Dreamscapes: The Art and Imagination of Bruno Schulz
with Benjamin Balint
4 Thursdays from 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. ET
March 6-27
All classes will be recorded and sent to registrants.
Calling all fans of Kafka, Isaac Bashevis Singer and even magical realist writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez — the name Bruno Schulz will be next on your list of favorite authors.
In this four-part course with acclaimed author Benjamin Balint, you will dive into the fantastical world of Bruno Schulz, an enigmatic writer and artist whose imagination transformed the small Galician town of Drohobych into a dreamlike theater of wonders.
Throughout the course, students will read and explore some of Schulz’s most captivating short stories — including "Cinnamon Shops" and "The Sanatorium Under the Hourglass" — and examine some of Schulz’s artwork, where eroticism coexists with whimsy. As a visual artist, too, Schulz grappled with the boundaries between the imaginary and the real, the sacred and the profane.
Finally, excerpts from Balint’s award-winning book "Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History" will guide us through Schulz’s tragic and contested legacies: his murder under Nazi occupation, the mysterious loss of his unpublished novel and the debates over where his legacy belongs.
As Isaac Bashevis Singer said, Schulz was “one of the most remarkable writers who ever lived,” and this course aims to uncover why his star continues to blaze for those who seek it.
Purchases of this course are non-refundable.
Books to purchase
We will be reading from the following books, which we strongly recommend purchasing in order to get the most out of this course. They are not included in the course fee.
"Nocturnal Apparitions: Essential Stories" by Bruno Schulz, translated by Stanley Bill
On Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/3250/9781782277897
On Amazon: https://amzn.to/3CIEMmF
"Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History" by Benjamin Balint
On Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/a/3250/9780393866575
On Amazon: https://amzn.to/4gvfd6x
About Your Teacher
Benjamin Balint is the author "Kafka's Last Trial," which won the 2020 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and has been published in more than a dozen languages. He is also the author of "Bruno Schulz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History," which won the 2024 National Jewish Book Award in biography. A fellow at the Van Leer Institute, Balint has taught at Dartmouth College and at the Bard College humanities program in Jerusalem.
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