Title: <i>Czy są jakieś pytania? Szkice o najnowszej literaturze polskiej</i> [Are there any questions? Essays on recent Polish literature]
Abstract: The poetry of the Romantics has become a part of Poland's national foundational mythology. Yet poetry's cultural, social, and political functions were not limited to the partition period, as evinced by its important role during World War II and the years of Solidarity. Moreover, Polish poetry continues to be published, translated, and awarded prizes. Thus, an anthology that offers an analysis of a substantial number of poets writing in the last four decades of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first is a welcome addition to our understanding of more contemporary poetry.The collection of articles, Czy są jakieś pytania? Szkice o najnowszej literaturze polskiej, edited by Justyna Pyzia and Józef M. Ruszar, considers the work of sixteen poets. In addition, three of the articles analyze prose. A complex web of interactions, influence, similarity of themes, as well as political engagement reveals an ever-changing patterning of writers spanning six decades, explored through essays ranging from close focus on a single poem, through analyses of single volumes, to those that consider an entire oeuvre. It includes poets whose birthdays range from 1917 to 1974. Poets belonging to the Topos group (Wojciech Kudyba, Jarosław Jakubowski, Mirosław Dzień) acknowledge the influence of the 1960s New Wave poets, such as Julian Kornhauser, Stanisław Brańczak, and Jacek Bierezin, on their work. Another link is the engagement in opposition politics of the New Wave poets, but also of Jan Polkowski, Jacek Kaczmarski, and Jan Krzysztof Kelus—best known for their works from the time of Solidarity.Members of the Topos group have written on religious themes, but Polkowski, Kazimierz Wójtowicz, and Piotr Matywiecki have similarly focused on the sacrum. Thus, Grażyna Halkiewicz-Sojak analyzes a single poem by Kudyba in order to show his search for a modern way of expressing the sacrum. Wadym Jefrenow considers Polkowski's 2018 collection, Pochód duchów [A Procession of ghosts], and the multivalent topos of the forest that includes the meaning of a sacred space. Meanwhile, Ewa Goczał discusses Matywiecki's poem, “Nawrócenie Maxa Jacoba” [The conversion of Max Jacob], within the context of the poet's entire oeuvre, showing his modern, fragmentary way of describing spiritual experiences.Another patterning occurs among such disparate poets as Kornhauser, Janusz Szuber, Urszula Kozioł, Anna Frajlich, Marta Fox, and Polkowski, all of whom explore memory and diverse aspects of the past. Patryk Dzikiewicz takes a philosophical approach when he analyzes Kornhauser's poem, “Chwila” [A moment], through the prism of Martin Heidegger's hermeneutics. Krystyna Latawiec analyzes the contrast between the Habsburg Galician past and contemporary existence in Szuber's oeuvre. She concludes that “[a] return to the myth [of the past], though tempting, turns out to be not so much impossible, as improper in the face of that world's tragic end” (p. 27).Three of the poets—Kornhuaser, Frajlich, and Fox—link this exploration of the past to an attempt to define existence, as well as the lyric ego's identity and position within this existence. For example, Grażyna J. Kozaczka contrasts the oeuvre of the émigré Frajlich with that of Linda Nemec Foster, a Polish American poet. She concludes that “for both poets the Polish past and the American present constitute fundamental elements in the shaping of their own otherness and uniqueness” (p. 124). Meanwhile, Anna Węgrzyniak analyzes Fox's 2017 volume Lacrimosa, referencing Mozart's Requiem and showing how the poet's “dialogue with the composer ends with a great brightening [of mood] and with an acceptance of the autumnal time,” in other words old age (p. 302).Yet another disparate trio of poets—Szuber, Kozioł, and Zuzanna Ginczanka—explore existence and/or identity by focusing on concrete objects. Tetiana Mychajłowa considers how the poetics of Ginczanka's juvenilia relates to the poet's mature work. One of the elements analyzed is Ginczanka's introduction of everyday objects, especially from her school environment, in order to present and define existence. Objects function very differently in Kozioł’s poem, “Świąteczne nieporządki” [Holiday untidiness], as discussed in Olga Płaszczewska's article. In this poem, the lyric ego associates objects with people dear to her. The significance of objects increases when these people die. Here, objects “constitute [. . .] a kind of material defense from death, [. . .] For that reason, the loss of them elicits a mourning comparable to the mourning for the deceased” (p. 107).Finally, the anthology ends with three articles on prose. Krzysztof Brenskott analyzes humanity's relationship to circular and linear time in the oeuvre of Olga Tokarczuk. The focus on time, present and past, is reminiscent of some of the articles on poetry. Monika Cieślik explores musicality in Wiesław Myśliwski's novel Widnokrąg [Horizon]. Though here the issue is much more complex, it nevertheless brings to mind the article by Krzysztof Lipka on musical references in the oeuvre of Jan Polkowski. In addition, Michał Kopczyk considers from a post-colonial perspective the publication of a diverse collection of journals after 1989. Overwhelmingly retrospective, the journals function as a way to define their authors’ place in the literary world and to safeguard their individualism under communism, creating a link with the articles that analyze politically engaged poetry, such as that of Barańczak.Czy są jakieś pytania? Szkice o najnowszej literaturze polskiej is an anthology intended for scholars, though scholars with different methodological approaches. Articles focus on philosophical and religious content, on close readings of the text, on discussions of topoi, and/or on analyses of political content. The one thing that would strengthen this book is a more developed introduction that shows the connections between articles and gives an overall picture of these sixty years of Polish writing. Such an introduction would enrich the readers’ experience, allowing them to see the interconnections among the articles on some of Poland's most recent poets and prose writers.
Publication Year: 2022
Publication Date: 2022-05-12
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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