Post by pieter on May 2, 2006 12:22:29 GMT -7
Jaroslaw Klejnocki
POLISH POETRY
IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
language versions: polish english french german spanish
Under the Wings of Nobelists
Poetry has occupied a special place in Polish literature for at least two hundred years. After the loss of the nation's independence in 1795, which resulted in the disappearance of the Polish state with all its institutions, poetry became a vehicle of national identity for over a century until Poland regained her sovereignty in 1918 (a consequence of the fortunate conclusion of World War I). It was precisely poetry that assumed the duty to develop civic and patriotic attitudes. In poetry Poles sought comfort and consolation in the most dramatic moments of their history. Poets are still held in special esteem in Poland but are also expected to write seriously. We may risk a statement that even when a Polish poet feels like joking, readers expect that he will joke about something considered important, i.e. civic, social, philosophical and existential topics. Lyrical poetry which only entertains the reader and is fun in itself is generally treated with distrust mixed with slight. We may say Poles respect their prose writers, but love their poets and expect non-banal messages from them. The elevated place of poetry in culture is in a sense specific to Poland and results, as already mentioned, to some extent from historical factors and also to certain fleeting, albeit clearly observable public preferences. There is even a joke, not completely detached from reality, that the most conspicuous difference between French and Polish literature is that 300 novels and 30 books of poetry are published every year in France and in Poland these numbers are reverse. Poles, to use a simplification, have almost always preferred poetry to prose as in poems they looked for explanations and, more importantly, for emotions. Poles have also more often used their pens to write in verse. Jan Blonski, the most senior of Polish literature critics, even says that lyrical poetry is the pillar of contemporary Polish literature.
History, politics, literature
Two facts seem of fundamental significance to Polish poetry over the past twenty years: the award of the 1980 Nobel prize in literature to Czeslaw Milosz and the 1996 Nobel prize in literature to Wislawa Szymborska. The previous Polish Nobel prize winners in literature were fiction writers (Henryk Sienkiewicz in 1905, author of QUO VADIS and Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont, author of a saga entitled The PEASANTS in 1925). The recognition of both poets seems to confirm the strength and quality of Polish lyrical poetry written nowadays in the country on the Vistula river. Especially that the laureates have not put their pens away and belong still, owing to their growing output, to the group of the most important Polish artists-intellectuals. This is at least how one may interpret the importance of Szymborska's prize (remembering that the distinction is an expression of recognising the writer's individual and unique creation).
The Nobel prize for Milosz has one more dimension because its award coincided with a political breakthrough. After the end of World War II until the famous European peoples autumn" of the late 1980s, Poland remained in the orbit of Soviet influences and the country's political culture was developed by the communist government. Opposition (political and literary) to that rule functioned in exile (mainly in the United States, Great Britain and France) after 1945, i.e. almost since the very beginning of the cold-war division of Europe. Opposition in the country evolved clearly more slowly and its organised structures were established in the mid seventies and were repressed by the regime. In August 1890, as a result of another wave of social unrest in Poland's post-war history as well as a favourable coincidence of various political factors (e.g. inauguration of the Polish Pope's pontificate in the Roman Catholic Church in 1978, temporary détente in the world, and USSR's military involvement in Afghanistan), Poland saw the rise of Solidarity, an independent trade union (unique in communist countries) and a general relaxation of the state's control over its citizens (also in the sphere of culture). The Nobel prize for Milosz, who had been an emigrant since 1951 and therefore no-one could officially speak or write about him, provided tremendous support for the nation's desire for independence and for the big group of domestic writers. Although as early as in December 1981 the communist government shortened that festival of freedom by proclaiming martial law, the seed of freedom was sown. Political disputes between the rulers and society were concluded many years later and with good will on both sides, in peaceful negotiations which enabled Poland's gradual return to the family of democratic countries in 1989.
All these developments: the feeling of relative freedom for a year and a half (the state's political censorship allowed a lot at that time), followed by the night of martial law, and finally the major breakthrough of the late 1980s which brought about the collapse of the whole communist bloc in Central Europe, left a distinct impression on Polish contemporary poetry. It has a capacity to react faster to current occurrences than other forms of artistic writing although, on the other hand, calmness, subtlety and subjectivity lies in the very nature of lyrical poetry. And such are precisely the poles of Polish contemporary poetry in the last two decades of the 20th century.
