Sigismund Dominikowitsch Krschischanowski

Sigismund Krschischanowski

Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky ( Russian Сигизмунд Доминикович Кржижановский * January 30 ^{. Jul} / 11. February  1887 ^{. Greg} in Kiev , † 28 December 1950 in Moscow ) was a Russian-speaking Soviet writers - the "clinging to anything Soviet, but which is also not the can be assigned to the anti-Soviet scene ”. His experimental, metafictional and phantasmagoric texts did not meet the requirements of socialist realism , which is why most of his works were only published posthumously.

Life and work

Krschischanowski was born in Kiev in 1887 as the son of Polish emigrants. ^{: vii} From 1907 he studied at the law faculty as well as at the historical- philological faculty of the Imperial St. Vladimir University in Kiev . In 1912 he traveled through Germany, France, Italy and Austria ^{: vii} and published his first poems and travel sketches. From 1913 to 1918 he worked as a legal assistant, then as a teacher at the Theater Institute of the Kiev Conservatory .

In 1922 Krschischanowski went to Moscow. ^{: x} There he worked in the 1920s as a teacher at the State Academy of Fine Arts (ГАХН) and at the Moscow Chamber Theater, from 1925 to 1931 as proofreader of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia . In addition, he worked a. a. as a research assistant for radio and as a translator. ^{: vii} He lived poorly in a tiny room on the Arbat . He made a name for himself in Moscow theater circles by reading his texts. During this time he wrote his most important short stories (Повести), such as The Club of Letter Murderers (1925–1927), whose printing in 1928 was rejected. ^viii-ix From Stalinist terror was Krzhizhanovsky presumably spared because he produced in the following years, only for the drawer. This was not only true for his literary works (novels, short stories, aphorisms and plays), but also for his studies on Shakespeare and Pushkin and his theoretical theatrical works.

With Ilja Ilf and Jewgeni Petrow he was involved in the screenplay for The Festival of Saint Jürgen (1930), but did not appear in the credits ; Nor was his collaboration on the screenplay for The New Gulliver (1933) mentioned. In 1936 he wrote the libretto for Sergei Prokofiev's opera Eugene Onegin (based on Pushkin 's epic verse of the same name ). ^{: 121}

In 1939 Krschischanowski was accepted into the Writers' Union of the USSR . In honor of his upcoming 50th birthday, a collection of short stories was due to go to print, but the turmoil of the German-Soviet war prevented publication. ^{: 133} In besieged Moscow Krschischanowski wrote the libretto for Sergei Nikiforowitsch Wassilenko's opera Suworow , which premiered in 1942. After the war, he stopped his literary production and largely withdrew from the literary business. ^{: xi – xii}

In 1949, a stroke robbed him of his ability to decipher letters ( alexia ). ^{: xii – xiii} Krschischanowski died in Moscow in 1950.

reception

Maxim Gorki wrote in 1922 that he could not judge Krschischanowski's ironic compositions for their philosophical value ^{: 180 however} decided that the stories were too intellectual and "useless for the tasks of the working class". ^{: x – xi} The Soviet publishers repeatedly refused to print his work - or demanded changes that Krschischanowski was not ready to make. During his lifetime only eight appeared ^{: 121} and nine stories respectively. ^{: 181} During the thaw period , a commission was set up to examine Krschischanowski's literary heritage (1957). After two years, it presented a publication plan that was never implemented. ^{: viii}

Since his death, Krschischanowski's unknown literary estate of over 3,000 pages has been kept in a clothes chest by his partner Anna Gawrilovna Bowschek (1889–1971). This corpus of texts was rediscovered in 1976 by the poet and literary historian Wadim Perelmuter. In 1988 Perelmuter published a first story by Krzyzanowski, and from 2001 he published the work edition . ^{: vii – viii} With Le Marque-page and Estampillé Moscou , translated books by Krzyzanowski were published for the first time in France in 1992.

In the course of the critical perception that began, he was repeatedly compared with Franz Kafka , Edgar Allan Poe , Samuel Beckett , E. T. A. Hoffmann and Jorge Luis Borges , as well as with Vladimir Nabokov , whose "interests in philosophical phantasmagories, in language games and narrative paradoxes, in quoting and Parody ”he shared.

