I would like to ask you do you know/ read any polish writers. I suppose that you have heard about Czesław Miłosz or Wisława Szymborska.
I live in Poland where I graduated from polish philology and I have always been wondering about non-Poles opinions about polish writters.
No, sorry, haven't heard of them. The only one that comes into my mind, at the moment, is Stanislaw Lem, writer of the very intriguing Solaris. That had a great deal of fame in the UK, perhaps because of the film version. OK, I'm ignorant, or perhaps the UK hasn't done enough to promote Polish writers. Chopin, Marie Curie, Bletchley Park code breakers, ... there's a lot to admire in Polish culture; but Polish writers are a blank spot for me. I looked up Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska, and now I'm less ignorant, and abashed at my former ignorance! Is Miłosz "The Captive Mind" a good place to start?Originally Posted by hannah_arendt
Of course Miłosz is a very good ideaIt is very often said that Poland is a country of poets.
I wrote the name of Szymborska too, because he got Nobel Prize. Unfortunately she died this year.
Stanisław Lem is the most translated polish writer ever. I am not a big fan of science fiction, I prefer fantasy, however he is very popular.
I think that Poland could have done more to promote polish culture.
I study at english department and we don`t discuss any contemporary english literature. Could you remind me something? I try to look for something new to inspire me but I think the majority of good books even isn`t published in Poland.
If you have any questions connected with Poland, polish culture and literature, I`ll answer you with pleasure
What kind of literature do you like? I'm reading "Capital" by John Lanchester at the moment, and am enjoying it very much. It's very contemporary, centred on the financial crash in London in 2008, the explosion in house prices, Pakistani immigrants, and the (happy) invasion of Polish builders... Several UK online book sellers offer free delivery worldwide.
The only one I am familiar with is Szymborska. I should read more.
When it comes to contemporary literature (21st century) I am really only familiar with Canadian, some American, Irish, British, and a small few that have gotten international acclaim. In order to discover contemporary lit from countries that you don't live in, or don't produce world famous, turned-into-blockbuster books, you really have to seek them out. For my part, I'm still in either the 16th through 20th century at the moment. Maybe next year I will actively seek out books from coutnries I am not wll read in - I know it was done this year here, but I was otherwise occupied.
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
I have books by and have read at least some of the following: Jan Potocki's The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, Henryk Sienkiewicz' Quo Vadis, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz' Instability, Aleksander Wat- a few poems, Czesław Miłosz- poetry, Tadeusz Borowski- This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen, Wisława Szymborska- poetry, Zbigniew Herbert- poetry, Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz Milosz (Polish-Lithuanian/French)- poetry, Isaac Bashevis Singer (Polish-Jewish/American)- short stories, and Adam Zagajewski- poetry.
I was quite impressed by the almost post-modernist frame-story structure of Potocki's work and the collection of tales/narratives. Borowski's book was a powerful collection of tales from the concentration camps told with a searing black humor. Czesław Miłosz is undoubtedly one of the great poets of the last century and I quite admire Symborska, Herbert, and Adam Zagajewski as well.
Mac... I'm surprised that you never came upon Symborska, Zagajewski, Herbert... and especially Milosz. All seem to show up quite frequently in any good poetry selection in America. Perhaps we are more open to such because of our history of immigration from Eastern Europe. We have sizable Polish communities in the Cleveland area.
Last edited by stlukesguild; 11-30-2012 at 02:38 PM.
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I like fantasy, works connected with psychology, mythology, I mean similar to Mircea Eliade. However I like Chris Ryan also
Congratulations
Recently I have decided to come back to Szymborska and Miłosz. It is really very inspirating.
Have you heard about Zofia Nałkowska? I am interested in the period between I and II WW and she seems to me very interesting because of using psychology in her novels. Recently I have managed to read her biography.
I'm aware of Ryszard Kapuscinski and Bruno Schulz, Poland: A History by Adam Zamoyski is on my list. I think most people know if not the book then the film 'The Pianist' by Władysław Szpilman.
Bruno Schulz wrote only 2 collections of short stories but he is really remarkable. He seems to represent magic realism which is not very popular in polish literature. However Schulz is not very popular. He was a painter too.
If it comes to Kapuściński, nowadays he is considered as a little bit controversial because of his relations with comunists. However it is very similar with Szymborska.
What do you think about the film ("Pianist")?
I saw the film many years ago but I can remember that it was a deeply moving and spirited film. I didn't read the book so have no point of comparison. Since then I have read Primo Levi and broadened my understanding of those terrible events.
There are more films about these terrible events. But, to tell you the truth, I would like Poland to be known for something more than II WW.
Have you seen the newest Agnieszka Holland film called "In the darkness"? It represents completely different point of view. In Poland many artists, writters and directors, start to look at holocaust and II WW differently and I find it good.
Of course, I understand it's important not to have a limited view of Polish history. I heard 'In darkness' is a brilliant film.
Recently also we have had here many discussions about events showing Poles not as victims but as executioners. Some people don`t want to admit the truth that during the war this things happen and we should say that happened in this case. However it is very difficult.
