{"product_id":"on-this-modern-highway-lost-in-the-jungle-tropics-travel-and-colonialism-in-czech-poetry-9788024651125","title":"On This Modern Highway, Lost in the Jungle:","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePostcolonial reflections on Indonesia’s influence upon the avant-garde poetry of a non-colonial European.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In 1926, the Communist avant-garde poet Konstantin Biebl (1898–1951) traveled from Czechoslovakia to the Dutch East Indies. In the writings from his journal—texts simultaneously poetic and comic—both landlocked Bohemia and the colonized tropical islands are seen in disorienting new perspectives, like “mirrors looking at themselves in each other.”\u003cbr\u003e ​\u003cbr\u003e Jan Mrázek’s \u003ci\u003eOn This Modern Highway, Lost in the Jungle\u003c\/i\u003e takes us on a journey of our own, crisscrossing Biebl’s life and work—with particular attention to his travel writing—as they mirror Mrázek’s own experiences as a multinational academic: a Prague conservatory graduate, educated at Michigan and Cornell, and now a scholar of Indonesia living in Singapore. Biebl’s writings are also the book’s point of departure for a broader exploration of the intersections of travel and poetry, issues of colonial and social injustice, and the representation of otherness in the Czech literary and visual imagination. In its attention to how poetic travel reflects the Czech historical experience in the shadow of imperial nations, Mrázek’s book elevates scholarly reflection on literary travel, modernity, and colonialism to a new level.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In the first part of the book, Mrázek (Southeast Asian studies, National Univ. of Singapore) provides an extensive biography of Biebl; the second part focuses on the poet’s imagery and the striking graphic aspects of his texts. The audience for this book will be those interested in Czech literature and in the interwar European avant-garde in general.\" * Choice *\u003cbr\u003e\"Honest, precise, personal yet objective, and obviously well researched.\"  * Michala Tomanová and Michaela Budiman, Charles University *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Figures 10\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments 12\u003cbr\u003ePreamble 15\u003cbr\u003ePart One | The Mirror of Time 35\u003cbr\u003eParrots and monkeys 37\u003cbr\u003eThe first palm 44\u003cbr\u003eWhere grenades fall, there green palms grow 55\u003cbr\u003eFirst Excursion | Parrots on motorcycles: exoticisms of the Czech\u003cbr\u003eavant-garde in the 1920s 68\u003cbr\u003eMetaphors, dreams, travel 95\u003cbr\u003eWorkers . . . Indians! 102\u003cbr\u003eThrough the train window—Don’t worry, I am not going to Paris 109\u003cbr\u003eSecond Excursion | His head that watches us over the century’s edge:\u003cbr\u003epoetic travels in the nineteenth century 117\u003cbr\u003eThe notebook that he lost somewhere on the ship 135\u003cbr\u003eWith the ship that carries tea and coffee 142\u003cbr\u003eHalf-black, you understand? Here you have to be careful! 166\u003cbr\u003eNew Icarus and the mestiza My Beautiful Arsiti 183\u003cbr\u003eAgain some Malay landscape 195\u003cbr\u003eThe jungle around us 202\u003cbr\u003eSailors of all seas unite! 207\u003cbr\u003eYour longest and most adventurous journey 213\u003cbr\u003eAgain and again man is proving that he has no wings 217\u003cbr\u003ePart Two | A hundred rose petals, on them no words 225\u003cbr\u003eSilences 227\u003cbr\u003eSounds, smells, tastes 235\u003cbr\u003eTypography—optic configurations 244\u003cbr\u003ePhotographs, cinema, and the magazine Home and the World 259\u003cbr\u003ePicture postcards 290\u003cbr\u003eSnapshots and reflections: poetry | travel | photography | death 297\u003cbr\u003eAuthor’s note on translations and sources 310\u003cbr\u003eBibliography 311\u003cbr\u003eIndex 317\u003cbr\u003eList of Figures 10\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments 12\u003cbr\u003ePreamble 15\u003cbr\u003ePart One | The Mirror of Time 35\u003cbr\u003eParrots and monkeys 37\u003cbr\u003eThe first palm 44\u003cbr\u003eWhere grenades fall, there green palms grow 55\u003cbr\u003eFirst Excursion | Parrots on motorcycles: exoticisms of the Czech\u003cbr\u003eavant-garde in the 1920s 68\u003cbr\u003eMetaphors, dreams, travel 95\u003cbr\u003eWorkers . . . Indians! 102\u003cbr\u003eThrough the train window—Don’t worry, I am not going to Paris 109\u003cbr\u003eSecond Excursion | His head that watches us over the century’s edge:\u003cbr\u003epoetic travels in the nineteenth century 117\u003cbr\u003eThe notebook that he lost somewhere on the ship 135\u003cbr\u003eWith the ship that carries tea and coffee 142\u003cbr\u003eHalf-black, you understand? Here you have to be careful! 166\u003cbr\u003eNew Icarus and the mestiza My Beautiful Arsiti 183\u003cbr\u003eAgain some Malay landscape 195\u003cbr\u003eThe jungle around us 202\u003cbr\u003eSailors of all seas unite! 207\u003cbr\u003eYour longest and most adventurous journey 213\u003cbr\u003eAgain and again man is proving that he has no wings 217\u003cbr\u003ePart Two | A hundred rose petals, on them no words 225\u003cbr\u003eSilences 227\u003cbr\u003eSounds, smells, tastes 235\u003cbr\u003eTypography—optic configurations 244\u003cbr\u003ePhotographs, cinema, and the magazine Home and the World 259\u003cbr\u003ePicture postcards 290\u003cbr\u003eSnapshots and reflections: poetry | travel | photography | death 297\u003cbr\u003eAuthor’s note on translations and sources 310\u003cbr\u003eBibliography 311\u003cbr\u003eIndex 317\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Karolinum,Nakladatelstvi Univerzity Karlovy,Czech Republic","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51045564842327,"sku":"9788024651125","price":30.88,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9788024651125.jpg?v=1750965038","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/on-this-modern-highway-lost-in-the-jungle-tropics-travel-and-colonialism-in-czech-poetry-9788024651125","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}