"Milosz Like the World"

The most comprehensive book in English on the Nobel Laureate Czesaw Miosz combines literary and historical approaches to his poems, essays, literary criticism and translations and to his poetic self-image. It offers an account of the Polish cultural milieu in the 20th century and interprets the fate of poetry under two totalitarian regimes.

Czesaw Miosz, poet, literary critic, essayist and Nobel Laureate, is a familiar person to the Anglophone literary community. But American and British critics in the main are not very competent in the intimate features of Polish literary culture and have no access to the Polish language. This volume presents some of the most penetrating commentaries on Miosz's uvre by Polish critics. They illuminate both intrinsic poetic matters, such as the verse structure or the genre tradition, and the specific historic background of his poems, such as life under Nazi occupation. This comprehensive outline will be indispensable to anyone wanting to understand the real meaning of the often enigmatic writer and his, as Helen Vendler called it, Shakespearean breadth.

Autorentext

Zdzislaw Lapinski is a professor in the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Author of books and articles on Norwid and Polish Modernist poets as well as on socialist realism, he recently prepared a volume devoted to poetry by Czeslaw Milosz.

Inhalt
Contents: Teresa Walas: Miosz as a Figure of Problematic Identity Micha Pawe Markowski: The Dilemmas of Self-Presentation Aleksander Fiut: agary and Skamander - Czesaw Miosz's Correspondence with Jarosaw Iwaszkiewicz Maria Janion: Kroski - Miosz: An Episode from the History of Ideas and Poetry Stefan Chwin: The Time of the Bible and the Time of Mr. Cogitp. or the Essence of the Dispute between Herbert and Miosz Leszek Koakowski: Ninety Years in Search of a Homeland Stanisaw Balbus: «The First Movement Is a Singing»: A Preliminary Study of Miosz's Verse Marian Stala: «Ecstasy at Sunrise»: Among Miosz's Major Themes Stanisaw Balbus: «Conversation at Easter 1620» - An Intertextual Interpretation Ryszard Nycz: «Thrown in the Geographically Shaky Position»: Czesaw Miosz's Experience of Space and Place Elbieta Rybicka: Homo Geopgraphicus: The Topographies and Auto-Bio-Geographies of Czesaw Miosz (A Reconnaissance) Elbieta Kilak: Destined Affinities and Eclectic Love Jacek ukasiewicz: Poet on Poets Marek Zaleski: Songs of Innocence and Experience ukasz Tischner: Towards Fullness Stanisaw Baraczak: Dawns Micha Gowiski: «Outskirts» Aleksandra Okopoie- Sawiska: «Outskirts» as another «Song on the End of the World»: A Contribution to the Definition of Czesaw Miosz's Poetic Art Jerzy Kwiatkowski: Miosz at the Brink of the Occupation: «The River» Jan Boski: The Intellect's Return: A Treatise on Poetry (1957) Adam Dziadek: Poetry as Interpretation of Art: Czesaw Miosz's Poems about Pictures Danuta Opacka-Walasek: A Pastiche Against Dying: «In Honour of Reverend Baka» by Czesaw Miosz Piotr liwiski: A Sinking Life Ewa Biekowska: Miosz and the Book of Psalms.