Crocodile Street and other stories

Bruno Schulz (1892-1942) Polish writer, visual artist, art teacher, and literary critic, considered one of the most prominent Polish prose writers of the twentieth century. In his short story collection "Crocodile Street," Schulz presents through the perspective of a young child a magical imaginary world filled with various images of his small hometown, its streets, shops, stores, gardens, inhabitants, full of colors, darkness, light, and shadows. It embodies many myths, mythology, legends, as well as biblical influences. A strange world from a fragile and undefined time that may increase or decrease depending on the plot. Characters, whether human, animal, insect, or inanimate objects, blend and transform into a strange composition. Schulz's stories reflect the writer's autobiographical life in a satirical mythical style, full of monologue hallucinations, narrated with explosive vitality emerging from all layers of consciousness, subconsciousness, dreams, illusions, nightmares, and myths. It fully expresses his vision of the world and his imagination. He presented strange characters, used colorful language filled with historical and regional paradoxes and metaphors. Schulz demonstrated all of this in a beautiful, surreal style where truth mixes with illusion, reality with fantasy and myth.