Bruno Schulz
Bruno Schulz
#### Full Name and Common Aliases
Bruno Schulz was a Polish writer, painter, and draughtsman. His full name is Bruno Schulz (Polish: Bruno Schultz). He was also known by his pen name, Zdzisław Schutz.
Birth and Death Dates
Bruno Schulz was born on February 12, 1892, in Drohobycz, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine) to a Jewish family. He died on November 19, 1942, during the Holocaust at the age of 50.
Nationality and Profession(s)
Schulz was Polish by nationality and held multiple professions including writer, painter, and draughtsman. His work spanned various genres including fiction, poetry, and visual art.
Early Life and Background
Bruno Schulz grew up in a Jewish family in Drohobycz, which at the time was part of Austria-Hungary but is now located in Ukraine. His father was a textile merchant, and his mother managed their household. Schulz's early life was marked by a strong interest in art and literature. He drew inspiration from the world around him, often depicting everyday scenes from Drohobycz.
Major Accomplishments
Schulz's writing career began to take off in the 1920s with the publication of his short stories. His most notable collection is "Cinnamon Shops"_ (Polish: _Sklepy cynamonowe_ ) published posthumously. This work showcases Schulz's unique style, blending elements of realism and fantasy.
Notable Works or Actions
Some of Bruno Schulz's most notable works include:
"The Street of Crocodiles"_ (Polish: _Sklepy cynamonowe_ ), a collection of short stories published posthumously.
"Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass"_ (Polish: _Sanatorium pod klepsydrą_), another notable collection of short stories.
Impact and Legacy
Bruno Schulz's work has been widely acclaimed for its unique blend of realism and fantasy. His writing often explores themes of identity, morality, and the human condition. His legacy extends beyond his literary contributions, as he is also remembered for his visual art and his courage in the face of oppression.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
Bruno Schulz's quotes are widely quoted because they offer insight into the human experience. His writing is characterized by a sense of wonder, curiosity, and a deep understanding of the complexities of life. His legacy serves as a reminder of the power of art to transcend time and circumstances.
Schulz's contributions to literature have inspired generations of writers and artists. His unique style continues to captivate readers and inspire new works of fiction.
Quotes by Bruno Schulz
There open up, deep inside a city, reflected streets, streets which are double, make-believe streets. One’s imagination, bewitched and misled, creates illusory maps of the apparently familiar districts, maps in which the streets have their proper places and usual names but are provided with new and fictitious configurations by the inexhaustible inventiveness of the night.
I harbored in my mind a sort of utopia about ‘an age of genius’ that supposedly existed in my life once upon a time, not in any calendar year but on a level above chronology, an age when everything blazed with godly colors and one took in the whole sky with a single breath, like a gulp of pure ultramarine.
On that night the sky laid bare its internal construction in many sections which, like quasi-anatomical exhibits, showed the spirals and whorls of light, the pale-green solids of darkness, the plasma of space, the tissue of dreams.
For ordinary books are like meteors. Each of them has only one moment, a moment when it soars screaming like the phoenix, all its pages aflame. For that single moment we love them ever after, although they soon turn to ashes. With bitter resignation we sometimes wander late at night through the extinct pages that tell their stone dead messages like wooden rosary beads.
If, forgetting the respect due to the Creator, I were to attempt a criticism of creation, I would say ‘Less matter, more form!
The books we read in childhood don’t exist anymore; they sailed off with the wind, leaving bare skeletons behind. Whoever still has in him the memory and marrow of childhood should rewrite these books as he experienced them.
How can one not succumb and allow one’s courage to fail when everything is shut tight, when all meaningful things are walled up, and when you constantly knock against bricks, as against the walls of a prison?
And one’s wandering proved as sterile and pointless as the excitement produced by a close study of pornographic albums.
The days hardened with cold and boredom like last year’s loaves of bread. One began to cut them with blunt knives without appetite, with a lazy indifference.
An event may be small and insignificant in its origin, and yet, when drawn close to one’s eye, it may open in its center an infinite and radiant perspective because a higher order of being is trying to express itself in it and irradiates it violently.