The Poles of Polish Poetry
One of them is thus lyrical poetry involved in social and political affairs and in fight, which addresses questions relevant to the public at a given moment. It responds actively to all important events in the life of the national community. Such characteristics are no doubt visible in the poetry of the 1980s. One even refers to the category of martial law poetry, or evidently marked literature, which is often at the level of propaganda or sheer political satire.
At any rate, public life with all its different factors has left an imprint on the output of Polish writers in this period. The writing careers of poets who debuted in the 1970s and almost from the start were associated with the independent, uncensored circulation of literature, e.g. Tomasz Jastrun, Antoni Pawlak, or Jan Polkowski, who is considered the most talented of them all, have for ever remained stigmatised with the odium of those times. On the one hand, it made it impossible for those writers to find their place in the new reality (Polkowski has not basically published anything for years), or doomed their output to perception in the context of those divisions which are now history. At the same time, however, a number of outstanding poets (e.g., Tadeusz Rozewicz, Adam Zagajewski, the two Nobel laureates as well as the youngest readers' favourite poets - Bohdan Zadura and Piotr Sommer - despite the madness of those disputes have saved an enclave of subjective and original artistic accomplishments. Incidentally, since the mid 1980s Polish culture began a debate, which gathered momentum over time, on the need to protect art from being too much entangled in current and often, when seen from a perspective, transient and superficial affairs.
On the one hand, there emerged an idea of poetry as private and inbred expression, oriented towards psychological and emotional self-analysis. On the other hand, there appeared an idea of poetry as an artistic genre that should address issues most relevant to human existence (philosophical, religious and spiritual problems) without avoiding a high tone and loftiness. This is precisely the other pole of Polish lyrical poetry and the two dominant tendencies in its development in the 1990s. And while the socially and politically involved poetry gladly draws on the rich tradition of romanticism and independence (at the time of subsequent national uprisings in the 19th century and the nation's combats in the world wars of the 20th century), the "private" or "philosophising" poetry is willingly seeking inspiration in foreign literatures (e.g. North American English-language literature) as well as in the native literary output which, due to historical turbulence, could never become known (e.g. in the fantastic-dadaistic tradition of the early 20th century).
www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/es_poezja_2020
POLISH POETRY
IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
language versions: polish english french german spanish
Under the Wings of Nobelists
Poetry has occupied a special place in Polish literature for at least two hundred years. After the loss of the nation's independence in 1795, which resulted in the disappearance of the Polish state with all its institutions, poetry became a vehicle of national identity for over a century until Poland regained her sovereignty in 1918 (a consequence of the fortunate conclusion of World War I). It was precisely poetry that assumed the duty to develop civic and patriotic attitudes. In poetry Poles sought comfort and consolation in the most dramatic moments of their history. Poets are still held in special esteem in Poland but are also expected to write seriously. We may risk a statement that even when a Polish poet feels like joking, readers expect that he will joke about something considered important, i.e. civic, social, philosophical and existential topics. Lyrical poetry which only entertains the reader and is fun in itself is generally treated with distrust mixed with slight. We may say Poles respect their prose writers, but love their poets and expect non-banal messages from them. The elevated place of poetry in culture is in a sense specific to Poland and results, as already mentioned, to some extent from historical factors and also to certain fleeting, albeit clearly observable public preferences. There is even a joke, not completely detached from reality, that the most conspicuous difference between French and Polish literature is that 300 novels and 30 books of poetry are published every year in France and in Poland these numbers are reverse. Poles, to use a simplification, have almost always preferred poetry to prose as in poems they looked for explanations and, more importantly, for emotions. Poles have also more often used their pens to write in verse. Jan Blonski, the most senior of Polish literature critics, even says that lyrical poetry is the pillar of contemporary Polish literature.
History, politics, literature
Two facts seem of fundamental significance to Polish poetry over the past twenty years: the award of the 1980 Nobel prize in literature to Czeslaw Milosz and the 1996 Nobel prize in literature to Wislawa Szymborska. The previous Polish Nobel prize winners in literature were fiction writers (Henryk Sienkiewicz in 1905, author of QUO VADIS and Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont, author of a saga entitled The PEASANTS in 1925). The recognition of both poets seems to confirm the strength and quality of Polish lyrical poetry written nowadays in the country on the Vistula river. Especially that the laureates have not put their pens away and belong still, owing to their growing output, to the group of the most important Polish artists-intellectuals. This is at least how one may interpret the importance of Szymborska's prize (remembering that the distinction is an expression of recognising the writer's individual and unique creation).
