizes reproducible and non- .— Ben Brantley, The New York Times reproducible reality.

10 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Louis-Auguste Blanqui, Eternity by the Stars Translated with an introduction by Frank Chouraqui ISBN: 9780983697299. $20, 16£, 14€ Pub.Date: June 2013

In a century replete with radical politics, final liberations, ends of history,& dreams  In a century replete with radi- thinking, Blanqui’s hypothesis offers cal politics, final liberations, ends a deep, tragic, and heartfelt reflec- of eternity, Louis-Auguste Blanqui, the

of history and dreams of eternity, tion on the place of the human in the Louis-Auguste Blanqui Louis-Auguste Blanqui, the con- universe, the value of action, and the constant revolutionary, wrote Eternity by the stant revolutionary, wrote Eternity aching that lies at the heart of every by the Stars in the last months of modern soul. Stars in the last months of 1871 while incar- 1871 while incarcerated in Fort du This first critical edition of Blan- Taureau, a marine cell of the English qui’s incantatory text in English fea- cerated in Fort du Taureau, a marine cell of Channel. tures an extended introduction by While contemplating his con- Frank Chouraqui. Exploring sources the English Channel. finement, Blanqui devised a simple of Blanqui’s thinking in his intellec- calculation by bringing the infinity tual context, Chouraqui traces the While contemplating his confinement, of time in confrontation with the legacy of the text in critiques of mo- finite number of possible events to dernity, devoting particular attention Blanqui devised a simple calculation by suggest a most radical conclusion: to the figures of Nietzsche, Walter every chain of events is bound to Benjamin, & Borges. It features co- bringing the infinity of time in confronta- repeat itself eternally in space and pious illuminating annotations that time. Our lives are being lived an bring out the web of connections that Eternity by the Stars tion with the finite number of possible infinity of times across the confines interlace the great marginal figure of the universe and death, defeat, of Blanqui with more than two mil- success and glory are never final. For lennia of European culture. For this events to suggest a most radical conclusion: the world is nothing but the play of is a book that, as Benjamin notes, probabilities on the great stage of every chain of events is bound to repeat itself .“consummates the constellations of time & space. phantasmagorias of modernity, the By straddling the boundaries magical images of the century, in a eternally in space& time. For the world is of hyperrealism and hallucinatory final phantasmagoria.”  nothing but the play of probabilities on the

Blanqui’s Eternity by the Stars is a must read for anyone who has been enthralled by Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, or Borges. This book should certainly be in the canon of philosophical prison literature, great stage of time and space. By straddling alongside writers like Boethius & Gramsci. — Gary Shapiro, Prof. of Philosophy, Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities, Emeritus, University of Richmond the boundaries of hyperrealism and halluci- Here rendered & admirably introduced into Eng- lish for the first time by Frank Chouraqui, Blanqui’s isbn 978–0–9836972–9–9 cosmological prose stands alongside Blake’s later natory thinking, Blanqui’s hypothesis offers prophecies, Poe’s Eureka, and Borges’ Ficciones as an homage to the human mind’s capacity “to see the world in a grain of sand” (and “hold infin- a deep, tragic, and heartfelt reflection on ity in the palm of your hand”). www.contramundum.net — Richard Sieburth, Professor of French, Comparative Literature, NYU the place of the human in the universe, the value of action, and the aching that lies at the heart of every modern soul. encomiums This first critical edition of Blanqui’s incantatory text in English features an ex- Here rendered and admirably introduced into tended introduction by Frank Chouraqui. English for the first time by Frank Chouraqui, Exploring sources of Blanqui’s thinking in Blanqui’s cosmological prose stands alongside his intellectual context, Chouraqui traces Blake’s later prophecies, Poe’s Eureka, & Borges’ Ficciones as an homage to the human mind’s ca- the legacy of the text in critiques of mo- pacity “to see the world in a grain of sand” — that dernity devoting particular attention to the is, to imagine the boundless self-sameness of the figures of Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, and universe across space& time as a revolutionary Borges. It features copious illuminating an- opportunity to dissolve the antinomies between notations that bring out the web of connec- the actual and the possible, liberty and fate. tions that interlace the great marginal figure .— Richard Sieburth, Prof. of French & Com- of Blanqui with more than two millennia parative Literature, NYU of European culture.

11 Title: Miklós Szentkuthy, Towards the One and Only Metaphor Translated by Tim Wilkinson; introduction by Rainer J. Hanshe ISBN: 9780983697299. $20, 16£, 14€ Pub.Date: September 2013

Unique in Hungarian literature, at the time of its first appearance in 1935,Towards the One Unique in Hungarian literature, subjective life, in all their own factual, MIKLÓS SZENTKUTHY at the time of its first appearance unstylized individuality — and the & Only Metaphor was greeted with plaudits

in 1935, Towards the One & Only big facts of the world in their allegori- Miklós Szentkuthy Metaphor was greeted with plaudits cal, Standbild-like grandiosity : death, by many leading Hungarian critics, who de- by such leading Hungarian critics summer, sea, love, gods, flowers.” as László Németh, András Hevesi, Similar in kind to the ruminative and Gábor Halász, with Németh clared the writing entirely original. waste books of Lichtenberg and the declaring : “Szentkuthy’s invention journals of Joubert, while Towards the has the merit that he pries writing One and Only Metaphor is a fragmen- Szentkuthy referred to this nearly un- open in an entirely original man- tary text, at the same time, it is ordered, ner… Where everything was wob- like a group of disparate stars which, classifiable text as aCatalogus Rerum, “an bling the writer either joins the earth- when viewed from afar, reveal or can shaping forces, or else he sets up his be perceived to form a constellation culture-building laboratory over all index that is of entities and phenomena, a — they are sculpted by a geometry of oscillations. Seated in his cogitarium, . thought. Szentkuthy conjures up and even in spite of himself, Szentkuthy Catalogue of Everything in the Entire World.” analyzes spectacle and thought past is brother to the bellicose on earth Towards& Only Metaphor the One & present with sensitivity, erudition, in the same way as a cloud is a rela- and linguistic force. As András Kesz- In a sequence of 112 shorter & longer passag- tive to a plow in its new sowing work.” thelyi observed, the text is essentially Szentkuthy referred to this near- something of a manifesto, “an explicit es, Szentkuthy has recorded his experiences ly unclassifiable text as a Catalogus formulation of the author’s intentions, Rerum, “an index that is of entities his scale of values, or, if you wish: his and thoughts, reflected on his reading mat- and phenomena, a Catalogue of Ev- ars poetica.” Through dehumanization, erything in the Entire World.” In a Szentkuthy returns us to the embryo sequence of 112 shorter and longer and the ornament, but so as to bring ter as well as political, historical, and erotic passages, Szentkuthy has recorded his us into the very particles of existence. experiences & thoughts, reflected on Towards the One and Only Metaphor events, moving from epic subjectivity to on- his reading matter as well as political, is also a confessional, a laying bare of historical, and erotic events, moving the heart, even through masks, but in tological actualities. Szentkuthy conjures from epic subjectivity to ontological moving beyond the torpid self-obses- actualities : “Two things excite me : sion that rules our age, Szentkuthy’s up and analyzes spectacle and thought past the most subjective epic details and revelations yield forth the x-ray of a the ephemeral trivialities of my most typus, and like Montaigne and Rous- seau, he is equally revealing, entertain- and present with sensitivity, erudition, and ing, & humorous. Now available in English for the first time, isbn 978–1–940625–00–3 Towards the linguistic force. As András Keszthelyi ob- One & Only Metaphor is destined to stand as one of the principal works of served, the text is essentially something of world literature of the 20th century. www.contramundum.net a manifesto, “an explicit formulation of the author’s intentions, his scale of values, or, if featured author you wish: his ars poetica.” Towards the One & Only Metaphor is Original cover design by István Orosz also a confessional, a laying bare of the Szentkuthy’s world is entirely Euro-centric, but heart, even through masks, and like Mon- deeply and broadly rooted in continental and taigne & Rousseau, Szentkuthy is equally English culture (and languages), an impressive revealing, entertaining, and humorous. Now example of the Central European intellectual available in English for the first time,To - melting pot of which he is clearly one of the last, wards the One & Only Metaphor is destined great exponents. Tim Wilkinson’s translation to stand as one of the principal works of manages Szentkuthy’s (different-)language fas- world literature of the 20th century. cination particularly well, but is also impressive on the more basic level — and includes some inspired and appealing turns of phrases… .— M.A. Orthofer, The Complete Review

