The Impossibility of Shrugging One's Shoulders: O'Harists, O'Hara, and Post-1989 Polish Poetry

Slavic Review ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-483
Author(s):  
Joanna Niżyńska
Keyword(s):  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
Polish Literature ◽  
Anxiety Of Influence ◽  
The Face ◽  
Cultural Reality

In this article, Joanna Niżyńska explores the modes used by poets of the bruLion generation (whose debuts coincided with the end of communism) to import Frank O'Hara's poetics into Polish literature and the significance of their doing so. By employing Harold Bloom's concepts of the “anxiety of influence,” “kenosis,” and “daemonization,” Niżyńska analyzes the intergenerational impulses manifested in O'Harism in relation to the Romantic paradigm in Poland's poetic tradition. Niżyńska claims that in turning to O'Hara, such poets as Marcin Świetlicki, Jacek Podsiadło, and Miłosz Biedrzycki engaged in dialectically related modes of revisionary reading of both domestic and foreign traditions. O'Harism is interpreted as a sign of a multifaceted cultural morphogenesis that was simultaneously an act of compensation for Romantic “Polish complexes,” a self-exploration of a new poetic generation in the face of a new political and cultural reality, and a misreading of a foreign source.

A Critical-interpretive Approach to the Ottoman Turkish Ġazel

1973 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-110
Author(s):  
Walter G. Andrews
Keyword(s):  
The Moon ◽  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
Conscious Effort ◽  
Interpretive Approach ◽  
Basic Theme ◽  
The Face ◽  
Poetic Expression ◽  
Apparent Similarity ◽  
Or Organization

The Islamic poetic tradition as it came to the Turks through Persian is characterized by a rather limited catalog of basic themes expressed by an equally limited number of standard tropes. The basic themes are usually quite easily recognizable (e.g. the sâkî theme, the bahâr theme, etc.), even though more than one basic theme may be included in a single poem. The standard tropes — for example, the moon for the face of the beloved, rubies for wine, drunkenness for mystical love — are also used over and over again without any serious attempt to freshen poetic expression by discarding them for new metaphores. Nevertheless, within this atmosphere of apparent similarity, contemporary critics placed high value on creativity, uniqueness, and the invention of ‘new’ fancies. Modern scholarship has, in most cases, attempted to resolve this paradox by stating that ‘creativity’ for the Ottoman poet consisted of rearranging and recombining traditional themes and tropes to create new patterns and, thereby, a subtle and precious uniqueness. Moreover, any internal cohesion or organization other than that provided by rhyme and meter is generally seen as fortuitous and unrelated to any conscious effort to present a unified poetic message. The result of this view is the rather pervasive conclusion that the Ottoman poet is no more creative than the child is ‘creative’ who operates a kaleidoscope which produces infinitely varied patterns, even though the mirrors (themes?) and colored bits of glass (tropes?) remain ever the same.

scholarly journals JANENGAN SEBAGAI SENI TRADISIONAL ISLAM-JAWA

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 469
Author(s):  
Akhmad Arif Junaidi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Traditional Music ◽  
Local Culture ◽  
Cultural Expression ◽  
Muslim Society ◽  
The Face ◽  
Musical Traditions ◽  
Eastern Music ◽  
Cultural Reality

<p class="IIABSBARU1">This paper is based on the cultural reality of Javanese Muslim society especially in Islamic Javanese traditional music. The cultural expression of Islamic-Javanese music is very diverse and reflecting the diversity of the “face” of Islam that has been adapted to the local culture. Janengan’s Islamic Javanese traditional music is an expression from three different cultural music traditions: Javanese music tradition, Middle Eastern music traditions (Arabic), and currently has been developed with a combination of Western music such as pop. The combination of three different musical traditions creates a unique creativity in Javanese music character. The character also encourages the values covering musical values, cultural values, and religious values. Thematically, the Janengan’s lyrics contain a variety of Islamic teaching such as monotheism, shari’ah and sufism.<strong></strong></p><p class="IKa-ABSTRAK">***</p>Tulisan ini dilatarbelakangi satu realitas budaya yang dihasilkan dari kehidupan masyarakat Muslim Jawa khususnya seni musik tradisional Islam-Jawa. Ekspresi kebudayaan Islam-Jawa dalam seni musik ini sangat beragam dan mencerminkan keberagaman “wajah” Islam yang telah beradaptasi dengan budaya lokal. Musik tradisional Islam-Jawa <em>Janengan</em> merupakan perwujudan dari perpaduan tiga unsur tradisi musik, yakni tradisi musik Jawa, tradisi musik Islam Timur Tengah (Arab) dan kini telah dikembangkan dengan kombinasi musik Barat seperti pop. Perpaduan ketiga unsur tradisi musik yang berbeda ini membentuk suatu hasil kreativitas yang unik bercirikan musik Jawa. Musik tradisional Islam-Jawa ini juga melahirkan nilai-nilai yang meliputi nilai-nilai musikal, nilai-nilai kultural, dan nilai-nilai religius. Secara tematik syair-syair <em>Janengan</em> berisi berbagai ajaran seperti akidah (tauhid), syari’at dan tasawuf.

