Archive for the ‘Literature’ Category

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Joanna Trzeciak, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies,

Kent State University

Reaching for Readers: Polish Poetry and the Moral Economy of Translation

All Lectures Begin at 4:00 PM in CSU Student Center, Room 315.

For more information visit www.csuohio.edu/class/polishstudies

Mariusz Kotowski is a Polish-born film director and producer. He has gained a reputation for cinematic portrayals that are atypical of both Hollywood and independent film styles and that cleverly mix different film approaches into a cohesive whole.

Stanisław Kwiatkowski, absolwent Szkoły Glównej Planowania i Statystyki (SGH) w Warszawie i Szkoły Filmowej w Lodzi. Od 1978 roku mieszka w USA. Wieloletni redaktor naczelny miesięcznika kulturalnego Forum, wydawanego przez Polsko Amerykańskie Centrum Kultury w Cleveland. Autor szeregu opowiadań i książki “Niedokończony lot”.

My guest is Dr. Richard Mordarski,  Professor of Philosophy from Casimir the Great  University  in Bydgosc, Poland and a member of the editorial staff of FORUM. (more…)

I read A. Foremska’s article in the last issue about Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code with great interest. The author made several challenges and theological arguments against Brown’s book. In the case of such a sensational book, the question of whether we should engage in an apology of the Christian religion by use of such refined exegesis is a cause for discussion. In the end Foremska admits that the book is banal propaganda, with a simple mystery thrown in. (more…)

When I was a little boy the books by Julius Verne allowed me to travel. I went around the world in 80 days, I visited the oceans with captain Nemo, and I even traveled to the moon. A couple of years later came the time of Łajka, Gagarin, and Armstrong. All of a sudden the mankind was on a brink of conquering space. And this is when, for the first time, I saw a book written by Stanisław Lem. For a teenager in Poland, in the fifties, when everything was a “state secret”, his books about robots, astronauts, and space vehicles were like a magical world.  Lem opened our eyes; his books moved galaxies and planets closer to us, while the technology became more understandable and accessible.
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The creation of Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code has experienced large commercial success, gaining a spot on modern literature lists in a world hungry for cheap thrills. Through the use of tested and proven literary tactics, skillfully enclosed in a story line, the writer makes money. The measures of Brown’s success are the millions of copies sold to readers who only understand the questions raised by the text at the surface. Without the historical knowledge, nor theological know how, the reader freely absorbs Hollywood’s approach to explaining the aspects of our existence. It is so predictable and always bought into, as long as the plot is full of mystery and conspiracy, at the same time not lacking in explosions and passionate love. These stories are a quick read, which is an accomplishment in today’s times, and where skillfully created intrigue pulls the reader from the beginning into the middle of an extensive plot in conflict with historical facts. The phenomenon is based on the moment when the reader, guided by the author, stops raising the necessary questions and no longer tries to counteract the absorbed ideas with historical facts.
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“Someone who wants to be Polish. An act of will is more important than a birth certificate. To be a Pole is not to change one’s national loyalty.”
Juliusz Mieroszewski, „Kultura”

If we had to choose the five Poles with the greatest degree of influence on the fate of Poland, and therefore Europe, in the twentieth century, among them would certainly be Jerzy Giedroyc, the creator and editor of Kultura in Paris and the founder of the publishing house Instytut Literacki (Literary Institute).

The work of Jerzy Giedroyc is so associated with the Paris-based journal Kultura that we often forget about his literary and government work during the prewar years. During his studies in law and history at the University of Warsaw, Giedroyc edited two titles, „Bunt Młodych” (Youth Rebellion) and „Politykę” (Politics). In these first years of his work, his numerous talents were already evident: his work ethic, excellent organization, and, most important, his ability to surround himself with excellent people. In addition to his publishing activities, the young Giedroyc was employed in the Ministry of Agriculture and, before the outbreak of war, he was secretary to the Minister of Industry and Trade.
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Czesław Miłosz (1911-2004) - “Slowly, because not until after reaching ninety, the doors opened for me and I walked out into the clarity of the morning (…) and I said that we are all children of the Lord. Because we come from where there is no divide between Yes and No, nor the division into Is, Will be, and Was.”

“Second Space” – Czesław. Miołosz

Czesław Miłosz – poet, prose writer, essayist, translator, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was born on June 30, 1911, in Sztejnie on the banks of the Niewaza River in Lithuania. “Sztejnie, Ginejty, and Peiksiva – these were noble villages, very independent and sometimes in conflict with the local manors over lands in the forest. (…) The villages were purely Lithuanian and very aware of their heritage. (…) After the occupation of these lands by the Soviet Union the residents of these villages were transported to Siberia. (…) Buildings were torn down, orchards cut down and cleared (…).” This is how the Nobelist recalled his childhood.

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“My childhood was quite sad. There were nine of us children. I had seven sisters and I often hid amongst them because we were subjected to the harshest discipline by our god-fearing parents. Our father was implacable, punishing our childish indiscretions relentlessly. I was terrorized by fear and the uncertainty of my lot . . .but yet, fascinated with the outside world… My existence was bleak, surrounded by poverty and harshness with only hard work to look forward to each day…”
Such are the memories of the earliest years of our celebrated novelist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature – Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont.

He was born on May 7, 1867 in the village of Kobiele Wielkie near Radom. His father was an organist and a secretary in the parish office and his mother was a housewife. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to the outskirts of Lodz, taking up residence at their own farm, where Wladyslaw spent his childhood.

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