Brian Murdoch
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199564149
- eISBN:
- 9780191721328
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199564149.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
There is a very broad tradition of the Vita Adae in medieval German in prose (as part of Historienbibeln and chronicles, and in a late text by Hans Folz), and in verse either independently or within ...
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There is a very broad tradition of the Vita Adae in medieval German in prose (as part of Historienbibeln and chronicles, and in a late text by Hans Folz), and in verse either independently or within rhymed chronicles. There is an extensive Old Testament poem by Lutwin including the apocryphal material, and the narrative influenced major literary works like Hartmann's Gregorius. There are some late folk plays recorded in the 19th century. Prose versions are known in Dutch. Although there is a separate Slavonic tradition of Adam legends, there are translations of the Latin text in Hungarian, Croatian, Bohemian, and Polish, sometimes in 16th-century printed books. The material was adapted into other works, including books about devils. One of the latter was translated from Polish into Russian.Less
There is a very broad tradition of the Vita Adae in medieval German in prose (as part of Historienbibeln and chronicles, and in a late text by Hans Folz), and in verse either independently or within rhymed chronicles. There is an extensive Old Testament poem by Lutwin including the apocryphal material, and the narrative influenced major literary works like Hartmann's Gregorius. There are some late folk plays recorded in the 19th century. Prose versions are known in Dutch. Although there is a separate Slavonic tradition of Adam legends, there are translations of the Latin text in Hungarian, Croatian, Bohemian, and Polish, sometimes in 16th-century printed books. The material was adapted into other works, including books about devils. One of the latter was translated from Polish into Russian.
Jaroslaw Anders
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300111675
- eISBN:
- 9780300155310
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300111675.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
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. This book examines Poland's modern ...
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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. This book examines Poland's modern poetry and fiction and explains that the best Polish writing of the period 1918–89 was much more than testimony. Rather, it constantly transformed historical experience into metaphysical reflection, a philosophical or religious exploration of human existence. The book analyzes and contextualizes the work of nine modern Polish writers. These include the “three madmen” of the interwar period—Schulz, Gombrowicz, and Witkiewicz, whom he calls the fathers of Polish modernist prose; the great poets of the war generation—Milosz, Herbert, and Szymborska; Herling-Grudzinski and Konwicki, with their dark philosophical subtexts; and the mystical-ecstatic poet Zagajewski.Less
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. This book examines Poland's modern poetry and fiction and explains that the best Polish writing of the period 1918–89 was much more than testimony. Rather, it constantly transformed historical experience into metaphysical reflection, a philosophical or religious exploration of human existence. The book analyzes and contextualizes the work of nine modern Polish writers. These include the “three madmen” of the interwar period—Schulz, Gombrowicz, and Witkiewicz, whom he calls the fathers of Polish modernist prose; the great poets of the war generation—Milosz, Herbert, and Szymborska; Herling-Grudzinski and Konwicki, with their dark philosophical subtexts; and the mystical-ecstatic poet Zagajewski.
Roman Koropeckyj
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780804793827
- eISBN:
- 9780804794961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804793827.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
In contrast to the image of the haidamak, the figure of Khmelnytsky barely registers in Polish romantic literature. This is a function of the open-ended nature of the Polish-Cossack conflict and the ...
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In contrast to the image of the haidamak, the figure of Khmelnytsky barely registers in Polish romantic literature. This is a function of the open-ended nature of the Polish-Cossack conflict and the ambiguous nature of the hetman himself. When he appears, it is most often in melodramatic fashion, as an indignant but proud Cossack bent on avenging the seizure of his estate and abduction of his wife by the Polish gentryman Czapliński. This image draws heavily on Polish romantic historians’ attempt to explain the causes of the 1648 rebellion. This episode is also the basis of the fullest treatment of Khmelnytsky in Polish literature, Henryk Sienkiewicz’s novel With Fire and Sword, where it is reconfigured as the story of Bohun and Helena. The reconfiguration and ostensible resolution of this subplot allows Polish literature to finally succeed in narrativizing the Khmelnyystky uprising as a comforting allegory.Less
In contrast to the image of the haidamak, the figure of Khmelnytsky barely registers in Polish romantic literature. This is a function of the open-ended nature of the Polish-Cossack conflict and the ambiguous nature of the hetman himself. When he appears, it is most often in melodramatic fashion, as an indignant but proud Cossack bent on avenging the seizure of his estate and abduction of his wife by the Polish gentryman Czapliński. This image draws heavily on Polish romantic historians’ attempt to explain the causes of the 1648 rebellion. This episode is also the basis of the fullest treatment of Khmelnytsky in Polish literature, Henryk Sienkiewicz’s novel With Fire and Sword, where it is reconfigured as the story of Bohun and Helena. The reconfiguration and ostensible resolution of this subplot allows Polish literature to finally succeed in narrativizing the Khmelnyystky uprising as a comforting allegory.
