Der Schwarze Baal: Novellen

by Paul Zech

Der schwarze Baal ist eine expressionistische Novellensammlung des deutschen Schriftstellers Paul Zech, die erstmals 1917 im Leipziger Verlag der Weißen Bücher erschienen ist. Die Erzählungen verknüpfen oft sozialkritisches Engagement mit mythischen Elementen und dem harten Leben im westdeutschen Industrierevier.

104 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2010

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was this very collection of superb, evocative novellas which we read in Professor Panthel's graduate level literature course on German Expressionist author Paul Zech (at the University of Waterloo, in around 1991, I believe) that first and majorly piqued my interest in this author and his substantial but generally still rather unknown oeuvre (so much so that I later wrote my PhD dissertation on Zech's pre-exile fiction, this being his prose from around 1910-1933, of which Der schwarze Baal is but one published collection of tales). Now I really do not want to present too many potential spoilers concerning the themes and specific plot-lines of the novellas themselves except to point out that they really and indeed must be read, they must be viscerally experienced to appreciate Paul Zech as an author, as they are gripping, heartbreaking and often majorly, electrifyingly intense (and since Paul Zech's narrative style is also not as complicated, not generally quite as convoluted and involved as many other German language authors of his time, of literary Expressionism, his work, but here once again especially his shorter fiction, is actually quite accessible to and for individuals in the process of learning German, not absolute beginners, of course, but definitely upper intermediate level learners and beyond). One of my favourite books of German language short stories, period, is and remains Paul Zech's Der schwarze Baal, although these stories are definitely not in any manner so-called comfort reading (most of the novellas have very unhappy, sad endings, and often, just at the precise time and place when things are looking up, when positive thinking and/or hope have gained an upper hand, despair and tragedy ironically strike out of the proverbial blue, rolling in like a literal and figurative landslide or striking like a bolt of lightning).

[Gianni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sono sette racconti scritti tra il 1910 e il 1912, di cui Il demone nero dà anche il titolo alla raccolta, riconducibili alla corrente letteraria espressionista e che, in qualche modo, sembrano quasi essere l’archetipo di una letteratura working class. Lavoratori e proletari, soprattutto impiegati nel lavoro in miniera, sono i protagonisti delle narrazioni colti nel loro rapporto con la borghesia e il padronato sfruttatori, sia nel lavoro quotidiano che nelle lotte collettive, nel problematico rapporto tra padri e figli, nello stridente rapporto con la natura e la tecnologia industriale. Risaltano le tinte cupe, i toni altamente evocativi, le immagini distorte che lasciano emergere i fantasmi interiori.
Risulta veramente preziosa la postfazione di Stefano Santacroce.