12 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Josef Winkler, When the Time Comes Translated with an introduction by Adrian West ISBN: 9781940625010. $16, 10.50£, 12€ Pub.Date: October 2013

In the years before the Second World War, a man throws a statue of the crucified Christ over a waterfall. Later, in Hitler’s trenches, Josef Winkler Josef “Josef Winkler is someone who not only writes, but rather lives to write.” he loses his arms to an enemy grenade. The .— Günter Grass blasphemer, screaming in agony, presided “Josef Winkler’s entire, monomaniac œuvr […] is a ually an attempt to compensate for the experience of humiliation & moral violation by caﬆ ing a malevolent eye on one’s own origins.” over by Satan, who pours a cup of gall into .— W. G . Sebald, author of A his open mouth, is portrayed amid the flames of Hell in a painting by the parish priest that When the Time Comes I   before the Second the invocation of the bone-cooker World War, a man throws a ﬆ atue whose viscous brew is painted on is mounted on a calvary where the two streets of the crucifi ed Chriﬆ over a water- the faces of the work horses and fall. Later, in Hitler’s trenches, he the haunting ﬆ anzas of Baudelaire’s in the cross-shaped village meet. loses his arms to an enemy grenade. “Litanies of Satan.” In a hypnotic, in- e bla hemer, screaming in agony, cantatory prose reminiscent at times Thus begins When the Time Comes, Josef presided over by Satan, who pours of Homer, at times of the Catholic a cup of gall into his open mouth, liturgy, at times of the naming of the Winkler’s chronicle of life in rural Austria is portrayed amid the fl ames of Hell generations in the book of Genesis, in a painting by the parish prieﬆ en te ime omes is a ruthless written in the form of a necrology, trac- that is mounted on a calvary where disse ion of the paﬆ oral novel, lay- the two ﬆ reets in the cross-shaped ing bare the corruption that lies in village meet. us begins en te its heart. Writing in the vein of When the ing the benighted destiny of a community ime omes, Josef Winkler’s chroni- his compatriots Peter Handke and cle of life in rural Auﬆ ria written in Elfriede Jelinek, but perhaps going Time Comes through its suicides and the tragic deaths the form of a necrology, tracing the further in his relentlessness and benighted deﬆ iny of a community æsthetic radicalism, Josef Winkler that befall it, punctuated by the invocation through its suicides and the tragic is one of the moﬆ signifi cant Euro- Josef Winkler deaths that befall it, pun uated by pean authors working today. of the bone-cooker whose viscous brew is painted on the faces of the work horses and  –––– the haunting stanzas of Baudelaire’s “Lita- nies of Satan.” .. In a hypnotic, incantatory prose reminiscent at times of Homer, at times of the Catholic liturgy, at times of the naming of the generations in the book of Genesis, When encomiums the Time Comes is a ruthless dissection of the pastoral novel, laying bare the corruption Josef Winkler’s entire, monomaniac oeuvre … is that lies in its heart. Writing in the vein of actually an attempt to compensate for the experi- his compatriots Peter Handke and Elfriede ence of humiliation and moral violation by casting Jelinek, but perhaps going further in his re- a malevolent eye on one’s own origins. lentlessness and æsthetic radicalism, Josef .— W. G. Sebald, author of Austerlitz Winkler is one of the most significant Euro- pean authors working today. Josef Winkler is someone who not only writes, but rather lives to write. .— Günter Grass Winner of the Georg Büchner Prize (2008)

13 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: William Wordsworth, Fragments Featuring an introduction by Alan Vardy ISBN: 9781940625027. $17, 14£, 16€ Pub.Date: December 2013

Featuring an extended introduction by Understanding the significance of our affec- scholar of British Romanticism, Alan Vardy, tive response to natural objects could not be Fragments consists of Wordsworth’s philo- more central to a Wordsworthian poetics sophico-æsthetic prose fragment “The Sub- predicated on the internalization of æsthetic lime & the Beautiful” and “Hawkshead & sensations into perceptions and ideas, asso- the Ferry.” While fragmented, unfinished, ciations of one kind or another, and finally almost certainly abandoned by the author, into the very stuff of the poetry. Fragmented the difficulties of the former text no longer or not, this prose treatise on a subject of such appear fatal so much as evidence of Word- centrality to the poet’s project can no longer sworth’s rigorous struggle to come to terms be ignored. It is this general neglect that the not only with his own æsthetic experiences, present text hopes to address by publishing but with the philosophical æsthetics of his these fragments on their own for the very epoch. What were once read as confusions first time. may now be seen as productive of complex accounts of lived affective experiences. In critical terms, current æsthetic occupations have perhaps finally found Wordsworth’s text.

eaturing an extended introduction by scholar of British Romanticism, Wordsworthwilliam Alan Vardy, consists of Wordsworth’s philosophico-æsthetic prose F . Fragments By placingfragment the “The proseSublime & the Beautiful”fragment and “Hawkshead in & the aFerry.” separate While fragmented, unfinished, almost certainly abandoned by the author, the difficulties of the former text no longer appear fatal so much as evidence of Wordsworth’s appendix,rigorous the struggle to originalcome to terms not only witheditors his own æsthetic experiences,of Wordbut - with the philosophical æsthetics of his epoch. What were once read as confu- sworth’s sions may now be seen as productive of removedcomplex accounts of lived it affective from experi- its ences.Prose In critical terms,Works current æsthetic occupations have perhaps finally found Wordsworth’s text. actual placeBy placing in theThe prose fragment Unpublished in a separate appendix, the originalTour editors. New of Wordsworth’s Prose Works removed it from its actual place inThe Unpublished To u r . New analysis of the manuscripts reveals that “The Sublime& the Beautiful” F

analysis of the manuscripts reveals that “The ragments is actually part of theTo u r . In reprinting the “Hawkshead & the Ferry” section of the To u r , our edition restores this original context, lost in the standard Oxford Sublime edition.& Thethe prose Beautiful”fragment begins in the precise is place actually where “Hawkshead& thepart of Ferry” ends — on the west side of Windermere looking north to the Langdale Pikes. Were the missing pages of “The Sublime & the Beautiful” to be recovered, the Tour.the transitionIn reprinting from picturesque viewpoint the to speculation “Hawkshead on the philosophical & status of that view would be apparent. the Ferry” Understandingsection the significance of the of our affectiveTour, response our to natural editionobjects could not be more central to a Wordsworthian poetics predicated on the internalization of æsthetic sensations into perceptions and ideas, associations of one restores kindthis or another, original & finally into thecontext, very stuff of the lost poetry. Fragmented in orthe not, stan- this prose treatise on a subject of such centrality to the poet’s project can no dard Oxfordlonger be ignored. edition. It is this general The neglect that theprose present text fragment hopes to address be- by publishing these fragments on their own for the very first time. gins in the precise place where “Hawkshead This edition of Wordsworth’s Fragments … makes widely available for the first time key texts that demonstrate how radically thoroughgoing Wordsworth’s vision was. … Alan Vardy brilliantly situ- & the Ferry”ates a Wordsworth ends who, in both— small on things andthe large, continues west to renovate side us. This is a landof- Win- mark book in the continuing full understanding of the Romantic movement and demonstrates Wordsworth’s seismic impact upon it. dermere looking north to the.—Nicholas Langdale Birns, The New School pikes.

Were the missing pagesImage, ofFront Cover: “The Sublime& isbn 978–1–9406250–2–7 Up for Air, Langdale Pikes William Wordsworth FRAGMENTS the Beautiful” to be recovered,© 2011 Stewart Smith Photography the transition Edited by Introduction by www.contramundum.net from picturesque viewpoint to speculation on Rainer J. Hanshe Alan Vardy the philosophical status of that view would be apparent.