Jaroslaw Anders (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300111675
- eISBN:
- 9780300155310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300111675.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz. Gombrowicz was a Polish writer who did not care much for Polish literature; a modernist who derided most of the major ...
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This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz. Gombrowicz was a Polish writer who did not care much for Polish literature; a modernist who derided most of the major currents of modernity; and a skeptical, ironic mind with deep moralistic inclinations. In his three-volume Diary, considered by many his most accomplished work, Gombrowicz advanced a theory that Polish writers are individuals only in a superficial sense. They are, in fact, social institutions “inhibited by something impersonal, superior, inter-human, and collective emanating from the milieu...Polish thought, Polish mythology, the Polish psyche.”Less
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz. Gombrowicz was a Polish writer who did not care much for Polish literature; a modernist who derided most of the major currents of modernity; and a skeptical, ironic mind with deep moralistic inclinations. In his three-volume Diary, considered by many his most accomplished work, Gombrowicz advanced a theory that Polish writers are individuals only in a superficial sense. They are, in fact, social institutions “inhibited by something impersonal, superior, inter-human, and collective emanating from the milieu...Polish thought, Polish mythology, the Polish psyche.”
Jaroslaw Anders (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300111675
- eISBN:
- 9780300155310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300111675.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish novelist, film director, and screenwriter Tadeusz Konwicki. Konwicki successfully captured the uncanny mood of the final years of communism in his ...
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This chapter describes the life and works of Polish novelist, film director, and screenwriter Tadeusz Konwicki. Konwicki successfully captured the uncanny mood of the final years of communism in his novels and his nonfiction writing. The system in his novels appears less as a coercive tyranny than as a black hole warping and demeaning every dream and desire.Less
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish novelist, film director, and screenwriter Tadeusz Konwicki. Konwicki successfully captured the uncanny mood of the final years of communism in his novels and his nonfiction writing. The system in his novels appears less as a coercive tyranny than as a black hole warping and demeaning every dream and desire.
Paulina Pająk
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781942954422
- eISBN:
- 9781786944368
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781942954422.003.0034
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
In recent years, the popularity of Virginia Woolf’s oeuvre has substantially increased in Poland. There has been little prior attempt to explain this phenomenon, although it could be beneficial to ...
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In recent years, the popularity of Virginia Woolf’s oeuvre has substantially increased in Poland. There has been little prior attempt to explain this phenomenon, although it could be beneficial to comparative literature and feminist studies. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to examine the significance of Virginia Woolf’s legacy to contemporary Polish culture, as well as the possible causes of the “Woolf’s Renaissance”. As Urszula Terentowicz-Fotyga has pointed out, until the late 1980s., Woolf remained relatively unknown and perceived as a minor modernist writer. Yet, the third phase of her reception (1990s-present) has brought a significant change, which finally led to the outburst of translations and popularity of Woolf’s works. One result of this “Woolf’s Renaissance” is the influence of Woolf’s legacy on contemporary literature and feminism in Poland. Woolf’s imaginairum has inspired many women writers, such as Joanna Bator, Sylwia Chutnik, Izabela Morska, and Maria Nurowska. It would seem that the popularity of Woolf among Polish women intellectuals stems from the similarity between her opposition to Victorian patriarchal society and their resistance against the radical Catholic conservatism and nationalism in Poland. Besides, the polyphony of Woolf’s oeuvre and the complexity of her biography invite the writers to enter the intertextual dialogue with the author.Less
In recent years, the popularity of Virginia Woolf’s oeuvre has substantially increased in Poland. There has been little prior attempt to explain this phenomenon, although it could be beneficial to comparative literature and feminist studies. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to examine the significance of Virginia Woolf’s legacy to contemporary Polish culture, as well as the possible causes of the “Woolf’s Renaissance”. As Urszula Terentowicz-Fotyga has pointed out, until the late 1980s., Woolf remained relatively unknown and perceived as a minor modernist writer. Yet, the third phase of her reception (1990s-present) has brought a significant change, which finally led to the outburst of translations and popularity of Woolf’s works. One result of this “Woolf’s Renaissance” is the influence of Woolf’s legacy on contemporary literature and feminism in Poland. Woolf’s imaginairum has inspired many women writers, such as Joanna Bator, Sylwia Chutnik, Izabela Morska, and Maria Nurowska. It would seem that the popularity of Woolf among Polish women intellectuals stems from the similarity between her opposition to Victorian patriarchal society and their resistance against the radical Catholic conservatism and nationalism in Poland. Besides, the polyphony of Woolf’s oeuvre and the complexity of her biography invite the writers to enter the intertextual dialogue with the author.
