Chiquenaude und andere Texte aus früher Jugend

„None of my works satisfied me, except Chiquenaude“, explained Raymond Roussel with regard to the beginnings as a writer in his posthumously published work „How I Wrote Certain Of My Book“. This story from the symbolic year 1900 is now for the first time available in German translation, together with seven more texts from Roussels youth: prose–miniatures, as cheerful as they are ambiguous, written after his severe psychological crisis in 1897. These texts show Roussel’s intensive search for new possibilities of writing, and are the first examples of his „procedure“, a writing technique which develops a story out of the minimal difference between two sentences, which form the beginning and end of the narration.

„Raymond Roussel – Chiquenaude und andere Texte aus früher Jugend“ is the first title of the berlin-based publishing imprint zero sharp, founded by Van Eyck participant Anton Stuckardt and philosopher Maximilian Gilleßen in 2014. Zero sharp will focuss on works of literary avant-gardism, architecture and philosophy, the next title in preparation is a monograph on the prince of thinkers, Jean-Pierre Brisset.