14 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Josef Winkler, Natura Morta Translated by Adrian West ISBN: 9781940625034. $16, 10.50£, 12€ Pub.Date: January 2014

White peaches, red broom, pomegranates among friends, argued over, and stolen from tumbling down the escalator steps: with shamelessly and thoroughly. Winkler has stripped these delicately rendered details, Josef Win- fiction bare& approached the line that separates kler’s Natura Morta begins. In Stazione Ter- composition from reality itself. Delight and hor- mini in Rome, Piccoletto, the beautiful black- ror contest on every page. … The reader is stricken, haired boy whose long eyelashes graze his as though by the birth of a star. freckle-studded cheeks, steps onto the metro .— William Emery, The Collagist and heads toward his job at a fish stand in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele. The sights and Like Sebald and like his own Austrian compatri- sounds of the market, a mélange of teeming ots Peter Handke, Elfriede Jelinek, and Thomas life amid the ever present avatars of death, is Bernhard, Winkler flags memory and history. — the backdrop for Winkler’s innovative prose, collective and individual — as inescapable traps which unfolds in a series of haunting im- that affect present experience. ages and baroque, luxuriant digressions with .— K. Thomas Kahn, Numero Cinq pitch-perfect symmetry and intense visual clarity. Reminiscent of the carnal vitality of Pasolini,“Magnificent. and A takingpoetic study ofinspiration the transience of being. A deeplyfrom sensuous the book.” play .—Marcel Reich-Ranicki between the sumptuous and fatal in the still Josef Winkler White peaches, red broom, and baroque, luxuriant digres- Josef Winkler lives ofpomegranates the late tumbling Renaissance, down sions with Natura pitch-perfect Morta sym- the escalator steps: with these metry and intense visual clarity. is a uniquedelicately renderedexperiment details, Josef Reminiscentin writing of the carnalas vitalstasis,- culminatingWinkler’s Natura in Mortathe begins.beatification ity of Pasolini, and takingof its inspi- pro- In Stazione Termini in Rome, ration from the play between natura tagonist.Piccoletto, In theawarding beautiful black- thisthe booksumptuous with& fatal the in the 2001 haired boy whose long eyelashes still lives of the late Renais- morta

Alfred grazeDöblin his freckle-studded Prize, cheeks, Günter sance, Natura Grass Morta is a singledunique n steps onto the metro and heads experiment in writing as stasis, atura A ROMAN NOVELLA out Winkler’s commitmentculminating to in the beatification writer’s toward his job at a fish stand in m vocationPiazza & Vittorio praised Emanuele. Natura The of its Mortaprotagonist. asIn awardinga work orta sights & sounds of the market, this book with the 2001 Alfred of densea mélange poetic of teeming rigor. life amid Döblin Prize, Günter Grass the ever present avatars of death, singled out Winkler’s commit- is the backdrop for Winkler’s ment to the writer’s vocation innovative prose, which unfolds and praised Natura Morta as a Alfredin Döblina series of haunting Prize, images 2001work of dense poetic rigor.

To read Austrian masterHa un cesto Josefdi rugiada Winkler’sNatura il ciarlatano del cielo

Morta is to peer intoThe the charlatan early of Heaven days of the fictive universe. … Winkler hasBears a fallenbasket of dew victim to our market’s provincialism regarding literature in transla-

tion andisbn we 978 –owe1–9406250 tremendous–3–4 thanks to Adrian West and Contra Mundum Press for bringing the text www.contramundum.netto such vivid life. deserves Natura Morta Winner of the Alfred Döblin Prize hyperbolic praise. It should be studied, passed

15 Title: Fernando Pessoa, The Transformation Book Edited with an introduction& notes by Nuno Ribeiro & Cláudia Souza ISBN: 9781940625041. $25.95, 18.00£, 20€ Pub.Date: March 2014

Moving between a number of literary forms, including poetry, fiction,& satire as well as Pessoa essays on politics, philosophy, and psychiatry, fernando Pessoa e ransormation oo, which belongs to Pessoa’s pre-heteronymic marks one of the period, contains series of texts written in English, Portuguese, French, The Transformation Book & THE none of which were ever published during Pessoa’s lifetime. fundamental stages in Pessoa’s elaboration Conceived by Pessoa in , a year of great social and cultural trans- TRANSFORMATION formation in Portugal, e ransormation oo was designed to refl e Edition of a new conception of literary space, one and advance social & cultural transformation in Portugal and beyond. Notes Moving between a number of literary forms, including poetry, fi ion, that he came to express as a “drama in people.” & satire as well as essays on politics, philosophy, and psychiatry, e Introduction ransormation oo marks one of the fundamental ﬆ ages in Pessoa’s ela- Nuno Alexander Search, Pantaleão, Jean Seul de boration of a new conception of literary ace, one that he came to express Ribeiro as a “drama in people.” Alexander Search, Pantaleão, Jean Seul de Méluret, Méluret, and Charles James Search are the & Charles James Search are the four “pre-heteronyms” to which the texts Transformation e Book & Cláudia of e ransormation oo are attributed. ese four fi gures conﬆ itute Souza four “pre-heteronyms” to which the texts a plural literary microcosm — a world that Pessoa makes, but that is occupied by a multiplicity of authors — & clearly anticipate the emergence of The Transformation Book are attributed. of Pessoa’s heteronyms. As the singular result of an interse ion of Pessoa’s personal intelle ual traje ory with his hopes for fomenting cultural trans- These four figures constitute a plural literary formation, e ransormation oo makes for a unique contribution to Pessoa’s ever-growing published œuvre. microcosm — a world that Pessoa makes, Although some of the texts conceived as part of e ransormation oo have previously been published in isolation or as fragments, this but that is occupied by a multiplicity of au- is the fi rﬆ complete and critical edition of e ransormation oo, & moﬆ of the texts in this edition are published here for the fi rﬆ time. thors — & clearly anticipate the emergence rough the critical eff orts of Nuno Ribeiro & Cláudia Souza, a fundamental proje of Fernando Pessoa’s is now brought from the confi nes of Pessoa’s heteronyms. As the singular result of the archive to the public in its moﬆ complete and accurate fashion. e ransormation oo should contribute to future ﬆ udies on the work of an intersection of Pessoa’s personal intel- of one of the moﬆ diﬆ inctive geniuses of moderniﬆ literature. lectual trajectory with his hopes for foment-

 –––– ing cultural transformation, The Transforma- tion Book makes for a unique contribution .. to Pessoa’s ever-growing published œuvre.

Although some of the texts conceived as part world premiere publication! of The Transformation Book have previously been published in isolation or as fragments, The Transformation Book, which belongs to this is the first complete& critical edition of Pessoa’s pre-heteronymic period, contains a The Transformation Book, and most of the series of texts written in English, Portuguese, texts in this edition are published here for the and French, none of which were ever pub- first time. Through the critical efforts of Nuno lished during Pessoa’s lifetime. Ribeiro now Cláudia Souza, a fundamental project of Fernando Pessoa’s is now brought Conceived by Pessoa in 1908, a year of great from the confines of the archive to the public social and cultural transformation in Portu- in its most complete& accurate fashion. The gal, The Transformation Book was designed Transformation Book should contribute to to reflect and advance social and cultural future studies on the work of one of the most transformation in Portugal and beyond. distinctive geniuses of modernist literature.

16 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Emilio Villa, The Selected Poetry of Emilio Villa Translated with an introduction by Dominic Siracusa ISBN: 9781940625058. $33.50, 20.50£, 25.50€ Pub.Date: June 2014

different languages, including tongues from Milanese dialect and Italian to French, Por- While Emilio Villa (1914–2003) was referred to as Zeus because of his greatness and Rabelais because of his mental voracity, for decades his work remained in oblivion, only recently surfacing to reveal him to be one of the most formidable EMILIO VILLA tuguese, ancient Greek, and even Sumerian figures of the Italian Novecento, if not of world culture. His marginalization was in part self-inflicted, due to his sibylline nature if not to his great erudition, which gave rise to a poetics so unconventional that few knew what to make of & Akkadian. As Andrea Zanzotto declared, it: a biblicist who composed experimental verse in over ten different languages, including tongues from Milanese dialect and Italian to French, Portuguese, “From the very beginning, Villa was so ad- ancient Greek, & even Sumerian and Akkadian. As Andrea Zanzotto declared, “From the very beginning, Villa was so advanced that, even today, his initial writings or graphemes appear ahead of the times and the future, suspended vanced that, even today, his initial writings between a polymorphous sixth sense and pure non-sense.”

