Dark Spring

by Unica Zürn, Caroline Rupprecht (Translator)

Dark Spring is an autobiographical coming-of-age novel that reads more like an exorcism than a memoir. In it author Unica Zurn traces the roots of her obsessions: The exotic father she idealized, the "impure" mother she detested, the masochistic fantasies and onanistic rituals which she said described "the erotic life of a little girl based on my own childhood." Dark Spring is the story of a young girl's simultaneous introduction to sexuality and mental illness, revealing a different aspect of the "mad love" so romanticized by the (predominantly male) Surrealists. Unica Zurn (1916-1970) emigrated in 1953 from her native Berlin to Paris in order to live with the artist Hans Bellmer. There she exhibited drawings as a member of the Surrealist group and collaborated with Bellmer on a series of notorious photographs of her nude torso bound with string. In 1957, a fateful encounter with the poet and painter Henri Michaux led to the first of what would become a series of mental crises, some of which she documented in her writings. She committed suicide in 1970--an act foretold in this, her last completed work.

Genres: Fiction, German Literature, Germany, Horror, Literature, Classics, Novels

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Unica Zürn was a German author and painter. She is remembered for her works of anagram poetry, exhibitions of automatic drawing, and her photographic collaborations with Hans Bellmer.

Reviews

[Helen Karl]

Ich liebe Unica Zürn. Das Buch ist obszön und interessant. Ihr Schreibstil in diesem Buch gefällt mir nicht so gut, da er sehr kurz und faktisch ist. Diese Art passt allerdings recht gut zu dem kalten Inhalt, der einen nicht aufhören lässt zu lesen, aber mit einem unangenehmen Gefühl das Buch zu Ende bringen lässt.

[MiKa .]

Früh gedunkelt.