Bruno Schulz "Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass."

Author: Bruno Schulz Title: The Hourglass Sanatorium Genre: short story collection Medical topic: sanatorium Year of first publication: 1937 Description: Bruno Schulz is a unique figure in the history of Polish literature. He brought to his stories the image of the small world that had always surrounded him: his hometown of Drohobych, his home, and his father—into complex, multi-layered sentences that richly describe the depicted reality, weaving in motifs from classical myths to create a world that is half-real and half-fantastical, yet strongly connected to our cultural sphere and, on a personal level, to the author’s own childhood. In the story “Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass,” which gave its name to the entire collection of stories, the motif of the sanatorium appears as a place intended to restore health. The sanatorium is home to the elderly and ailing Jakub, the father of the young narrator, Józef. The son travels to see him on an empty train, where he encounters only a railway worker, even though in reality his father has already died. However, Dr. Gotard, who runs the sanatorium, assures the young man upon his arrival that his father is currently alive and, moreover, that there is a possibility of his recovery. Jakub, meanwhile, is portrayed in two ways: as a genuinely suffering, frail patient, and as a worn-out merchant—yet one who still possesses a spark of life—running his own shop in the town square of a town strikingly reminiscent of the one from which Józef came. His father is extremely important in his life, yet Józef feels lost in this thoroughly sleepy reality, where people sleep through most of the day, able to fall asleep at any moment. The tranquility of life is disrupted by rumors of foreign troops entering the town; armed men appear on the streets, and a fire breaks out. Józef, though he loves his father, leaves the sanatorium, as if he wanted to escape from a dream. It is impossible not to notice the similarities between the world depicted in the stories and Bruno Schulz’s hometown, as well as the narrator’s thoughts and the author’s views. At the same time, characters from Greek mythology can be discerned in elements of the plot. Thus, the train with only one conductor can be likened to Charon, ferrying the dead across the Styx to Hades, where Józef may meet his deceased father—who is still alive. The sanatorium is thus Hades, guarded by a dog chained up, much like the mythical Cerberus. Or is it a human? In the dreamlike world presented by Schulz, one cannot be certain.