In merging his background as a scholar, translator, & philologist of ancient languages with his conception of poetics, Villa creates the sensation that, when EmilioSelected The Villa Poetry of or graphemes appear ahead of the times & reading his work, we are coming into contact with language at its origins, spoken as if for the first time, with endless possibilities. Whether penning verse, translating even the future, suspended between a poly- Homer’s Odyssey, or writing on contemporary or primordial art, Villa engages in a paleoization of the present and a modernization of the past, wherein history is abolished and interpretation suspended, leaving room only for the purely morphous sixth sense and pure non-sense.” generative linguistic act, one as potent today as it was eons ago. This volume of Villa’s multilingual poetry ranges across his entire writing life and also includes selections from his translation of the Bible, his writings on ancient & modern art, and his visual poetry. Presented in English for the very first time,The Selected Poetry of Emilio Villa also contains material that is rare even This volume of Villa’s multilingual poetry to Italian readers. In adhering to the original notion of poetry as making, Villa acts as the poet-faber in tandem with his readers, creating une niche dans un niche for them to enter and create within, as if language itself were an eternal & infinite ranges across his entire writing life and also void in which creation remains an ever possible and continuously new event. includes selections from his translation of the

“Dominic Siracusa is a courageous & energetic translator. His dynamism is essential for the effective translation of Emilio Villa’s complex poems that are Bible, his writings on ancient & modern art, always in motion, and for faithfully reproducing the consistent thread of thought running through the texts. As Polonius famously surmised, ‘Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.’ Siracusa nimbly follows the textual slippings and his visual poetry. Presented in English and slidings from erudite quotes through folksy references to Italian-Milanese colloquialisms to lyric outbursts, thereby bringing to English a fascinating blend for the very first time, of Italian experimental poetry.” — Paolo Valesio The Selected Poetry of Emilio Villa also contains material that is isbn 978–1–9406250–5–8 rare even to Italian readers. In adhering to the www.contramundum.net original notion of poetry as making, Villa acts as the poet-faber in tandem with his readers, creating une niche dans un niche for them to Recipient of the Raiziss/de Palchi enter and create within, as if language itself Fellowship were an eternal and infinite void in which creation remains an ever possible and continu- While Emilio Villa (1914–2003) was referred ously new event. to as Zeus because of his greatness and Rabelais because of his mental voracity, for As the universe expands and its galaxies grow fur- decades his work remained in oblivion, only ther apart with a speed proportionate to their re- recently surfacing to reveal him to be one spective distances, so does the linguistic universe of the most formidable figures of the Italian of Emilio Villa. Novecento, if not of world culture. His mar- .— Adriano Spatola ginalization was in part self-inflicted, due to his sibylline nature if not to his great erudition, Emilio Villa’s poetry reveals a movement toward which gave rise to a poetics so unconventional an extremely remote past, prior to the constitu- that few knew what to make of it: a biblicist tion of forms. who composed experimental verse in over ten .— Flavio Ermini, EQUIPèCO

17 Title: Robert Kelly, A Voice Full of Cities Edited with an introduction by Pierre Joris& Peter Cockelbergh ISBN: 978194062506. $35, 22.50£, 25.50€ Pub.Date: September 2014

Just as compelling are the volumes of shorter The Collected Essays of lyric forms, such as Finding the Measure, Robert Kelly Songs I–XXX, Not this Island Music, and It is no exaggeration to suggest that Robert Kelly may well be America’s most L A prolific poet,& certainly one of the most singular & ceaselessly innovative writers RK1 L Lapis, or his even more experimental work, the country produced in the 2nd part of the past century. To date, he has writ- U A Pierre Joris &

ten more than 70 books of poetry and fiction — books that reveal a breathtaking OF of Essays The Collected Voice Cities: Full of such as Sentence, The Flowers of Unceasing range, from freshly minted trobar clus and contemporized sonnet forms, to epic- F CITIES VOICE length narratives and non-narratives — such as Axon Dendron Tree, The Loom, or the first two installments of a recent trilogy,Fire Exit & Uncertainties. Coincidence, or his writing-through of Shel-

Just as compelling are the volumes of shorter lyric forms, such asFinding the ( Peter Cockelbergh , – , , and , or his even more ex- ley’s poem, Mont Blanc. The deeper unity of Measure. Songs I X X X Not this Island Music Lapis perimental work, such as Sentence, The Flowers of Unceasing Coincidence, or his writing-through of Shelley’s poem, Mont Blanc. The deeper unity of the work is the work is unavoidably present in the voice unavoidably present in the voice that underlies the multiplicity of forms. As Guy Davenport wrote : “A Kelly poem is a Kelly poem. It dances in his way, sings in his in- that underlies the multiplicity of forms. As tonations, insisting on its style. No American poet except perhaps Wallace Stevens has his sense of balance in a line. [...] Kelly has nothing to hide : the untiltable eds Guy Davenport wrote: “A Kelly poem is a balance is there to begin with.” ) Less visible than the poetry, but certainly no less important, incisive, worth pre- Kelly poem. It dances in his way, sings in his serving & circulating anew, are the trove of essayistic materials disseminated throughout numerous small & not so small magazines of the second half of the intonations, insisting on its style. No Ameri- 20th C & beyond. The out-of-print 1971 In Time was Kelly’s sole published book of essays properly speaking, even though he has been writing on his &( others’) poetry & poetics since the early ’60s. can poet except perhaps Wallace Stevens Robert Kelly Long over-due, the present volume, A Voice Full of Cities, collects for the first time Kelly’s essays, statements,& other writings on poetry & poetics, making has his sense of balance in a line. […] Kelly available a vast array of difficult to obtain works. The editors’ aim was to insure that — in Robert Kelly’s own words — “the fifty years of thinking around the fifty has nothing to hide: the untiltable balance years of making won’t get lost, & making & thinking will be seen as one thing.”

A forthcoming companion volume from Contra Mundum Press, A Ci t y F u ll is there to begin with.” of Voices, will gather critical essays on Robert Kelly’s work by a wide range of contributors.

Front cover image credit: Long over-due, the present volume, A Voice Nicole Peyrafitte isbn 978–1–9406250–6–5 EdiTEd by Pierre Joris & Peter Cockelbergh Full of Cities, collects for the first time Kelly’s www.contramundum.net essays, statements,& other writings on poetry & poetics, making available a vast array of difficult to obtain works. The editors’ aim was to insure that — in Robert Kelly’s own It is no exaggeration to suggest that Robert words — “the fifty years of thinking around Kelly may well be America’s most prolific the fifty years of making won’t get lost, and making thinking will be seen as one thing.” poet, and certainly one of the most singular & and ceaselessly innovative writers the coun- [A Voice Full of Cities] is a winding labyrinth try produced in the 2nd part of the past cen- of wonder; trails of intelligence, attention, desire, tury. To date, he has published more than 70 and pleasure that curl inward and nest among books of poetry and fiction — books that each other. The overdue assembling of them into reveal a breathtaking range, from freshly a book affords an opportunity to feel how richly minted trobar clus and contemporized son- and intricately these thoughts coexist, how the net forms, to epic-length narratives and non- roof of one serves as the floor of another, shared narratives — such as Axon Dendron Tree, walls enlacing to produce a tremendous contem- The Common Shore, The Loom, or the first two plative cortex, dotted with sancta in which old installments of a recent trilogy,Fire Exit & gods — the oldest gods — still darkly sleep. Uncertainties. .— Ian Dreiblatt, drunken boat

18 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Miklós Szentkuthy, Prae (vol. 1) Translated by Tim Wilkinson ISBN: 9781940625089. $35, 22.50£, 25.50€ Pub.Date: December 2014

