Description
Fiction. Art. Translated from the German by David Vichnar and Tim König. Proclaimed as the "first Dada novel" & the "literary equivalent of Cézanne," Melchior Vischer's SECOND THROUGH BRAIN (Sekunde durch Hirn, 1920) is composed as a series of disconnected vignettes that flash through the mind of one Jörg Schuh as he falls from the scaffolding of a 40-storey construction site. With its boldly idiosyncratic technique, Vischer's novel is a major document of the Zürich-Prague-Berlin Dada axis. Largely forgotten after World War II, Sekunde durch Hirn is an important rediscovered landmark of the inter-war European avant-garde, here translated into English for the first time.
Author Bio
Born in Teplitz-Schönau (modern Teplice), in the former Sudeten region of Northwestern Bohemia, Melchior Vischer (1895-1975) belonged to the same cultural milieu as Franz Kafka & Robert Musil. Regarded as the pre-eminent figure of Prague Dadism, Vischer's notable works include Sekunde durch Hirn ("Second through Brain," 1920), Strolch und Kaiserin ("Tramp & Empress," 1921), Der Teemeister ("The Teamaster," 1921), and Der Hase ("The Hare," 1922). An obscure figure during the last thirty years of his life, Vischer died in Berlin in 1975.
Author City: BERLIN GER