The Nobel prize for Milosz has one more dimension because its award coincided with a political breakthrough. After the end of World War II until the famous European peoples autumn" of the late 1980s, Poland remained in the orbit of Soviet influences and the country's political culture was developed by the communist government. Opposition (political and literary) to that rule functioned in exile (mainly in the United States, Great Britain and France) after 1945, i.e. almost since the very beginning of the cold-war division of Europe. Opposition in the country evolved clearly more slowly and its organised structures were established in the mid seventies and were repressed by the regime. In August 1890, as a result of another wave of social unrest in Poland's post-war history as well as a favourable coincidence of various political factors (e.g. inauguration of the Polish Pope's pontificate in the Roman Catholic Church in 1978, temporary détente in the world, and USSR's military involvement in Afghanistan), Poland saw the rise of Solidarity, an independent trade union (unique in communist countries) and a general relaxation of the state's control over its citizens (also in the sphere of culture). The Nobel prize for Milosz, who had been an emigrant since 1951 and therefore no-one could officially speak or write about him, provided tremendous support for the nation's desire for independence and for the big group of domestic writers. Although as early as in December 1981 the communist government shortened that festival of freedom by proclaiming martial law, the seed of freedom was sown. Political disputes between the rulers and society were concluded many years later and with good will on both sides, in peaceful negotiations which enabled Poland's gradual return to the family of democratic countries in 1989.
All these developments: the feeling of relative freedom for a year and a half (the state's political censorship allowed a lot at that time), followed by the night of martial law, and finally the major breakthrough of the late 1980s which brought about the collapse of the whole communist bloc in Central Europe, left a distinct impression on Polish contemporary poetry. It has a capacity to react faster to current occurrences than other forms of artistic writing although, on the other hand, calmness, subtlety and subjectivity lies in the very nature of lyrical poetry. And such are precisely the poles of Polish contemporary poetry in the last two decades of the 20th century.
The Poles of Polish Poetry
One of them is thus lyrical poetry involved in social and political affairs and in fight, which addresses questions relevant to the public at a given moment. It responds actively to all important events in the life of the national community. Such characteristics are no doubt visible in the poetry of the 1980s. One even refers to the category of martial law poetry, or evidently marked literature, which is often at the level of propaganda or sheer political satire.
At any rate, public life with all its different factors has left an imprint on the output of Polish writers in this period. The writing careers of poets who debuted in the 1970s and almost from the start were associated with the independent, uncensored circulation of literature, e.g. Tomasz Jastrun, Antoni Pawlak, or Jan Polkowski, who is considered the most talented of them all, have for ever remained stigmatised with the odium of those times. On the one hand, it made it impossible for those writers to find their place in the new reality (Polkowski has not basically published anything for years), or doomed their output to perception in the context of those divisions which are now history. At the same time, however, a number of outstanding poets (e.g., Tadeusz Rozewicz, Adam Zagajewski, the two Nobel laureates as well as the youngest readers' favourite poets - Bohdan Zadura and Piotr Sommer - despite the madness of those disputes have saved an enclave of subjective and original artistic accomplishments. Incidentally, since the mid 1980s Polish culture began a debate, which gathered momentum over time, on the need to protect art from being too much entangled in current and often, when seen from a perspective, transient and superficial affairs.
On the one hand, there emerged an idea of poetry as private and inbred expression, oriented towards psychological and emotional self-analysis. On the other hand, there appeared an idea of poetry as an artistic genre that should address issues most relevant to human existence (philosophical, religious and spiritual problems) without avoiding a high tone and loftiness. This is precisely the other pole of Polish lyrical poetry and the two dominant tendencies in its development in the 1990s. And while the socially and politically involved poetry gladly draws on the rich tradition of romanticism and independence (at the time of subsequent national uprisings in the 19th century and the nation's combats in the world wars of the 20th century), the "private" or "philosophising" poetry is willingly seeking inspiration in foreign literatures (e.g. North American English-language literature) as well as in the native literary output which, due to historical turbulence, could never become known (e.g. in the fantastic-dadaistic tradition of the early 20th century).
www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/es_poezja_2020