Waclaw M. Osadnik and Peter Swirski
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781781381205
- eISBN:
- 9781781382141
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381205.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter situates Stanlislaw Lem’s life in the sociopolitical context of post-WW2 Poland in parallel to situating his writing career in the context of post-WW2 Polish literature. It then moves to ...
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This chapter situates Stanlislaw Lem’s life in the sociopolitical context of post-WW2 Poland in parallel to situating his writing career in the context of post-WW2 Polish literature. It then moves to place Lem in the global context, from the critical reception to the myriad tributes and accolades accrued during his lifetime as well as posthumously.Less
This chapter situates Stanlislaw Lem’s life in the sociopolitical context of post-WW2 Poland in parallel to situating his writing career in the context of post-WW2 Polish literature. It then moves to place Lem in the global context, from the critical reception to the myriad tributes and accolades accrued during his lifetime as well as posthumously.
Jaroslaw Anders (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300111675
- eISBN:
- 9780300155310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300111675.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Bruno Schulz. Schulz was the author of two slim volumes of dreamlike prose that have been hailed as one of the most original achievements of ...
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This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Bruno Schulz. Schulz was the author of two slim volumes of dreamlike prose that have been hailed as one of the most original achievements of Polish literature in the twentieth century. He is described as a profoundly unhappy man, whose most acute despondency seemed to have coincided with the beginning of his literary career and the praise with which his work was greeted by most prominent literary voices of his day. He may have become a victim of his own imagination, which trapped him in an invented world that was beginning to lose its magic.Less
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Bruno Schulz. Schulz was the author of two slim volumes of dreamlike prose that have been hailed as one of the most original achievements of Polish literature in the twentieth century. He is described as a profoundly unhappy man, whose most acute despondency seemed to have coincided with the beginning of his literary career and the praise with which his work was greeted by most prominent literary voices of his day. He may have become a victim of his own imagination, which trapped him in an invented world that was beginning to lose its magic.
Jaroslaw Anders (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300111675
- eISBN:
- 9780300155310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300111675.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert. Herbert is credited with almost singlehandedly introducing a whole new poetic idiom and changing the literary sensibility of ...
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This chapter describes the life and works of Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert. Herbert is credited with almost singlehandedly introducing a whole new poetic idiom and changing the literary sensibility of Polish readers who matured in the turbulent sixties and seventies. It was for this younger group of readers, spared the experience of World War II and the worst excesses of Stalinism, that Herbert's writing became “a prayer of the generation.”Less
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert. Herbert is credited with almost singlehandedly introducing a whole new poetic idiom and changing the literary sensibility of Polish readers who matured in the turbulent sixties and seventies. It was for this younger group of readers, spared the experience of World War II and the worst excesses of Stalinism, that Herbert's writing became “a prayer of the generation.”
Jaroslaw Anders (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300111675
- eISBN:
- 9780300155310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300111675.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski. Herling was one of the cofounders and coeditors of the legendary Paris-based Polish magazine Kultura, which, ...
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This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski. Herling was one of the cofounders and coeditors of the legendary Paris-based Polish magazine Kultura, which, during the communist decades, served as the forum of Polish free intellectual life. He also kept a highly personal, subtle, meditative diary, which was published during his lifetime as The Journal Written at Night. Next to Gombrowicz's Diary, it is considered one of the greatest examples of Polish memoirist literature.Less
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski. Herling was one of the cofounders and coeditors of the legendary Paris-based Polish magazine Kultura, which, during the communist decades, served as the forum of Polish free intellectual life. He also kept a highly personal, subtle, meditative diary, which was published during his lifetime as The Journal Written at Night. Next to Gombrowicz's Diary, it is considered one of the greatest examples of Polish memoirist literature.
Jaroslaw Anders (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300111675
- eISBN:
- 9780300155310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300111675.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Adam Zagajewski. Zagajewski belongs to Poland's Solidarity generation—a particular breed of tough, down-to-earth dreamers and pragmatic ...
