Description
Book SynopsisDebora Vogel (1900-1942) wrote in Yiddish unlike anyone else. Yiddish, her fourth language after Polish, Hebrew, and German, became the central vehicle for her modernist experiments in poetry and prose. This ground-breaking collection presents the work of a strikingly original yet overlooked author, art critic and intellectual, and resituates Vogel as an important figure in the constellation of European modernity. Vogel's astute observations on art, literature, and psychology in her essays, her bold prose experiments inspired by photography and film, and Cubist poetry that both challenges and captivates invite the reader on a journey of discovery—into the microcosm of the talented thinker marked by tragic fate and the macrocosm of Jewish history and Poland's turbulent 20th century.
Trade Review"With the invaluable new collection Blooming Spaces
, Anastasiya Lyubas, a researcher at the University of Toronto, at last rescues Vogel from Schulz’s shadow, restores the obliterated lines of continuity between her and us, and brings Vogel the attention commensurate with the full profusion of her talents." - Jewish Review of BooksTable of Contents
- A Note on Transliteration
- Acknowledgements
- Timeline of Vogel's Life and Work
- Translator's Scholarly Introduction
- Part I: "An Attempt at New Style": Debora Vogel's Poetry
- Selections from Day Figures
- Foreword to Day Figures Poetry Collection
- Rectangles (1924)
- Houses and Streets (1926)
- Tired Dresses (1925-1929)
- Tin (1929)
- Selections from Mannequins
- Mannequins (1930-1931)
- Drinking Songs
- Shoddy Ballads
- Afterword to Mannequins collection
- Part II: "Marching Soldiers, and Blooming Acacias": Debora Vogel's Lyrical Philosophical Prose
- Selections from the Polish and Yiddish bilingual collection, Acacias Bloom. Montages.
- Flower Shops with Azaleas (1933)
- Acacias Bloom (1932)
- Building of the Train Station (1931)
- Selections of prose from published and unpublished manuscripts
- Part III: Transformation of Form: Debora Vogel's Art of Essay
- Essays on Poetics
- "White Words in Poetry"
- "First Yiddish Poets"
- "Stasis, Dynamism, and Their Relevance for Art"
- "Montage as a Literary Genre"
- "Literary Montage. An Introduction"
- Anastasiya Lyubas/ book proposal/ 10
- "The Dialectical Novel"
- Essays on Aesthetics, Applied Arts, and Individual Artists
- "Theme and Form in Chagall's Art. An Aesthetic Critique"
- "On Abstract Art"
- "Henryk Streng, a Constructivist Painter"
- "Genealogy of Photomontage"
- "Legend of Contemporaneity in Children's Literature. Fragments"
- "Dwelling in its Psychic and Social Functions"
- Essays on Socio-Critical Issues
- "A Few Remarks on the Contemporary Intellectual Elite"
- "Lwów Jewry. An Expose for the Monograph about the Jewish Quarter in Lwów"
- "Exoticized People"
- "Courage in Solitude"
- Part IV: Letters
- A Note on the Letters to Bruno Schulz
- Letters to Marcus Ehrenpreis
- Letters to Aaron Glantz-Leyeles
- Letters to Moshe Starkman
- Letters to Shlomo Bikl
- Letters to Ezekiel Brownstone
- Letters to Melech Ravitch
- Part V: Reviews and Polemics around Vogel's Work in the Yiddish and Polish Press
- Reviews of Day Figures & Mannequins
- Ber Shnaper. "Cards on the Table. On Poetry, Market, and Cliches. (A Few Remarks on the New Collection of Poetry)"
- J. A. Weisman. "Debora Vogel and Her Monotony"
- Itsik Schwartz. "Modern Poetry. On Debora Vogel's Day Figures"
- Mendel Neugroschl. "The Last Generation of Yiddish Poets in Galicia. Debora Vogel and Hirsch Weber"
- Joshue Rapoport. "Apotheosis of Monotony"
- Ber Shnaper."The Lyric of Cool Stasis"
- "Debora Vogel's New Book Mannequins"
- Aaron Glantz-Leyeles "Undzer Bukh"
- Reviews of Acacias Bloom
- Discussions of the Yiddish Edition of Acacias Bloom
- B. Alquit. "Modern Prose"
- Debora Vogel. "Response to B. Alquit's review of Akatsies"
- B. Alquit. "Response to Debora Vogel's Letter"
- Joshua Rapoport. "Like a Squirrel on a Wheel"
- Debora Vogel. "A Couple Remarks Regarding my book Akatsies Blien"
- Reviews of the Polish Edition of Acacias Bloom
- Zofia Nalkowska. "Acacias Bloom"
- Marian Prominski. "Acacias Bloom"
- Emil Breiter. "Debora Vogel. Acacias Bloom. Montages"
- Bruno Schulz. "Acacias Bloom"
- Notes
- Index
