Las tiendas de color canela

The Cinanamon Shops

The Cinanamon Shops includes fifteen linked short stories which narrate different episodes in the life of a polish family. The main character is the father, described through the mythologizing eyes of a child. However, the narrator does not mirror a child´s usage of language, preferring an experimental register which he uses to create mythical images of unreality, forever stretching the limits of his own imagination (things, people, places constantly metamorphose into other objects). These transformations are sometimes explained theoretically by the father and his views acquire truly extraordinary dimensions.

Dobra Robota Editora presented in 2015 an Argentinean translation of this Polish classic, more attuned with the local rioplatense Spanish than with the varieties used to translate foreign works in Spain. This new translation has been widely acclaimed in Argentina. Dobra Robota Editora is currently planning a reprint of the book.

ISBN 978-987-46114-0-6

Bruno Schulz (1892-1942) was a Polish writer who was active during the interwar period. He was part of the Polish literary avant-garde scene and is widely considered one of Poland's most important writers with the likes of Witold Gombrowicz and Stanisław I. Witkiewciz, who were also his friends.

Schulz was a writer, fine artist, art teacher and literary critic. His illustrations were published in The Book of Idolatry. In 1934 he published The Cinanamon Shops (Las tiendas de color canela), his first collection of short stories. His second short story collection, Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass (Sanatorio La Clepsidra) has also been translated and published by Dobra Robota Editora publishing house. At the time of his death he was working on a novel titled The Messiah which would have been his masterpiece. Unfortunately, no draft version has survived. He was murdered by a Nazi officer in 1942.

Las tiendas de color canela está compuesto por 15 relatos concatenados que presentan distintos episodios en la vida de una familia: la figura principal es el padre, narrado a través de la mirada mitologizante de un niño. Sin embargo, el narrador no hace uso de un lenguaje infantil, sino de uno ampliamente experimental, con el que crea imágenes de irrealidad, ampliando cada más vez los límites de su imaginación (las cosas, las personas, los lugares se transforman de un momento a otro, sufren metamorfosis). Las transformaciones son explicadas de modo teórico por este padre, cuyo planteo adquiere dimensiones totalmente extraordinarias.

Se trata de una traducción argentina del clásico polaco, que toma distancia del tono español que solemos consumir. Se puede encuadrar dentro del dialecto rioplatense.

Esta nueva traducción, del 2015, ha tenido muy buena acogida en Argentina y se está planeando una reimpresión del libro.

Bruno Schulz fue un escritor polaco de entreguerras (1892-1942). Se inscribe en la literatura de vanguardia polaca de entreguerras y es uno de los escritores más importantes de Polonia, junto con Witold Gombrowicz y Stanisław I. Witkiewciz, de quienes era amigo.

Schulz también dibujaba y sus ilustraciones fueron publicadas en El libro idolátrico. Su primer libro de relatos fue Las tiendas de color canela. El segundo, Sanatorio La Clepsidra (traducido también por Dobra Robota). Asimismo, ha producido crítica y ensayos literarios. Al momento de su muerte, se encontraba trabajando en la que hubiera sido su gran obra maestra, El Mesías, la cual se ha perdido. Fue asesinado por un oficial nazi.