Works (selection)

Collected Works

• Собрание сочинений . 6 volumes ed. by Wadim Perelmuter, Symposium, 2001–2013 ISBN 5-89091-131-7 .

stories

• Клуб убийц букв (1925–1927) viii
  • The letter killers club . Dörlemann, 2015 ISBN 978-3038200192
• Воспоминания о будущем (1929, 1989)
  • Memories of the Future . New York Review of Books, 2009. ISBN 978-1-59017-319-0 .
• Возвращение Мюнхгаузена (1927–1928)
  • Le Retour de Munchhausen . Editions Verdier, 2002 ISBN 978-2-8643-2351-8 .

• CV of a thought . Stories. Gustav Kiepenheuer, 1996 ISBN 978-3378004689 .

script

• Праздник Святого Йоргена (The Feast of St. Jürgen), based on a novel by Harald Bergstedt , directed by Jakow Protasanow , 1930.
• Новый Гулливер (The New Gulliver), based on Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift , directed by Alexander Ptuschko , 1935.

libretto

• Евгений Онегин (Eugene Onegin), based on a verse epic by Alexander Pushkin . Music by Sergei Prokofiev (1936).
• Суворов (Suworow), music by Sergei Nikiforowitsch Wassilenko (1942).

literature

• Muireann Maguire, "The little man in the overcoat. Gogol and Krzhiszhanovsky", in: Katherine Bowers and Ani Kokobobo (eds.), Russian Writers and the Fin de Siècle: The Twilight of Realism . Cambridge University Press, 2015 ISBN 978-1107073210 .
• Karen Link Rosenflanz: Hunter of themes: the interplay of word and thing in the works of Sigizmund Križižanovskij . Peter Lang Publishing, 2005 ISBN 978-0-8204-6151-9 .
• Anna Muza, "Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky: a bat in flight", in: Nicholas JL Luker (Ed.), Out of the shadows: neglected works in Soviet prose: selected essays . Astra, 2003 ISBN 978-0946134700 .

Web links

• Sigismund Dominikowitsch Krschischanowski in the Internet Movie Database (English).
• Works by Krschischanowski at lib.ru (Russian).
• Сигизмунд Доминикович Кржижановский (1887–1950) on: im werden.info (Russian).
• Vadim Gerschewitsch Perelmuter (1989), Трактат о том, как невыгодно быть талантливым on: knigolubu.ru, (Russian).
• Natalja Evgenjewna Semper (1997), Человек из небытия (Воспоминания о С. Д. Кржижановском) on: magazines.russ.ru (Russian).
• Adam Thirlwell (2013), The Known Unknown: On Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky at: theparisreview.org (English).
• Ken Kalfusnov (2013), O Radiant Future! Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky's 'Autobiography of a Corpse' on: nytimes.com (English).
• Sophie Weigand (2015), Sigismund Krzyzanowski - The Club of Letter Murderers on: literatourismus.net.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Felix Philipp Ingold, An Unknown of Russian Modernism - Null Author: Sigismund Krshishanowski , (October 12, 2013) on: nzz.ch, accessed on September 13, 2015.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Вновь открытый: писатель и драматург Сигизмунд Кржижановский (1887-1950) ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has not been checked automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (2011) at: aej.org.ua, accessed September 13, 2015 (Russian). 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Caryl Emerson, "Introduction", in: Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, The Letter Killers Club . New York Review of Books, 2011 ISBN 978-1-59017-450-0 pp. Vii – xvii (English).
4. ^ ^{A b c} Adam Thirlwell, "Introduction", in: Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, Autobiography of a Corpse. New York Review of Books, 2013 ISBN 978-1-59017-670-2 vii – xviii (English).
5. ↑ Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky at: nyrb.com, accessed on September 13, 2015 (English).
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Simon Morrison, The People's Artist: Prokofiev's Soviet Years: Prokofiev's Soviet Years Oxford University Press, 2008 ISBN 978-0199753482 pp. 120-133 (English).
7. ^ ^{A b} Muireann Maguire, "The little man in the overcoat. Gogol and Krzhiszhanovsky", in: Katherine Bowers and Ani Kokobobo (eds.), Russian Writers and the Fin de Siècle: The Twilight of Realism . Cambridge University Press, 2015 ISBN 978-1107073210 pp. 180-196 (English).
8. ↑ Jean-Pierre Thibaudat, Sigismund Krzyzanowski: un nom imprononçable, des textes jubilatoires ( Memento of the original of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (23 November 2010) from: rue89.nouvelobs.com, accessed on 13 September 2015 (French). 
9. ↑ Dominique Conil, Krzyzanowski, l'auteur que même Staline négligea (August 5, 2014) at: mediapart.fr, accessed on September 13, 2015 (French).