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This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Adam Zagajewski. Zagajewski belongs to Poland's Solidarity generation—a particular breed of tough, down-to-earth dreamers and pragmatic romantics born at the end of or right after World War II who made ironic defiance their weapon of choice against totalitarian, ideological rant.Less
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Adam Zagajewski. Zagajewski belongs to Poland's Solidarity generation—a particular breed of tough, down-to-earth dreamers and pragmatic romantics born at the end of or right after World War II who made ironic defiance their weapon of choice against totalitarian, ideological rant.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804768795
- eISBN:
- 9780804775045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804768795.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Jewish Studies
In this preamble, Pauline Wengeroff reflects on the experiences and observations that she recorded in her memoirs. She remembers a joyful, worry-free childhood in her parents' home, followed by ...
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In this preamble, Pauline Wengeroff reflects on the experiences and observations that she recorded in her memoirs. She remembers a joyful, worry-free childhood in her parents' home, followed by sorrow and happiness in the lives of the Jews in Russia, and events in her own home. Wengeroff's memoirs chronicle the more important events and cultural transformation of Jewish society in Lithuania during the 1840s and 1950s, a transformation that also affected her. Born in the early part of the 1830s in the Lithuanian city of Bobruisk, Wengeroff was raised by very religious, spiritually refined, and noble parents. Children during the period devoted their time to learning German and Polish literature, and to studying the Bible and the prophets, something that only made them proud of their religion and tradition and connected them closely to their people.Less
In this preamble, Pauline Wengeroff reflects on the experiences and observations that she recorded in her memoirs. She remembers a joyful, worry-free childhood in her parents' home, followed by sorrow and happiness in the lives of the Jews in Russia, and events in her own home. Wengeroff's memoirs chronicle the more important events and cultural transformation of Jewish society in Lithuania during the 1840s and 1950s, a transformation that also affected her. Born in the early part of the 1830s in the Lithuanian city of Bobruisk, Wengeroff was raised by very religious, spiritually refined, and noble parents. Children during the period devoted their time to learning German and Polish literature, and to studying the Bible and the prophets, something that only made them proud of their religion and tradition and connected them closely to their people.
Jaroslaw Anders (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300111675
- eISBN:
- 9780300155310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300111675.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz. Born in 1911, Milosz had seen it all: genocidal wars, revolutions, whole countries violently erased or slowly fading from the ...
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This chapter describes the life and works of Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz. Born in 1911, Milosz had seen it all: genocidal wars, revolutions, whole countries violently erased or slowly fading from the map, and the rise and ebb of ideologies, philosophies, religions. His writing, especially his poetry, may be viewed as an attempt to reclaim the innocent ability to wonder and trust. One of the best examples is his early cycle of short poems “The World,” written during the war, which recreated the secure and radiant world of a child.Less
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz. Born in 1911, Milosz had seen it all: genocidal wars, revolutions, whole countries violently erased or slowly fading from the map, and the rise and ebb of ideologies, philosophies, religions. His writing, especially his poetry, may be viewed as an attempt to reclaim the innocent ability to wonder and trust. One of the best examples is his early cycle of short poems “The World,” written during the war, which recreated the secure and radiant world of a child.
Jaroslaw Anders (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300111675
- eISBN:
- 9780300155310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300111675.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. With a literary career spanning more than fifty years, she ...
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This chapter describes the life and works of Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. With a literary career spanning more than fifty years, she acknowledges only some two hundred of her poems collected in several slender volumes. Her body of work displays unusual diversity and polychromy, and defies all the usual terms (classicist, linguistic, moralist) used to classify Polish writers of her generation. She practices isolation both in her writing and in her life, avoiding autobiography and remaining intensely private.Less
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1996. With a literary career spanning more than fifty years, she acknowledges only some two hundred of her poems collected in several slender volumes. Her body of work displays unusual diversity and polychromy, and defies all the usual terms (classicist, linguistic, moralist) used to classify Polish writers of her generation. She practices isolation both in her writing and in her life, avoiding autobiography and remaining intensely private.
Henry Sussman
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823227693
- eISBN:
- 9780823235278
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823227693.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This chapter examines the presentation of modernist night in the novels of Polish writer Bruno Schulz. It explains that Schulz conjures up this modernist night in order ...
