HIS EVOLUTION from FUTURISM to SOCIALIST REALISM Bibliothéque De La Revue Canadienne De Littérature Comparte, Vol
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NINA KOLESNIKOFF Bruno Jasieñski His Eyoíution from Futurism to Socialist Realism Bruno Jasieñski was a bilingual Polish-Russian writer who died in exile in Siberia in 1939. This volume traces his literary evolution. The introductory biographical sketch is followed by a discussion of Jasieñski's con- tribution to Polish poetry, specifically the Futurist movement which, like its parallels in Russia and Italy, revolutionized poetic language. An analysis and evalu- ation of Jasieñski's prose work sheds light on the rela- tionship between politics and literature in early twentieth-century Poland and Russia. Most of Jasieñ- ski's novéis and short stories were written in the ap- proved Soviet tradition of Socialist Realism. His Man Changes His Skin is considered one of the best Soviet industrial novéis of the 1930s. The author's comprehensive and skillful treatment of Jasieñski's literary production, the first to appear in English, also makes a valuable contribution to the knowledge of Futurism in Eastern Europe and Social- ist Realism in the Soviet Union. The volume contains numerous quotations from Polish and Russian litera- ture, both in English translation (prepared by the au- thor) and in the original. It will be of interest to stu- dents of Slavic literature, comparative literature, and the literature of ideology. Nina Kolesnikoff holds the Ph.D. degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Albería. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Russian, McMaster University. Her articles have appeared in Canadian Slavonic Papers, Slavic and East European Journal, and Russian Language Journal. This page intentionally left blank BRUNO JASIENSKI HIS EVOLUTION FROM FUTURISM TO SOCIALIST REALISM Bibliothéque de la Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparte, vol. 6 Library of the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 6 DIRECTEUR/EDITOR: M. V. Dimic, Alberta SECRÉTAIRE DE RÉDACTION/EDITORIAL SECRETARY: E. D. Blodgett, Alberta COMITÉ DE PATRONAGE/ COMITÉ DE RÉDACTION/ ADVISORY BOARD EDITORIAL COMMITTEE J. E. Bencheikh, Paris/Alger R. Bourneuf, Laval R. K. DasGupta, Delhi P. Chavy, Dalhousie J. Ferraté, Alberta L. Dolezel, Toronto N. Frye, Toronto M. Goetz-Stankiewicz, British H. G. Gadamer, Heidelberg Columbia C. Guillen, Harvard V. Graham, Toronto G. Hartman, Yale E.J. H. Greene, Alberta T. Klaniczay, Budapest C. Hamlin, Toronto A. Viatte, Zürich/Paris E. Heier, Waterloo P. Zumthor, Montréal E. Kushner, McGill P. Merivale, British Columbia I. Schuster, McGill R. Sutherland, Sherbrooke M. J. Valdés, Toronto E. Vanee, Montréal 1 E. J. H. Greene. Menander to Mañva-ux: The History of a Comic Structure. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1977. Pp. 201; $10.00 2,3 M. V. Dimic and E. Kushner, with J. Ferraté and R. Struc, eds. Proceedings ofthe Vllth Congress ofthe ICLA ¡Actes du VIP Congres de l'AILC [Montreal-Ottawa, 1973]. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; Stuttgart: Kunst and Wissen, 1979. Pp. 562 and 728; DM 213.00 (prepublication subscription price $50.00) 4 Mario J. Valdés and Owen J. Miller, eds. Interpretation ofNarrative. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978. Pp. 202; $15.00 5 Linda Hutcheon. Narcissistic Narrative: The Metafictional Paradox. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1980. Pp. xii + 168; $9.75 6 Nina Kolesnikoff. Bruno Jasieñski: His Evolution from Futurism to Socialist Realism. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1982. Pp. x + 148; $9.75 NINA KOLESNIKOFF Bruno Jasienski His Evolution from Futurism to Socialist Realism Wilfríd Lauríer University Press Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Kolesnikoff, Nina, 1943- Bruno Jasieñski : his evolution from futurism to socialist realism Bibliography: p. ISBN 0-88920-110-2 1. Jasieñski, Bruno, 1901-1939 - Criticism and interpretation. I. Title PG7158.J352K64 891.8'53'7 C82-094513-7 Copyright © 1982 WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY PRESS Waterloo, Ontario, Ganada N2L 3C5 82 83 84 85 4 3 2 1 No parí ofthis book may be stored in a retrieval system, translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. Cover design by Polygon Design Limited Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 CHAPTER ONE A Biographical Sketch 4 CHAPTER TWO Polish Futurism: Its Origin and Aesthetic Programme 10 CHAPTER THREE The Poetry of Bruno Jasieñski and the Futurist Quest to Renovate Poetic Language 23 CHAPTER FOUR The Lay ofjakub Szela and Folklore 59 CHAPTER FIVE / Burn París—A Utopian Novel 74 CHAPTER SIX Bruno Jasieñski and Soviet Literary Life 1929-1934 86 CHAPTER SEVEN Man Changes His Skin and the Industrial Novel 93 CHAPTER EIGHT Socialist Realism in "Bravery" and A Conspiracy of the Indifferent 110 CHAPTER NINE Grotesque Elements in TheBall ofthe Mannequins and "The Nose" 117 Conclusión 125 APPENDIX A Selection of Bruno Jasieñski's Poetry with Prose Translation of Each Poem 128 A Selected Bibliography 142 índex 146 