Bruno Jasienski

Bruno Jasieński was a bilingual Polish-Russian writer who died in exile in
Siberia in 1939. This volume traces his literary evolution. The introductory
biographical sketch is followed by a discussion of Jasieński's contribution to
Polish poetry, specifically the Futurist movement which, like its parallels in
Russia and Italy, revolutionized poetic language. An analysis and evaluation
of Jasieński's prose work sheds light on the relationship between politics and
literature in early twentieth-century Poland and Russia. Most of Jasieński's
novels and short stories were written in the approved Soviet tradition of
Socialist Realism. His Man Changes His Skin is considered one of the best
Soviet industrial novels of the 1930s.

The author's comprehensive and skillful treatment of Jasieński's literary
production, the first to appear in English, also makes a valuable contribution
to the knowledge of Futurism in Eastern Europe and Socialist Realism in the
Soviet Union. The volume contains numerous quotations from Polish and Russian
literature, both in English translation (prepared by the author) and in the
original. It will be of interest to students of Slavic literature, comparative
literature, and the literature of ideology.