Splot : szkice o poezji polskiej, rosyjskiej i żydowskiej

Abstract

This collection comprises texts on poets and poems that are interwoven in numerous ways: be it historically, biographically, or literarily. The Polish, Russian, and Jewish authors discussed – some of whom belong to all three categories simultaneously – are gathered in this study based on coincidence, exception, and necessity. These include: Emil Zegadłowicz, Jerzy Liebert, Anna Akhmatova, Rachel Boymvol, Solomon Bart, Tadeusz Różewicz, Adam Czerniawski, Andrzej Busza, Anna Frajlich, and Ewa Lipska. The coincidence relies on their encounter on the pages of this book; the exception – on their relation to language or its rejection, the place of their own or its loss, nationality or its change, if not refusal; the necessity, in turn, embraces the fact that each of the authors is under the impression of being thrown into the 20th century, this so-called “futile time,” when one is bound to confront one’s biography as if it belonged to someone else, and to treat other biographies as the most intimate ones. The knots of biographies and works result in an unexpected surprise, both encapsulated in the poems by the author, and rediscovered by the reader.