Between Fire and Sleep : Essays on Modern Polish Poetry and Prose

by Jaroslaw Anders

• ISBN13: 9780300111675
• ISBN10: 0300111673
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2009-05-19
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

Twentieth-century Polish literature is often said to be a "witness to history," a narrative of the historical and political disasters that visited the nation. In this insightful book, Jaroslaw Anders examines Poland's modern poetry and fiction and explains that the best Polish writing of the period 1918-1989 was much more than testimony. Rather, it constantly transformed historical experience into metaphysical reflection, a philosophical or religious exploration of human existence. Anders analyzes and contextualizes the work of nine modern Polish writers. These include the "three madmen" of the interwar periodSchulz, Gombrowicz, and Witkiewicz, whom he calls the fathers of Polish modernist prose; the great poets of the war generationMilosz, Herbert, and Szymborska; Herling-Grudzinski and Konwicki, with their dark philosophical subtexts; and the mystical-ecstatic poet Zagajewski. A collection of essays representing Anders's thinking over several decades,Between Fire and Sleepoffers a fresh understanding of modern Polish literature and cultural identity.

Author Biography

Jaroslaw Anders has served as editor, writer, broadcaster, and producer for Voice of America since 1984. He has translated several books from English into Polish and from Polish into English. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xix
The Prisoner of Myth	p. 1
The Transforming Self	p. 28
Modernism to Madness	p. 51
A Testament of Exile	p. 67
The Darkness of Mr. Cogito	p. 83
The Power of Preserving	p. 113
Sleepless in Naples	p. 126
Polish Endgame	p. 139
To Hear the Sound of Everything	p. 158
Notes	p. 183
Suggested Reading	p. 189
Index of Names	p. 199
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