BYSTROŃ Jan St[anislaw] - COMISM Illustrations Published 1939.

BYSTROŃ Jan St[anislaw] - COMISM

Wrapper, cover and illustrations by Vladimir BARTOSZEWICZ.

Numerous illustrations in the text. Luxury publication printed on thick chalk ash.Książnica-Atlas. Lvov-Warsaw 1939.Wym.31,3x24,5cm; pages 540.Binding original linen(scuffs, dirt).On the lining pasted exlibris; in places undercovers.Overall condition good.

J. S. Bystroń (1892-1964) - ethnographer and sociologist, professor at universities in Poznan, Krakow and Warsaw, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Author of almost 40 books. Outstanding, though controversial scholar. He was the first in Poland to recognize comedy as a sociological phenomenon. Published in 1939, "Comism" was an event. Based on extensive illustrative material, the author included in the book an original typology of humor and an interdisciplinary treated theory of comedy. Bystroń singles out two basic genres of comedy: character comedy and verbal comedy, and three elements of comedy: the comedy of change, juxtaposition and connection. Bystroń writes in his introduction: "The general public disdains comedy, considering it a light amusement not worth spending time on [...]. But a person of little intelligence cannot have a feel for comedy. After all, we are dealing here with intellectual effort, sometimes very considerable [...]. I have no illusions that most readers will treat the present book as a collection of more or less funny short stories. Be that as it may" The book contains excerpts from literary texts. Excellent iconography and layout by Kazimierz Piekarski, illustrations by Vladimir Bartoszewicz complemented by reproductions of drawings by other artists. Among them are: K. Sichulski, F. Topolski, St. Wyspiański, L. Wyczółkowski, J. Kossak, A. Bartels, C. Norwid, F. Kostrzewski, K. Frycz, S. I. Witkiewicz, A. Szyk, J. Matejko, Z. Czermański, W. Wyrwiński, J. J. Grandville, J. Piwarski, M. Berezowska, W. Jarocki, A. Wasilewski, T. Trepkowski, J. Zaruba. The 1960 post-war edition was stripped of the author's final considerations, and portions of the text dealing mainly with national minorities were omitted.