Considered an eerie attack on as insignifi cant for supposedly not ac- realism, when fi rﬆ published in , quiring followers. Largely unread at the Miklós Szentkuthy’s debut novel ra time, rae eventually gained cult ﬆ atus so aﬆ onished Hungarian critics that and would be reprinted in  and Miklós Szentkuthy many deemed it monﬆ rous, derogatorily . To some critics, the book is not referred to Szentkuthy as cosmopolitan, only one of the representative experi- and classifi ed him alien to Hungarian mental works of the early th century, culture. but in its attempt to bring ‘impossible literature’ into being, it also presages the Incomparable & unprecedented in Hun- by almoﬆ  years. And garian literature, rae compels recog- nouveau roman nition as a serious contribution to in its reje ion of sequentiality and cele- moderniﬆ fi ion, as ambitious in its bration of narrative shuffl ing, long before Burroughs Gysin, ena s what is a irations as Usses or a recerce & rae conceptually akin to the cut-up. Few of u tems peru. With no traditional narration and no psychologically moti- Szentkuthy’s contemporaries would re- vated chara ers, in playing with voices, veal with equal bravura & audacity the temporality, and events, while fi ion, new horizons that were opened up for narrative forms after the era of realism. rae is more what Northrop Frye calls In , Szentkuthy an anatomy (à la Lucian, Rabelais, & rivoities & onessions Burton) or Menippean satire: the basic said that his goal with rae was “to ab- Prae concern of the book is intelle ual, its sorb the problems of modern philosophy pervading mood is that of a comedy of and mathematics into modern fashion, ideas. As a virtual novel that preempts love, and every manifeﬆ ation of life.” every possibility for its realization, it is a Translated for the fi rﬆ time since its novel but only virtually so, a book which original publication in , upon its is a ually a præ-paration for an unwrit- th anniversary, this legendary & con- ten (unwritable) novel. In this, it main- troversial Hungarian moderniﬆ novel is tains the freedom and openness of its now at laﬆ available in English. potentialities, indicative for inﬆ ance in the Non- rae diagonals, a series of passages that intercut the novel and contin- ually fra ure ace and time to engage Vol. in what one of the fi gures of the book calls the culture of wordplay or dogmat- 1 ic accidentalism. “ e book’s title,” said Szentkuthy, “alludes to it being an overture. A multitude of thoughts, emotions, ideas, fantasies, and motifs that mill and churn as chimes, an overture to my subsequent œuvre.”  –––– By challenging the then prevailing dog- miklós szentkuthy mas and conventions of prose writing, Szentkuthy was said to have created a new canon for himself but later derided ..

Considered an eerie attack on realism, when critics that many deemed it monstrous, derog- first published in 1934, Miklós Szentkuthy’s atorily referred to Szentkuthy as cosmopolitan, debut novel Prae so astonished Hungarian and classified him alien to Hungarian culture.

19 Incomparable & unprecedented in Hungar- tion of sequentiality and celebration of nar- ian literature, Prae compels recognition as a rative shuffling, long before Burroughs& serious contribution to modernist fiction, as Gysin, Prae enacts what is conceptually akin ambitious in its aspirations asUlysses or À la to the cut-up. Few of Szentkuthy’s contem- recherche du temps perdu. With no traditional poraries would reveal with equal bravura & narration and no psychologically motivated audacity the new horizons that were opened characters, in playing with voices, temporality, up for narrative forms after the era of realism. and events, while fiction,Prae is more what In An Interrogator of Life, Szentkuthy said Northrop Frye calls an anatomy (à la Lucian, that his goal with Prae was “to absorb the Rabelais, & Burton) or Menippean satire: problems of modern philosophy and math- the basic concern of the book is intellectual, ematics into modern fashion, love, & every its pervading mood is that of a comedy of manifestation of life.” ideas. As a virtual novel that preempts every Translated for the first time since its original possibility for its realization, it is a novel but publication in 1934, upon its 80th anniversary, only virtually so, a book which is actually a this legendary and controversial Hungarian prae-paration for an unwritten (unwritable) modernist novel is now at last available in novel. In this, it maintains the freedom and English. openness of its potentialities, indicative for instance in the Non-Prae diagonals, a series encomiums of passages that intercut the novel and con- As far as Szentkuthy is concerned, the question tinually fracture space and time to engage in may be posed as to whether a country, or a culture, what one of the figures of the book calls the can be rendered a more significant ‘service’ than culture of wordplay or dogmatic accidental- to have a masterpiece written in that country’s ism. “The book’s title,” said Szentkuthy, “al- language, raising said culture to hitherto unseen ludes to it being an overture. A multitude heights? Prae is one of the most important experi- of thoughts, emotions, ideas, fantasies, and mental novels because virtually all of the problems motifs that mill and churn as chimes, an of the old & the 20th-century experimental novel overture to my subsequent œuvre.” can be found in it, and there are some elements (e.g., the theory of the novel, the theory of archi- By challenging the then prevailing dogmas tectural wordplay) that are to be found solely in and conventions of prose writing, Szent- Szentkuthy’s novel… The role of language grows kuthy was said to have created a new canon tremendously: . for himself but later derided as insignifi- language is the home of being cant for supposedly not acquiring followers. .— Pál Nagy Largely unread at the time, Prae eventually There is no other Hungarian book as intelligent gained cult status and would be reprinted as Prae. It skips lightly, playfully, ironically, & in 1980 & 2004. To some critics, the book in consummately individual fashion around the is not only one of the representative experi- highest intellectual peaks of the European mind. mental works of the early 20th century, but It will become one of the great documents of in its attempt to bring ‘impossible literature’ Hungarian culture that this book was written in into being, it also presages the nouveau Hungarian. roman by almost 30 years. And in its rejec- .— Antal Szerb

20 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Title: Pier Paolo Pasolini, The Divine Mimesis Translated with an introduction by Thomas E. Peterson ISBN: 9781940625072. $16, 12.50£, 15.50€ Pub.Date: November 2014

which two historical embodiments of Paso- lini himself occupy the roles of the pilgrim

.ritten between 1963 & 1967, The Divine Mimesis, Pasolini’s imitation of the early cantos of the Inferno, offers a searing critique of Italian society and guide in their underworld journey.