I read fragments of a novel, whose title I don`t remember, where the main plot was that Poland won the II WW. Unfortunately, it was written very badly. I heard also about ideas, I mean in literature, that the main plot is concentrated around the idea that Poland colaborates with III Reich, what of course could have never occured.
If it comes to Schulz. It`s one of his drawings:
Greetings Hannah, I am a Californian of Polish descent that became interested in the literature of my ancestral homeland a few years ago. I have since read a number of Polish authors in English translations. My opinions on some of those I've read follow:
Jan Potocki's "The Manuscript found at Saragossa" is indeed a brilliant frame-tale which I enjoyed for its eroticism and creepy Gothicism, but since Jan wrote it in French it technically isn't Polish literature. American literature has Washington Irving's "Tales from the Alhambra" which, despite being interesting and exciting, pales in comparison to Potocki's fantastical take on Spain and her Moorish heritage. (The Polish film based on Potocki's frame tale enjoys an ardent following here in America amongst cinemaphiles.)
Henryk Sienkiewicz's "With Fire and Sword", "The Deluge", "Fire in the Steppes"- these are the English titles of the three novels of the great Trilogy- Poland's Iliad. I know that Sienkiewicz has been somewhat politicized in Poland and I do not share the political opinions of the rightists who champion him, but I must tell you, Hannah, reading the Trilogy was among the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had reading. It was like being a kid again reading "The Lord of the Rings" but with an actual physical connection to Middle Earth. When the Gorales saved the King from the pursuing Swedes in the second book I almost wept for joy.
Sienkiewicz's "The Knights of the Cross" is also brilliant historical fiction, but alas niether my university library nor Project Gutenberg have the final volume of that tale and so I've never been able to enjoy Sienkiewicz's account of the Polish, Lithuanian and Tartar forces crushing the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald, but someday I hope to. Sienkiewicz's "On the Field of Honor" is a somewhat exciting account of the lead up to the Battle of Vienna but since it didn't include the battle itself I felt gyped. It was, however, interesting to see its portrayal of the latter stages of Polonization of an Armenian family.
I also read his "In Desert and Wilderness" which I found to be rather stupid and patronizing towards Egyptians and the Sudanese, but it was a children's novel and of its time. I suppose Sienkiewicz's hatred of the Mahdi, and his Islamophobia in the third installment of the Trilogy, may be ascribed to his desire to distance himself from his own family's Tartar Muslim ancestry.
Witold Gombrowicz's "Ferdydurke" is a supremely jarring and at the same time funny novelization of that awful nightmare in which one is sent back into public school as a pupil. I have frequently been subjected to this nightmare in my dreamlife and so I wonder if my dread of being infantilized didn't detract from my enjoyment of the hilarious absurdities which abound in the book.
Witold Gombrowicz's "Trans-Atlantic" is hilarious and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Gombowicz skewers the stuffy seriousness that infects too many Polish people. I am very glad that he found himself in Argentina as the war started. In his journals Grombrowicz qouted Mickiewicz's "Pan Tadeusz" to explain what life in the New World meant to him: "Born into slavery and wrapped in swaddling bands I have known only one such Summer of freedom in all of my life." His journals and "Trans-Atantic" were also of great interest to me because of their portraits of Borges.
Gombrowicz's "Cosmos" is a very interesting and strange novel about which it is difficult to give an unambiguous assessment. The characters in the novel behave abominably. From organizing a family trip to commemorate a transcendental masturbatory experience to murdering a housecat by hanging, this novel has some very unsavory aspects but somehow Gombrowicz still creates a compelling artistic vision from them depicting with the strange infectiousness of mimicry.
Czeslaw Milosz's "The Issa Valley" is a really wonderful novel. Some of my ancestors were Polish-Lithuanians, like the author and his protagonist, and so I read this novel very closely and I was absolutely delighted by its conceits. I feel like I too know of the devils that haunted the Issa Valley, and I thrilled to read of the undying pagan sensibilities of the novel's Lithuanian characters, one of whom had no qualms about descrating the eucharist in order to test God but who would never harm a snake! (Snakes having been the objects of Lithuanian reverence since long before their conversion to Christianity in 1386.)
I fear this post is getting too long so I will dispense with critiquing anymore Polish writers save one: Jan Pasek. Pasek was not a professional writer and his memoirs are all but unknown here in the USA but thankfully my university library had a translation of them. The tales contained therein are as weird and interesting as anything I have ever read. I really feel that the memoirs of a raconteur such as Pasek cannot be surpassed in literature. The man had obviously been telling those anecdotes frequently for years and years before he set stylus to hide (they were wrttten upon oxhide) thus they had been through the crucible and come out as entertaining and fascinating as can be. The story of his trained otter alone is bizarre enough to never be forotten but his memoirs contain so much more. I honestly wish I had never read them or that I got amnesia so that I could experience the wonder of reading them again for the first time. Hannah, I know that Sarmatism has been heavily criticized in Poland and rightly so, but who cannot symphathize with Jan and his fellows enjoying their Golden Freedom after seeing what a delightful characters said freedom produced?
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