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This chapter examines the presentation of modernist night in the novels of Polish writer Bruno Schulz. It explains that Schulz conjures up this modernist night in order illustrate the temporal anomalies of narrative art and to assemble a catalog or stamp album of the developments in 20th century culture that he witnesses from the perspective of Polish “minor literature”. His discourse provides early 20th century Western culture the retrospect that the character of Father Jacob achieves through incarceration in Schulz's Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass.Less
This chapter examines the presentation of modernist night in the novels of Polish writer Bruno Schulz. It explains that Schulz conjures up this modernist night in order illustrate the temporal anomalies of narrative art and to assemble a catalog or stamp album of the developments in 20th century culture that he witnesses from the perspective of Polish “minor literature”. His discourse provides early 20th century Western culture the retrospect that the character of Father Jacob achieves through incarceration in Schulz's Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass.
Jaroslaw Anders (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300111675
- eISBN:
- 9780300155310
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300111675.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. His book Insatiability is considered one of the classics of European modernism. Witkiewicz has remained a ...
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This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. His book Insatiability is considered one of the classics of European modernism. Witkiewicz has remained a mystery to interpreters of his writing and his life. Was he a “metaphysical dandy” and an epigone of nineteenth-century decadence? Or a forerunner of today's radical irony? Or was he, like the hero of Insatiability, a lunatic slowly sinking into incoherence?Less
This chapter describes the life and works of Polish writer Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. His book Insatiability is considered one of the classics of European modernism. Witkiewicz has remained a mystery to interpreters of his writing and his life. Was he a “metaphysical dandy” and an epigone of nineteenth-century decadence? Or a forerunner of today's radical irony? Or was he, like the hero of Insatiability, a lunatic slowly sinking into incoherence?
Peter Swirski and Waclaw M. Osadnik (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781781381205
- eISBN:
- 9781781382141
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381205.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Lemography is a unique collection of critical essays on Stanislaw Lem, writer and philosopher hailed on more than one occasion as a literary Einstein. Its aim is to introduce aspects of his work ...
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Lemography is a unique collection of critical essays on Stanislaw Lem, writer and philosopher hailed on more than one occasion as a literary Einstein. Its aim is to introduce aspects of his work hitherto unknown or neglected by scholarship and evaluate his influence on twentieth-century literature and culture—and beyond. The book’s uniqueness is enhanced by the global makeup of the contributors who hail from Canada, United States, Great Britain, Belorussia, Poland, Croatia, Finland, and Hong Kong. In all cases, these are scholars and translators who for many years have pursued, and in some cases defined, Lem scholarship. Rather than study Lem as a science fiction writer, each essay commands a wider sphere of reference in order to appraise Lem’s literary and philosophical contributions (the ‘philosophy of the future’). Each focuses on a different novel or a set of novels, examining them critically—i.e. with a view to his strengths and weaknesses. Between them, the essays shed light on virtually all phases of Lem’s multidimensional career, from his very first novel Man from Mars right down to the farewell Peace on Earth. In the process, Lemography marks several ‘firsts’ in English: the first overview of Lem’s life and work against the background of political events in postwar Poland; first-time translations from and critical assessments of Lem’s first three novels; a comprehensive analysis of Lem’s best known novel in the context of all of its cinematic adaptations; a sustained critique of Lem as a pioneer of futurology; a critical introduction to Lem’s supercomputer; and a comparative discussion of the last two novels he ever wrote.Less
Lemography is a unique collection of critical essays on Stanislaw Lem, writer and philosopher hailed on more than one occasion as a literary Einstein. Its aim is to introduce aspects of his work hitherto unknown or neglected by scholarship and evaluate his influence on twentieth-century literature and culture—and beyond. The book’s uniqueness is enhanced by the global makeup of the contributors who hail from Canada, United States, Great Britain, Belorussia, Poland, Croatia, Finland, and Hong Kong. In all cases, these are scholars and translators who for many years have pursued, and in some cases defined, Lem scholarship. Rather than study Lem as a science fiction writer, each essay commands a wider sphere of reference in order to appraise Lem’s literary and philosophical contributions (the ‘philosophy of the future’). Each focuses on a different novel or a set of novels, examining them critically—i.e. with a view to his strengths and weaknesses. Between them, the essays shed light on virtually all phases of Lem’s multidimensional career, from his very first novel Man from Mars right down to the farewell Peace on Earth. In the process, Lemography marks several ‘firsts’ in English: the first overview of Lem’s life and work against the background of political events in postwar Poland; first-time translations from and critical assessments of Lem’s first three novels; a comprehensive analysis of Lem’s best known novel in the context of all of its cinematic adaptations; a sustained critique of Lem as a pioneer of futurology; a critical introduction to Lem’s supercomputer; and a comparative discussion of the last two novels he ever wrote.
