Tomasz Bilczewski

This article aims to examine selected historical contexts of Miłosz’s
encounters with America. Its purpose is to demonstrate that the poet’s attitude towards
the country where he spent many years of his adulthood and creative life was full of
confl icts, paradoxes and contrasts. Early readings, a boyhood passion for discovering
the laws and secrets of nature, and Romantic and modern literary traditions signifi cantly
infl uenced both Miłosz’s perception of American landscapes and American culture,
shaping new landscapes within him. The transformations of the speaking “I,” which
the reader witnesses through Miłosz’s experiences with the New World, allow for
an understanding of how his unique spatial imagination developed. This article also
attempts to indicate areas where Miłosz searches for a solution to his disintegrated
imagination, particularly in its religious dimension, while tackling the challenges and
crises of modernity.
 

Comparative literature and existence
This essay recalls the nineteenth-century roots of comparative literary studies, particularly the consequences of the Cartesian modernization of the philosophical discourse, in order to show the search for an independent methodology proper to the beginnings of the discipline. This occurred first under the strong influence of ideas borrowed from the natural sciences, yet this practice later encountered a wave of criticism, particularly in the twentieth century. Then, comparative literary studies, partly as a result of traumatic historical events, were forced to construct their history using new principles. The increasingly autobiographical discourse that developed within the discipline and the acknowledgment of the problems posed by translation are among the traits characteristic of this period. The proposed description of both phenomena complements the image of comparative literary studies formed under the influence of nineteenth-century impulses

A FLY TRAPPED IN AMBER. ON CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ’S AMERICA AND IMAGINATION
This article examines selected historical contexts of Miłosz’s encounters with America. It demonstrates the confl icts, paradoxes and contrasts in the poet’s attitude towards the country where he spent many years of his adult and creative life. Miłosz’s early readings and passions for discovering the laws and secrets of nature as well as Romantic and modern literary traditions signifi cantly infl uenced his perception of American landscapes and culture. They shaped his new internal landscapes. The speaker’s changes, a result of Miłosz’s experiences in the New World, allow us to understand how his characteristic spatial imagination developed. Moreover, the article outlines Miłosz’s pursuit of a remedy for his disintegrated imagination, and its religious dimension in particular.

FRAGMENT

Olga Płaszczewska: Dziękuję redakcji „Wielogłosu” za zaproszenie do udziału w spotkaniu, witam serdecznie przybyłych gości. Punktem wyjścia naszej rozmowy jest wydana pod redakcją doktora Tomasza Bilczewskiego antologia tekstów teoretycznych Niewspółmierność. Perspektywy nowoczesnej komparatystyki. Jest to cenna poznawczo książka, obrazuje bowiem stan komparatystyki na kontynencie amerykańskim w ciągu ostatnich dwudziestu lat.
Są to również lata nieobojętne dla komparatystyki polskiej, rozwijającej się dzięki zaistnieniu po 1989 roku koniecznych ku temu warunków „intelektualnej wolności” . Cieszy fakt, że do rozmowy o Niewspółmierności zaproszeni zostali nie tylko teoretycy literatury, ale przede wszystkim uczeni, których metakrytyczne spostrzeżenia na temat komparatystyki wiążą się z prowadzoną przez nich praktyką badań porównawczych, badacze aktywnie kształtujący obraz komparatystyki polskiej ostatnich znaczących dwudziestu lat.
Zacznijmy nieco prowokacyjnie. Wszyscy zgadzamy się, że antologia Niewspółmierność. Perspektywy nowoczesnej komparatystyki to wartościowa książka, ale czy prezentując ją w sytuacji, kiedy – jak zwraca uwagę jej redaktor – brakuje na polskim rynku innych opracowań umożliwiających orientację w tej dziedzinie, nie wypaczamy perspektywy? Czy nie podlegamy „globalizacji”? Innymi słowy, czy amerykański model komparatystyki przystaje do sytuacji polskiej?

The above-mentioned poets are considered to be great innovators in the histories of their respective literary traditions. There are numerous volumes of critical commentaries on their works and their place within modernism. The aim of this paper is not to bring to the fore similarities of the changeable fortunes of their lives and oeuvres. It has already been noted in scholarly investigations that their poetry emerged on the literary map after many years of neglect and served as a sign of aesthetic avant-gardism. My main objective will be to examine how Norwid’s interest in the realm of seemingly banal objects can be contextualized within a broader horizon opened by such poets as Hopkins and Dickinson, who discovered surprisingly fresh, and previously inconceivable, ways of representing their encounter with reality.