Documentário: imaginário colonial de Minas Gerais

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Augusto Silva Lopes ◽  
Tiago Vieira Da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Digital Image ◽  
Network Flows ◽  
Cultural Hybridity ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Present Communication ◽  
The Face ◽  
Belo Horizonte ◽  
Cultural Reality ◽  
Tourist Path

The present communication proposal is the result of an empirical research developed during the recording of the documentary “Ouro de Minas: a look at Luso-African-Brazilian cultural hybridity”, which addresses the tourist path from Belo Horizonte to Tiradentes, as a mediation proposal between the colonial past and contemporary social constructions. Therefore, the present article will seek to construct its own theory, multidisciplinary, hybrid and, therefore, legitimate representative of Cultural Studies, to propose a concept of digital image that is credible in the face of the contemporary challenge of a fragmentary, liquid and, above all, cultural reality. guided by network flows.

The Magic of Orpheus and the Ambiguities of Language

Ramus ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Segal
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
Greek Myth ◽  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Subject ◽  
As If

Language is among the most mysterious of man's attributes. Its power not only to communicate truths about reality, but also to compel assent in the face of reality has often appeared miraculous, magical, and also dangerous. The marvel that mere words could impel men to the most momentous actions, and the admiration or fear that this fact inspires, are recurrent themes in classical literature. To express and understand this power Greek myth early framed the figure of Orpheus, a magical singer, half-man, half-god, able to move all of nature by his song. How that myth shifts in meaning and emphasis in representing that power is the subject of this essay. Though primarily concerned with classical writers, I shall also consider how a few modern poets used and transmuted this mythic material. My reading of the myth is both diachronic and synchronic. I attempt to study some aspects of its historical development and also to interpret it (especially in part I) as if all of its versions, taken together, form a contemporary statement about the relation of art and life.Orpheus is a complex, multifaceted figure. For the ancients he is not only the archetypal poet, but also the founder of a mystical religion known as Orphism, with a well-developed theology, cosmogony, and eschatology of which much survives in hymns and short epics, mostly of late date. The ‘poetic’ Orpheus inevitably overlaps with the founder of Orphism, but it is the Orpheus of the poetic tradition that this essay discusses.

scholarly journals Po co czytać Harolda Blooma i jak, czyli o kanoniczności krytyka

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 505-517
Author(s):  
Karina Jarzyńska
Keyword(s):  
Social Value ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Polish Literature ◽  
Harold Bloom ◽  
Anxiety Of Influence ◽  
The Status ◽  
Canonical Texts ◽  
The Relationship

W artykule analizie poddane zostają relacje pomiędzy koncepcją kanonu literackiego Harolda Blooma a statusem jego własnej twórczości krytycznej. Rożne tematy i style pisarstwa uprawianego przez autora Lęku przed wpływem zostały scharakteryzowane i ocenione pod kątem ich kanoniczności, rozumianej jako wartość estetyczna i społeczna. Według samego Blooma teksty kanoniczne oferują także wartość duchową, za pomocą takich narzędzi jak ironia i metafora, prowokując czytelników do poznawania własnej kondycji. Artykuł zdaje także sprawę z polskiej recepcji pism Blooma oraz porusza kwestię sposobu, w jaki literatura polska jest obecna w zaprojektowanym przez niego zachodnim kanonie. Jej słaba reprezentacja domaga się odpowiedzi krytyków, którzy mogliby zaproponować własną listę dzieł, według kryteriów podobnie mocnych jak te Bloomowskie, lecz przezwyciężających jego – niejednokrotnie kolonizatorski, patriarchalny i ekskluzywistyczny – wpływ. Reading Harold Bloom – What For and How? On Canonicality of the Critic The relationship between the idea of Harold Bloom’s literary canon and the status of his own critic’s oeuvre is discussed in the article. Diverse topics and literary styles cultivated by the author of The Anxiety of Influence were characterised and evaluated from the perspective of their canonicality understood as an aesthetic and social value. According to Bloom himself, the canonical texts also offer the spiritual value with help of such tools as irony and metaphor, provoking the readers to assess their own condition. The article presents the Polish reception of Harold Bloom’s texts and examines the presence of Polish literature in the Western literary canon designed by him. Its weak representation demands response of the critics who could propose their own list of literary works based on criteria equally strong as Bloom’s ones but overcoming his oftentimes colonial, patriarchal and exclusionary influence.

scholarly journals Fighting Pestilence in Old Poland as Presented in the 18th Century Żywiec Chronicle

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-54
Author(s):  
Beata Stuchlik-Surowiak
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Sensitivity ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Old Republic ◽  
Cultural Reality

