Prague, capital of the twentieth century : a surrealist history / Derek Sayer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sayer, Derek, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Surrealism--Czech Republic--Prague.

Surrealism.

Prague (Czech Republic)--Civilization--20th century.

Prague (Czech Republic).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (622 pages)

Other Title:

Prague, capital of the 20th century

Prague

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, [2013]

Summary:

The story of modernity told through a cultural history of twentieth-century PragueSetting out to recover the roots of modernity in the boulevards, interiors, and arcades of the "city of light," Walter Benjamin dubbed Paris "the capital of the nineteenth century." In this eagerly anticipated sequel to his acclaimed Coasts of Bohemia: A Czech History, Derek Sayer argues that Prague could well be seen as the capital of the much darker twentieth century. Ranging across twentieth-century Prague's astonishingly vibrant and always surprising human landscape, this richly illustrated cultural history describes how the city has experienced (and suffered) more ways of being modern than perhaps any other metropolis.Located at the crossroads of struggles between democratic, communist, and fascist visions of the modern world, twentieth-century Prague witnessed revolutions and invasions, national liberation and ethnic cleansing, the Holocaust, show trials, and snuffed-out dreams of "socialism with a human face." Yet between the wars, when Prague was the capital of Europe's most easterly parliamentary democracy, it was also a hotbed of artistic and architectural modernism, and a center of surrealism second only to Paris.Focusing on these years, Sayer explores Prague's spectacular modern buildings, monuments, paintings, books, films, operas, exhibitions, and much more. A place where the utopian fantasies of the century repeatedly unraveled, Prague was tailor-made for surrealist André Breton's "black humor," and Sayer discusses the way the city produced unrivaled connoisseurs of grim comedy, from Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Hasek to Milan Kundera and Václav Havel. A masterful and unforgettable account of a city where an idling flaneur could just as easily be a secret policeman, this book vividly shows why Prague can teach us so much about the twentieth century and what made us who we are.

Contents:

Cover Page

Half-title Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication Page

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Translation and Pronunciation

Introduction

1. The Starry Castle Opens

The Surrealist Situation of the Object

A Choice of Abdications

2. Zone

Le passant de Prague

This Little Mother Has Claws

The Time of Ardent Reason

The Hangman and the Poet

Tongues Come to Life

3. Metamorphoses

The Origin of Robots

A Beautiful Garden Next Door to History

Suicide Lane

Franz Kafka's Dream

Do You Speak German? Are You a Jew?

Fantasy Land. Entry 1 Crown

The Precious Legacy

4. Modernism in the Plural

Alfons Mucha, Steel and Concrete

The Ghosts of Futures Past

From the Window of the Grand Café Orient

Granny's Valley

The Electric Century

All the Beauties of the World

5. Body Politic

The Silent Woman

The Poetry of Future Memories

Renaissance Ballet

Beautiful Ideas That Kill

Sexual Nocturne

Cut with a Kitchen Knife

A War Economy, Words of Command, and Gas

6. On the Edge of an Abyss

The Beautiful Gardener

The Bride Stripped Bare

Gulping for Air and Violence

Orders of Things

L'origine du monde

Dreams of Venus

A Girl with a Baton

7. Love's Boat Shattered against Everyday Life

A National Tragedy with Pretty Legs

The Poet Assassinated

A Wall as Thick as Eternity

Didier Desroches

Am I Not Right, Jan Hus?

Messalina's Shoulder in the Gaslight

That Familiar White Darkness

8. The Gold of Time

The Necromancer's Junk Room

The Prague-Paris Telephone

The Dancing House

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Sayer, Derek Prague, Capital of the Twentieth Century

ISBN:

9781400865444

1400865441

OCLC:

1281975158