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This study of Bruno Jasieñski is based on my doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Alberta in 1975. In the preparation of the theses I received valuable help from Professor Milán V. Dimic and Dr. Edward Mozejko, to whom I am very grateful. I also wish to thank Professor Dimic for his continued interest and encouragement. I would like to express my gratitude to Mrs. Irene Howard and Mr. Christopher F. Fortune for editing the manuscript. In addition Mr. Fortune helped me with the translation of the prose quotations that appear in the text. Professor Bohdan Czaykowski and Mrs. Mary Plotnikoff gave me many valuable suggestions on translating Bruno Jasieñski's poetry into English. My thanks also go to Mrs. Ruby Torren and Miss Patricia Goodall for their typing of the manuscript. I am grateful for permission to reprint here two chapters of the book which were published earlier as articles: "Polish Futurism: Its Origin and the Aesthetic Programme," Canadian Slavonic Papers, 18/3 (1976), 301-311; "Polish Futurism: The Quest to Renovate Poetic Language," Slavic andEastEuropeanJournal, 21/1 (1977), 64-77.1 also acknowledge with gratitude permission granted by Jasieñski's publisher, Osso- lineum, to quote from his works published by them in Polish, and by International Publishers, New York, to quote from Man Changes His Skin. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the support from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities. This book has been published with the x Bruno Jasieñski: From Futurism to Socialist Realism help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Ganada. Introduction The purpose of this book is to provide a comprehensive study of Bruno Jasieñski, a Polish-Russian writer, who in 1939 perished in one of the Siberian camps. Like many other Soviet writers, he was a victim of the Stalinist purges. For political reasons, Jasieñski was doomed to obscurity for almost two decades. His books were withdrawn from bookstores and libraries, and his ñame was never mentioned in critical studies. The situation changed, however, in 1956, when Jasieñski alongwith many others was posthumously rehabilitated. His works were republished and his ñame attracted the attention of critics and scholars. Since then many valuable studies on Bruno Jasieñski have appeared both in Poland and in the Soviet Union, but, as a rule, they tend to bisect his literary production according to the language in which the works were written. The only exception is Anatol Stern's monograph, Bruno Jasieñski, which embraces the totality of Jasieñski's works.1 The book makes very interesting reading, thanks to Stern's first-hand knowledge of Futur- ism and his personal acquaintance with Jasieñski. Unfortunately, the emphasis is on the biographical data at the expense of an analysis of the literary works. A completely different approach was chosen by Edward Balcerzan, author of the second Polish monograph on Bruno Jasieñski. His Style and Poetics ofthe Bilingual Writings of Bruno Jasieñski investigates Jasieñski's poetics as a reflection of the poet's peculiar 1 Anatol Stern, Bruno Jasieñski (Warszawa, 1969). 2 Bruno Jasieñski: From Futurism to Socialist Realism semiological attitude, where the Reality becomes the Transmitter and the role oí'the writer is to be a Contact between the Transmitter and the Receiver.2 There are also two interesting articles on Jasieñski's poetry by Marian Rawiñski. The first one, "The Sources of Bruno Jasieñski's Early Poetry," discusses Jasieñski's early poetry written under the im- pact of Igor Severianin and Vladimir Maiakovskii; the second, "Bruno Jasieñski's The Lay of Jakub Szela and Folklore," gives a perceptive analysis of The Lay and its ties with Polish folk poetry.3 If Polish scholars restrict themselves primarily to the investiga- tion of Jasieñski's poetic achievements, their Soviet colleagues con- céntrate on his prose, especially on the later novéis. B. I. Pruttsev's dissertation "The Literary Career of Bruno lasenskü" is very repre- sentative in this regard.4 Pruttsev dismisses Jasieñski's Futurist poetry as "formalist, anti-realistic, reflecting the disintegration of the bour- geois culture." He makes an exception, however, for A SongofHunger, a poem which, in his opinión, indicates "the victory of the realistic tendencias." The core of Pruttsev's dissertation is devoted to Jasieñski's prose and the degree to which the writer meets the requirements of the doctrine of Socialist Realism. Pruttsev examines problems of "typical- ity," "partisanship," and "the positive hero" as reflected in Jasieñski's Russian novéis, and concludes that the writer successfully adopted the method of Socialist Realism. The same conclusions were reached by N. G. Shafer and E. M. Khoroshukhin, authors of two more disserta- tions on Bruno Jasieñski. Both "The Novéis of Bruno lasenskü" and "The Prose of Bruno lasenskü" deal exclusively with the ideology of Jasieñski's prose and overlook its structural and stylistic peculiarities.5 Until the present there has been no monographic study evaluating Jasieñski's literary production as a whole.