W Pier Paolo Pasolini and the intelligentsia of the 1960s. It is also a self-critique by the author of The Ashes of Gramsci (1957) who saw the civic world evoked by that book fading absolutely from view. By the mid-1960s, Pasolini theorized, the Italian language Densely layered with poetic and philological had sacrificed its connotative expressiveness for the sake of a denuded technological language of pure communication. In this context, he projects a ‘rewrite’ allusions, and illuminated by a parallel text of Dante’s Commedia in which two historical embodiments of Pasolini himself occupy the roles of the pilgrim and guide in their underworld journey. of photographs that juxtapose the world of Densely layered with poetic & philological allusions, and illuminated by a parallel text of photographs that juxtapose the world of the Italian literati to the the Italian literati to the simple reality of simple reality of rural Italian life, this narrative was curtailed by Pasolini several years before he sent it to his publisher in 1975, a few months prior to his murder. rural Italian life, The Divine Mimesis has Yet, many of Pasolini’s projects took the provisional form of “Notes toward...” an eventual work, such as (Location Scouting in Pale- Sopralluoghi in Palestina Mimesis Divine The a kinship to these filmic works as Pasolini stine), Appunti per una Oresteiade africana (Notes for an African Oresteia), and Appunti per un film sull’India (Notes for a Film on India). The Divine Mimesis himself ruled it ‘complete’ though still in a has a kinship to these filmic works as Pasolini himself ruled it ‘complete’ though still in a partial form. partial form. Written at a turning point in his life when he was wrestling with his poetic ‘demons,’ the true center of gravity of Pasolini’s Dantean project is the potential of poetry to teach and probe, ethically and æsthetically, in reality. “I wanted Written at a turning point in his life when he to make something seething & magmatic,” Pasolini declared, “even if in prose.” In this first English translation of Pasolini’sLa divina mimesis, Italianist was wrestling with his poetic ‘demons,’ the Thomas E. Peterson offers historical, linguistic, and cultural analyses that aim to expand the discourse about an enigmatic author considered by many to be true center of gravity of Pasolini’s Dantean the greatest Italian poet after Montale. Published by Contra Mundum Press one year in advance of the 40th anniversary of Pasolini’s death. project is the potential of poetry to teach ¶ and probe, ethically & æsthetically, in reality. In the history of twentieth-century poetry, there is no other poet besides Pasolini who has The Divine Mimesis more tenaciously interrogated his own ‘I,’ more isbn 978–1–9406250–7–2 persistently contemplated it, admired it, exam- In this first English translation of Pasoli- ined it, analyzed it & dissected it in order then to show its suffering entrails to the world, as they beg for understanding, affection, and pity. www.contramundum.net ni ’s La divina mimesis, Italianist Thomas E. .— Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti Peterson offers historical, linguistic, and cultural analyses that aim to expand the discourse about an enigmatic author considered Written between 1963 & 1967, The Divine by many to be the greatest Italian poet after Mimesis, Pasolini’s imitation of the early Montale. Published by Contra Mundum cantos of the Inferno, offers a searing cri- Press one year in advance of the 40th anniver- tique of Italian society and the intelligentsia sary of Pasolini’s death. of the 1960s. It is also a self-critique by the author of The Ashes of Gramsci (1957) who In the history of twentieth-century poetry, there saw the civic world evoked by that book fad- is no other poet besides Pasolini who has more ing absolutely from view. By the mid-1960s, tenaciously interrogated his own ‘I,’ more persis- Pasolini theorized, the Italian language had tently contemplated it, admired it, examined it, sacrificed its connotative expressiveness for analyzed it and dissected it in order then to show the sake of a denuded technological language its suffering entrails to the world, as they beg for of pure communication. In this context, he understanding, affection,& pity. projects a ‘rewrite’ of Dante’sCommedia in .— Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti

21 Title: Federico Fellini, Making a Film Translated with an introduction by Christopher Burton White ISBN: 9781940625096. $25.95, 17.00£, 23.00€ Pub.Date: March 2015

also provide thought-provoking evocations of various periods in Italian history, from the years of fascism to the age of Silvio Ber-

feDERICo FELLINI FEDERICO Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini (1920–1993) is one of the most lusconi’s media empire. renowned figures in world cinema. Director of a long list of critically acclaimed motion pictures, includingLa strada, La dolce vita, 8½, & Amarcord, Fellini’s success helped strengthen the international pres- F ELLINI tige of Italian cinema from the 1950s onward. Often remembered as an eccentric auteur with a vivid imagination and a penchant for quasi- In Making a Film Fellini discusses his child- autobiographical works, the carnivalesque, and Rubenesque women, Fellini’s inimitable films celebrate the creative potential of cinema as hood and adolescence in the coastal town a medium and also provide thought-provoking evocations of various periods in Italian history, from the years of fascism to the age of Silvio of Rimini, the time he spent as a cartoon- Berlusconi’s media empire.

In Making a Film Fellini discusses his childhood and adolescence in the Making a Film ist, journalist, and screenwriter in Rome, coastal town of Rimini, the time he spent as a cartoonist, journalist,& screenwriter in Rome, his decisive encounter with Roberto Rossellini, the decisive encounter with Roberto Ros- and his own movies, from Variety Lights to Fellini’s Casanova. The director explains the importance of drawing to his creative process, the sellini, and his own movies, from Variety mysterious ways in which ideas for films arise, his collaborations with his wife, Giulietta Masina, his thoughts on fascism, Jung, and the rela- Lights to Fellini’s Casanova. The director ex- tionship between cinema & television. Often comic, sometimes tragic, MAKING A FILM and rife with insightful comments on his craft, Making a Film sheds plains the importance of drawing to his cre- light on Fellini’s life & reveals the motivations behind many of his most fascinating movies. ative process, the mysterious ways in which Available for the first time in its entirety in English, this volume contains the complete translation of Fare un film, the authoritative collection of ideas for films arise, his collaborations with writings edited & reworked by Fellini and initially published by Giulio Einaudi in 1980. The text includes a new translation of the Italo Calvino his wife, Giulietta Masina, his thoughts on essay “A Spectator’s Autobiography,” an introduction by Italian film scholar ChristopherB . White, and an afterward by Fellini’s longtime fascism, Jung, and the relationship between friend & collaborator Liliana Betti. cinema and television. Often comic, some- isbn 978–1–9406250–9–6 FEAT. ITALO CALVINO times tragic, and rife with insightful com- LILIANA BETTI ments on his craft, Making a Film sheds www.contramundum.net Christopher Burton White light on Fellini’s life and reveals the motivations behind many of his most fascinating Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini (1920– movies. 1993) is one of the most renowned figures in world cinema. Director of a long list of Available for the first time in its entirety in critically acclaimed motion pictures, includ- English, this volume contains the complete ing La strada, La dolce vita, 8½, and Amar- translation of Fare un film, the authoritative cord, Fellini’s success helped strengthen the collection of writings edited and reworked international prestige of Italian cinema from by Fellini and initially published by Giulio the 1950s onward. Often remembered as an Einaudi in 1980. The text includes a new eccentric auteur with a vivid imagination translation of the Italo Calvino essay “A and a penchant for autobiographical works, Spectator’s Autobiography,” an introduction the carnivalesque, and Rubenesque women, by Italian film scholar Christopher B. White, Fellini’s inimitable films celebrate the cre- and an afterward by Fellini’s longtime friend ative potential of cinema as a medium and & collaborator Liliana Betti.

22 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Rainer J. Hanshe Hyperion is concerned with æsthetics, with the value of art and the ways through December 2014 in which art can be transformed & renewed. We are looking for applied criticism — philosophically oriented essays that are evaluative of specific artists & specific works of art.

Although broad æsthetic theorization should enter into the assessment of the artist and works under examination, we are not interested in purely abstract speculations. In addition, we are not looking for strict- ly art-historical or merely descriptive essays. What is of interest to us is a proposing of the worth, either intrinsic or conditional, of the art being considered & the principles that underlie the estimation of value. Further, we are also concerned with the way in which discoveries in the sciences alter our understanding of and perception of reality& thereby the making of art, forcing us to consider whether the art of our epoch is congruent with such discoveries or anachronistic.

Hyperion is devoted to criticism of all the arts: visual art, literature, music, theatre, dance, cinema, or any other form of art that contributors wish to argue possesses æsthetic legitimacy. Essays on work in any of these fields are welcomed.

From its inception in 2006 till 2011, Hyperion was edited by its founders Mark Daniel Cohen & Rainer J. Hanshe and published by the Nietzsche Circle. It is now published by Contra Mundum Press and edited by Rainer J. Hanshe & Erika Mihálycsa. Cohen remains a contributing editor.

Visit: contramundum.net/hyperion

24 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

ACCOLADES

0 Dominic Siracusa receives the 2011 Raiziss/de Palchi Fellowship for his translation of Emilio Villa.

1 Petőfi Literary Museum & Hungarian Book Foundation Grant (2012) Subvention for Tim Wilkinson’s translation of Miklós Szentkuthy’s Marginalia on Casanova

2 Petőfi Literary Museum& Hungarian Book Foundation Grant (2013) Subvention for Tim Wilkinson’s translation of Miklós Szentkuthy’s Prae

1053 Budapest, Károlyi Mihály u. 16. HUNGARIAN BOOKS T/F +36 1 384 5676 E [email protected] AND TRANSLATIONS OFFICE W www.booksandtranslations.hu

3 DaAPPLICATION Vinci Eye Award Finalist FORM (2013) for forIstván TRANSLATION Orosz’s original cover design GRANT for Marginalia on Casanova

PUBLISHING name contact person HOUSE address

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SWIFT/BIC code 4 Austrian Ministry of Arts, Culture, and Education Grant (2013) awarded toIBAN aid / bank our account publication number of Josef Winkler’s Natura Morta, translated by Adrian West. THE BOOK author 5 Joseftitle (original Winkler Hungarian) invited to the PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL (2013) andoriginal to Hungarian the Austrian publisher Cultural Forum,NYC (2013). year of publication

target language

title in the target language

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foreseeable publication date

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translation costs calculated with the fee of EUR or USD / page 25 subvention amount requested

THE name TRANSLATOR address

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(Please mention qualifications and previously translated and published titles in the presentation.)

