Warsaw. Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s interview with Bruno Schulz is published in the 17th issue of “Tygodnik Ilustrowany”.
The interview, ready for at least two months, is finally published in the 17th issue of “Tygodnik Ilustrowany”*. The text appears despite the fears of Schulz himself, who suspected that the interview would “never see the light of day”. The publication consists of an informative introduction by Witkiewicz* entitled “Wywiad z Brunonem Schulzem" [Interview with Bruno Schulz], and Schulz’s reply entitled “Bruno Schulz do St.I. Witkiewicza” [Bruno Schulz to St. I. Witkiewicz] and four illustrations, which include reproductions of three graphics from the Book of Idolatry* (Book of Idolatry II, Undula at Night, Susanna and the Elders) and a portrait of Schulz by Witkacy.
The correspondence interview conducted by Witkiewicz is basically an article by Schulz about himself, as he wrote in a letter to the editor Wacław Czarski*, in the form of a collective response to previously formulated problems. The questions were only a excuse for Schulz’s statements and did not even make it into the final publication in “Tygodnik”, although some of them are easy to reconstruct – including the question about the beginnings of graphic art, about the similarities between drawings and prose, about philosophical interpretation, as well as about the literary genre and the classification of The Street of Crocodiles*.
Schulz’s answer is one of his most important texts dealing with his own work. Schulz writes about mythical images, such as a horse carriage leaving the night forest or a father trying to protect a child from the elements of the night in Goethe’s ballad, which constituted his poetic imagination (“iron capital of the spirit”). At the same time, he considers his book an autobiographical novel in the sense of a “spiritual genealogy”, but also because of the importance of loneliness, with which he identifies. When interpreting The Street of Crocodiles, he writes a lot about the ubiquitous irony. According to Schulz, the world of his stories is based on the principle of pan-masquerade, on the constant metamorphosis of forms and masks, and on the atmosphere of the backstage scenes, where actors ridicule the pathetic roles they play.
Witkiewicz’s introduction, preceding the content of the interview, is considered a testimony to his extraordinary insight. Witkacy is one of the first to see Schulz’s genius and is not afraid to write about it as “a new star of the first magnitude”.
See also: January 1, 1935, March 4, 1935, April 4, 1935. (ts) (transl. mw)
