Akrobat
[MAGMA]
Vítezslav Nezval/Barbara Bausch,/Anna Luhn

Author Vítezslav Nezval (1900 – 1958) is considered one of the most important figures in the Czech avantgarde. Barbara Bausch and Eva Dymáková have now produced the first complete German version of Akrobat, the cycle of poems Nezval published in 1927. Produced, by the author’s account, over the course of a single night, Akrobat qualifies as one of the key texts of poetism. Established by Nezval himself together with Karel Teige, the poetist movement in the 1920s pooled the creative powers of the Czech avant-garde artists in a lively exchange with the French, Soviet, and German tendencies of the time. The three poems in the cycle take up important motifs from the early twentieth century. Akrobat uses associative images and thrilling cross-fades to interweave the account of the fall of a tightrope walker with the raison d’être of the poetic existence. The book is published as part of the MAGMA series.