PLEASE • copy of contract with the rights’ owner ATTACH • copy of contract with the translator • bibliographic data and short presentation of author, book, translator and publisher (last catalogue) • marketing plan

An acknowledgement to the Hungarian Books and Translations Office at PIM should be printed in the book.

Date Publisher’s signature 6 Elio Petri’s Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion released on DVD by Criterion (December 2013) with a host of extras, including a video-essay on Petri by our translator, Camilla Zamboni.

7 Austrian Ministry of Arts, Culture, and Education grant (2014) awarded to aid our publication of Robert Musil’s Thought Flights, which is to be translated by Genese Grill.

8 Petőfi Literary Museum& Hungarian Book Foundation (2014) awards us a grant to aid Judith Sollosy’s translation of Sándor Tar’s Our Street.

9 Rainer J. Hanshe invited to the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival to speak on Elio Petri for their retrospective of Petri’s films. Other guests included Franco Nero, Paola Petri, and Federico Bacci.

26 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

ENCOMIUMS

GILGAMESH

The strikingly handsome Contra Mundum edition ofGilgamesh has the feel of picking up a fragment of the cuneiform tablet, miraculously lucid, magically set. This is an exemplary translation that recovers the time of listening. .— Robert Kelly, Nomadics

SELF-SHADOWING PREY

Self-Shadowing Prey, just published by the new and promising Contra Mundum Press, is a book that is a tremendously difficult volume to trans- late since, unlike the image, wordplay is far less understandable across languages. This is a revelatory poetry by way of a lexical Kabala. And as there are unavoidable losses in translation here, Caws gives us a tremendous recovery. .— Michæl Leong, Hyperallergic

THE ABDICATION

The Abdication is a visionary novel of dangerous ideas, a novel of revolt that can at times be revolting in its relentless push to break the mold of idealist thought. Both experimental and assured, The Abdication is a comedy of high seriousness and gospel of the flesh that our winded civilization has needed for 2,000 years. .— Stuart Kendall, author of Georges Bataille

The Abdication is so perfectly consistent in its apocalyptic, visionary crescendo of the whole. What is admirable is the almost 360° bulk of Hanshe’s mythological and theological (that is, meta-geological) sources, his learned but burning quotations and his sharp meditations, as well as his Rabelaisian, Nietzschean, and Orwellian grotesque use of ancient pa- ganism and of heretical Christian currents: a massive, widespreadrecherche indeed to build his chaos cathedral, and a true, bitter monumentum to his

27 sublimated agonies, a labyrinth-shaped one, against Western Religions of the Book: a true ero(t)icomic seqel/sequela to Nietzsche. The Abdication, with its very intellectual pathos (much more intellectual andraisonné than Hanshe’s first novel,The Acolytes) requires a chosen audience or brother- hood of refined and ‘strong’ readers. .— Maura Del Serra

MARGINALIA ON CASANOVA

Among Anglophone readers, Miklós Szentkuthy was a relatively little- known (though highly prolific) Hungarian writer. Thanks to the recent efforts of Contra Mundum Press and translator Tim Wilkinson, who has done an admirable job in translating Szentkuthy’s ornate Ro- coco prose, this unfortunate situation now looks to be in a state of happy reversal. It is to be hoped that the other volumes in the series St. Orpheus Breviary will themselves see the light of day. At the same time, the publication of a work such as this helps to fill in the inevitable huge gaps in the availability of important Hungarian works of literature in English translation. .— Ottilie Mulzet, Hungarian Literature Online

What we have here is thought turned into something so sensuous it almost becomes erotic: this is the clever point that the book makes, that Casanova was not at all just the serial seducer we have decided he is, but a philosopher, in whose every action we see a principle of thought. This is a proposition we assent to at once, because of the style, which induces in me the feeling that any minute I am actually going to groan with pleasure. A huge salute to the translator here; Tim Wilkinson’s capture and then retransmission of nuance is awe-inspiring. This could not have been translated by someone with anything less than a brilliant English prose style. Let’s hope the remaining nine volumes, & indeed the rest of Szentkuthy’s oeuvre, get translated soon. .— Nicolas Lezard, The Guardian

Szentkuthy’s Marginalia on Casanova is truly a seminal work, both because of the breadth of its range and the nuance and slyness with which it traverses this breadth. Szentkuthy reminds us that to be intellectually omnivorous is a wasted asset without a sense of irony; he is, in a sense, Arnold Toynbee as written by Henry James. He writes of the rise & fall of civilizations as if they were extended drawing-room

28 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015 conversations — that is to say in what James would consider a civi- lized way. Szentkuthy will unquestionably enter and alter the canon of twentieth-century literature as we know it. .— Nicholas Birns, Tropes of Tenth Street

Marginalia on Casanova is a dazzling English rendering by Tim Wilkinson and also Szentkuthy’s English debut. (The other volumes of the Breviary — with titles like Black Renaissance, Europa Minor, and In the Footsteps of Eurydice — will, I hope, be forthcoming from Contra Mundum Press soon.) Szentkuthy is still referred to as the sacred monster of Hungarian letters, and the expression is apt. His huge output is at once speculative and manneristic, hyper-erotic and hyper-religious, bleary eyed and clear-sighted. His syntax and affect are irreverently modernist, yet there is nothing programmatic about his avant-gardism, and what he wrote of Casanova holds true of him as well: the muck of literary program is not allowed to dirty his white cuffs. TheMarginalia , it must be said, is uneven, and sections 38 to 57 are comparatively weak. But these 19 sections only make up a matter of 20 pages (which, nonetheless, include gorgeous lines like: every stealthy agitation of the age is there in Casanova’s nights), while section 73 alone is a 19-page triumph. Wilkinson’s prose, on the whole, is shapely, tangy, and precise. .— David Van Dusen, Los Angeles Review of Books

PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS

Beautifully edited and presented with a spirited afterword, these essays abound in arresting and surprising insights and this book will be of absorb- ing interest not only to those who love Pessoa but also anyone who wants philosophy to be more than the dull rehearsal of commonplace pieties. It is a cause for celebration that more of his writings are coming into print. .— John Gray, The New Statesman

The essays will unlikely appeal to Anglo-American philosophers who es- chew literary writing in favor of formal logic and linguistic analysis. Pessoa’s meditations are impressionistic and fragmentary, not rigorously argumen- tative. Thereby, he provides no deductive proofs or formulae. Rather, he provides notebook entries that show a brilliant mind at work — profound insights without logical apparatus. .— Michael Colson, Portuguese American Journal

29 I cannot but believe that behind Pessoa’s ‘pre-heteronyms,’ which feed the current volume [discovered recently and published as written for the first time], and his ‘heteronyms,’ which feed the books he is celebrated for, that play carried the day, and that all else to follow for their author would come because of his mastery in playing. Pessoa’sPhilosophical Essays are part and parcel of this sensibility, which left me wanting more from the aforesaid Charles Robert Anon and Alexander Search. .— Allan Graubard, Leonardo

WRITINGS ON CINEMA & LIFE

Petri was so alive, and inside the cinema, inside the images, so inside the strength of a vision. He should not be forgotten. .— Tonino Guerra

Elio Petri was a great artist, a great director, a very great man of the cinema. .— Dante Ferretti

A seemingly eclectic but actually very helpful selection of such hard-to- find Petri pieces, the aptly titledWritings on Cinema & Life is posited in Gili’s introduction as homage to a man that was like a big brother to me, a brother who had a lot to teach and pass down. The result definitely serves as a touching tribute, showing Petri as an enormously educated and gifted writer graced with a remarkable sense of humor, but just as capable of well-reasoned and sound analysis as of occasional bon mots. .— Christoph Huber, Cineaste