The article presents the problem of dealing with the pestilence (pol. morowe powietrze, “pestilent air”) on the territory of the old Republic of Poland, with particular focus on the Żywiec County in the 16th to 8th century. The paper attempts to answer the questions of how the medics of that time dealt with epidemics, what actions were taken by ordinary people for whom the raging plague was often the result of the interference of demonic forces, and finally, what preventive measures against the plague were proposed to the faithful by the Church. The source for the considerations is the Chronografia albo Dziejopis żywiecki [Chronography or the Żywiec Chronicle], the account of history of the town of Żywiec and the surrounding area covering the years 1400–1728, written by the mayor, Andrzej Komoniecki (1659–1729). The Chronicle brings back an extraordinarily colorful picture of old customs, beliefs and superstitions, as well as paramedical practices, which to our contemporary cultural sensitivity may appear bizarre, gruesome and terrifying. In preparing the article, the author also used extensive literature, primarily in the history of medicine.Among the research methods used in the study, it is worth mentioning, first of all: the explicative method, the method of document research, the method of analysis and criticism of sources, the method of cultural analysis and the method of stylistic-rhetorical analysis. In contemporary socio-cultural reality, the reading of the Chronografia takes on new meanings. In the context of the pandemic that struck the world in the 21st century, the extremely accurate accounts of the Żywiec chronicler seem particularly interesting, as they allow us to compare the attitude of our old Polish ancestors and ourselves in the face of a similar threat. This comparative leads us to believe that some of the measures taken to prevent the spread of infections, such as keeping a distance, limiting the number of participants at funerals, or not letting strangers into towns, are still taken today, while others, such as locking the sick up in huts, setting fire to infected houses, burying plague victims under fences, drowning them in rivers, or desecrating the bodies of the dead suspected of having caused the plague, are now happily forgotten.

scholarly journals Zapach wojny i gór. Huculi i Huculszczyzna w międzywojennej literaturze polskiej o tematyce współczesnej (część I)

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 257-276
Author(s):  
Jagoda Wierzejska
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Native Land ◽  
Polish Literature ◽  
National Memory ◽  
Eastern Carpathians ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Cultural Reality ◽  
First World ◽  
Comprehensive Study

The article is the first part of a comprehensive study on representations of Hutsuls and the Hutsul region in the interwar Polish literature, which showed them during the First World War and the wars for the borders of the Second Polish Republic, as well as in the 1920s and 1930s. The article discuses, first and foremost, literary visions of Hutsuls and their native land in the wartime. It argues that these visions were deeply affected by war events that took place in the Eastern Carpathians in 1914–1915, when Polish soldiers from the 2nd and 3rd Legions Infantry Regiments fought with Russians and occasionally cooperated with some military volunteers recruited from the Hutsul community. The interwar Polish literature showed the Eastern Carpathians as a space where Polish soldiers’ bravery and dedication to the national cause were distinctly manifested. It also described and, as a matter of fact, exaggerated acts of fraternization between Polish legionnaires and the Hutsuls. This way the Polish literature imposed an important, patriotic significance to the Hutsul region and strengthened its position in the Polish national memory. Simultaneously, it showed the whole Hutsul community as allies of Poles in the fight for independence. This literary approach suggested that Hutsuls had their own history and cultural reality that differed from the Ukrainian one but fit in well with the history and contemporary times of Poles.

Toward the “Titmouse Dimension”: The Development of Emerson's Poetic Style

PMLA ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-270
Author(s):  
R. A. Yoder
Keyword(s):  
George Herbert ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Major Phase ◽  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
The Third ◽  
Question And Answer ◽  
The Face ◽  
American Poets ◽  
Different Color ◽  
Poetic Style

Emerson's place in our poetic tradition is granted to be central, despite the elusive and variable style of his poetry. Because he was an avowed experimenter, the development of Emerson's style must be traced quite apart from the Emersonian ideas sometimes offered as his complete poetic stance. Throughout, his poetry can be called meditative in aim, and is based on a question-and-answer form dramatized as an encounter between the poet and Nature; the prototype is in the introduction to Nature (1836). There are three phases in his career: (1) poems of 1834 modeled after George Herbert and the art of neatness also visible in Nature; (2) the vision of wild, bardic freedom (1839-41), which led Emerson to a looser form and to the techniques of Anglo-Saxon poetry as they were understood by his contemporaries; (3) a wearing away of enthusiasm, spurred by Emerson's losses and growing skepticism in the 1840's. Then the techniques used to express bardic freedom take on a different color, no longer bold heavy strokes but witty, nimble leaps; in the central encounter Nature turns sly and contemptuous, refusing to answer questions directly, while the poet is passive, though serene and appreciative, in the face of a world much less knowable than in 1836. In. the third and major phase the poetry becomes compressed in both form and consciousness, a movement toward the “titmouse dimension.” And this style, more than his contribution to Whitman's bardism, is Emerson's legacy to modern American poets.

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