Four Decades of Polish Essays - Hardcover

9780810108622: Four Decades of Polish Essays

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810108623 ISBN 13: 9780810108622

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 1990

Four Decades of Polish Essays contains the works of the greatest Polish writers of this century. The essay was the form most particularly adapted to the Polish sensitivity, the form in which the most inventive and original power of the Polish literary genius expressed itself. No previous anthology has brought together this rich array of literary accomplishments on topics from literature, art, and drama to politics and science fiction. Four Decades of Polish Essays makes possible for the first time the systematic study of some of the more fascinating prose literature of the twentieth century.

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About the Author:

Jan Kott was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1914. In 1969 he left Poland for the United States. He received the 1985 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for The Theater of Essence (Northwestern University Press, 1984).

From Publishers Weekly:

This collection, remarkable in its depth and diversity, offers a fine sampling of the writings (many appearing in English for the first time) by distinguished Polish authors, artists and philosophers, some still living in their native land, others emigres. Kott's ( Shakespeare Our Contemporary ) selections range beyond uniquely Polish concerns, from a sympathetic look at Hasidism to the relevance of St. Augustine for the modern world. Aleksander Wat remembers the spiritual strength he drew from books when incarcerated in Lubyanka Prison, and Jerzy Lec devises a list of barbed aphorisms ("Illiterates have to dictate"). Art critic K. A. Jelenski relates how Russian political and artistic radicals parted ways after the revolution. There is an autobiographical piece from science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem and poet Czeslaw Milosz's Nobel Prize acceptance speech. In a powerful essay, Jan Blonsky shows the necessity and complexity of looking at Polish responsiblity in the genocide of Eastern European Jewry. For the reflective reader, this volume holds many challenges and rewards.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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