In 2007, when Jean A. Gili published Scritti di cinema e di vita, he opened a new chapter in film history. And more than thirty years after Petri’s death, the translation of these writings for the English-speaking public represents an enormous step in the vindication of this director’s life and work. A reading of Writings on Cinema & Life obliges one to cast aside the predigested labels furnished by cinema critics& historians in order to recu- perate one of the most original and interesting directors of the twentieth century. Organized chronologically, with a selection of photographs and a meticulous typography that recollects the books of the era, this work is an ideal introduction for the Anglophone reader, particularly when examined alongside Petri’s films. .— Beatriz Leal Riesco, Rebelión

30 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

PLAYS WITH FILMS

Richard Foreman’s theater represents an extraordinary, mental, spiritual, and æsthetic adventure. It’s a theater that questions, probes, and challenges the frontier of art & being. — Jonas Mekas

As with all of Foreman’s published work, this collection Plays[ With Films] documents visceral, physical events. Fortunately, these events are well worth capturing for the written record. The plays show a very experienced artist simultaneously staying innovative and true-to-himself, and in presenting these texts as written documents, Foreman sets us up for his difficult theater. These plays demand focus — lots of it — and we’re lucky for that. These are plays for people who believe they deserve good art instead of mere entertainment. Hopefully, the documentation will lead to new stagings of these plays, since the collection is a de facto template for other ambitious directors to pick up the work and make it their own. .— Justin Maxwell,Rain Taxi

Each Richard Foreman’s work gives a resonance and a disturbance not felt from any other company. [He is] a pioneer in end-of-millennium controlled chaos. .— David Bowie

ETERNITY BY THE STARS

Students of nineteenth-century thought will be grateful for this eloquent new translation. Frank Chouraqui’s superb introduction locatesEternity by the Stars in the trajectory of Blanqui’s thought and life and builds toward a crescendo that links the book to ruminations on the condition of modernity by the likes of Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Benjamin and Borges. .— Warren Breckman, Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

Blanqui’s Eternity by the Stars is a must read for anyone who has been enthralled by Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, or Borges. Chouraqui’s percep- tive and erudite introduction and notes clarify the logic of the argument, Blanqui’s reception by major thinkers, and the context of the essay’s composition in solitary confinement following the Paris Commune. This book should certainly be in the canon of philosophical prison literature, alongside writers like Boethius & Gramsci. .— Gary Shapiro, Prof. of Philosophy, Emeritus, University of Richmond

31 CONTACTS

Contra Mundum Press titles are sold by Ingram but wholesale or individual orders can also be made through us. Since we have warehouses in the UK and Australia, customers in both Europe& Oceania will not endure customs fees or overseas shipping prices.

Please contact the Ingram representative in your region for all orders or, if you wish to order directly from us, contact Lucia Barahona at: [email protected]

32 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

CONTRA MUNDUM PROJECTS

0 In collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Contra Mundum Press staged an Elio Petri retrospective at Arsenal in Berlin from 6–21 November 2013. See the respective websites for complete details, including talks with film& literature scholars.

http://www.arsenal-berlin.de http://www.iicberlino.esteri.it

1 Sándor Vály & Éva Polgár, Gilgamesh, a composition based on our edition of Stuart Kendall’s translation of Gilgamesh, now available. Vály & Polgár’s composition premiered on Finnish Radio at the end of 2013. For further updates, visit the news section of our site.

Sándor Vály http://sandorvaly.info

Éva Polgár http://polgareva.hu

2 Forthcoming cd from László Kreutz, Marginalia on Casanova, a composition based on various sections of our edition of Tim Wilkinson’s translation of Miklos Szentkuthy’s book of the same name. Featuring an original cover by István Orosz.

László Kreutz http://kreutz.hu

István Orosz http://utisz.blogspot.de

33 3 An event on Miklós Szentkuthy sponsored by Sinn und Form and the Collegium Hungaricum of Berlin (CHB) will take place in the spring of 2015 at CHB. Further details to be announced on our website.

4 The Italian Cultural Center of New York is hosting an event on April 9, 2015 to celebrate the publication of Fellini’s Making a Film, the first ever translation of the book published by Contra Mundum Press. Partici- pants include Antonio Monda, Wendy Keys, & translator Christopher Burton White.

5 Rainer J. Hanshe & Agnes Orzoy will curate an exhibition on Miklós Szentkuthy and Imre Szemethy at FUGA, the Budapest Center of Archi- tecture, in December of 2015.

34 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015 ABOUT

Dedicated to the value & the indispensable importance of the individual voice, to testing the boundaries of thought and experience.

Contra Mundum Press is a New York based independent publishing house with a global outlook. Our principal interest is in Modernism and the principles developed by the Modernists, though we also publish challenging and visionary works from other eras.

Our catalog consists of poetry, fiction, drama, philosophy, film criticism and essays. In the future, we intend on expanding it to include works on architecture, music,& other genres. While we have published bilingual and multilingual books, in accordance with our global outlook, we intend on publishing works in languages other than English. Our free online magazine, Hyperion: On the Future of Æsthetics, is published biannually and features essays, translations, interviews and reviews.

The primary aim of Contra Mundum is to publish translations of writers who in their use of form & style areà rebours, or who deviate significantly from the more programmatic and spurious forms of experimentation. Such writing attests to the volatile nature of modernism. Our preference is for works that have not yet been translated into English, are out of print, or are poorly translated, for writers whose thinking & aesthetics are in opposition to timely or mainstream currents of thought, value systems, or moralities. We also reprint obscure and out-of-print works we consider significant but which have been forgotten, neglected, or overshadowed.

There are many works of fundamental significance toWeltliteratur (and Weltkultur) that still remain in relative oblivion, works that alter and disrupt standard circuits of thought — these warrant being encountered by the world at large. It is our aim to render them more visible.

36 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

SUBSCRIPTIONS

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION

Our annual subscription is $100 & includes six books plus one surprise gift from our back catalog. Upon printing, each new book of the year will be sent to you before it reaches the general public. As a rolling subscription, your subscription year can begin whenever you wish. In addition, during their subscription year, all subscribers receive a 20% discount when ordering any of our other titles. Subscriptions are but one modest means of aiding the development of the press and demonstrating your support and belief in its vision. Shipping is free for each subscription.

BOOK SUBSCRIPTIONS

We offer tiered subscriptions in the amounts of $65 (4 books), $125 (8 books), $250 (15 books), $375 (23 books), and $500 (35 books). You can either receive each new book upon publication or select specific books from our entire catalog. Subscriptions are but one modest means of aiding the development of the press and demonstrating your support and belief in its vision. As a subscriber, you will receive each book before they become available to the general public. Subscription periods are rolling and begin immediately upon payment. Shipping is free.

SPONSORSHIPS & DONATIONS

Sponsorships can be in the form of: aiding the publication of a forthcoming book; funding the acquisition of a specific book (translation rights) that suits our catalog (one already under consideration or one you suggest); or sponsoring a forthcoming translation. Sponsorships should be in the amount of $1,000 & above. As a sponsor, your name will be listed in our colophon, unless you wish to remain anonymous. Contra Mundum Press also welcomes donations. All donations are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas. Contact our publicity & marketing director, Lucia Barahona, for more details.

37 FORTHCOMING CONTRA MUNDUM TITLES

Robert Musil, Thought Flights Sándor Tar, Our Street Oğuz Atay, While Waiting For Fear Ferit Edgü, No One

Miklós Szentkuthy, Prae, Vol. II Otto Dix, Letters (Vols I–III) Josef Winkler, Graveyard of Bitter Oranges

A City Full of Voices: Essays on Robert Kelly Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Narcissus. Afterword by Simon Critchley Maura Del Serra, Ladder of Oaths Remy de Gourmont, The Problem of Style

Ahmad Shamlu, Born Upon the Dark Spear

Miklós Szentkuthy, A Chapter on Love Emilio Villa, Writings on Primordial Art Miklós Szentkuthy, Narcissus’ Mirror Miklós Szentkuthy, Black Renaissance

38 c o n t r a m u n d u m p r e s s c ata l o g 2015

Contra Mundum Press P.O. Box 1326 Ne w York , NY 10276 USA [email protected]