Event
A Lyrical Poet as a Political Writer. The Captive Mind by Czeslaw Milosz - A talk by Prof. Bozena Shallcross and Prof. Andrzej Karcz
The year 2021 marks 110 years since the birth of Czesław Miłosz and 70 years since he escaped communist Poland to seek political asylum in France. Leading scholars Professors Bożena Shallcross of the University of Chicago, and Andrzej Karcz, PAN, will discuss Milosz’s “The Captive Mind” in the webinar “A Lyrical Poet as a Political Writer” held on June 25.
FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 2021, AT 2:00PM
As the author of The Captive Mind, a book of essays on politics and postwar Polish intellectuals who embraced communism, Czesław Miłosz was labeled "a political writer." While acknowledging that some of his writings were political indeed, he distanced himself from them and defied this arbitrary classification. After all, he considered himself – and he truly was – a lyrical poet. What is the place of The Captive Mind in Miłosz's literary output, then? To answer this question, the lecture will explore the work's main features and discuss some events of the poet's biography and postwar European history.
Information
See also
Vladimir Nabokov and the Fictions of Memory
Almost 40 years after Nabokov's death his texts continue to function as literary Fabergé eggs in which scholars keep finding hidden surprises and previously overlooked details. As Nabokov wrote in Conclusive Evidence, "the unravelling of a riddle is the purest and most basic act of the human mind." However, readers and critics are divided on the issue of whether Nabokov is a postmodern riddle-maker enjoying the game itself without enabling the player to reach the ultimate solution, or whether the riddles are solvable by a reader astute enough to follow all the sophisticated patterns and allusions which point to Nabokov's metaphysical convictions.
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Neobaroque and/in the Contemporary World
Famously associated with the strange attraction of the irregularly shaped pearl, the term ‘baroque’ eludes precise definitions and keeps engendering conflicting emotions in contemporary cultural discourses. The concept of the neobaroque not only inherits the polycentric semantics of baroque but poses additional problems due to the multiplicity of senses attached to the prefix neo. These circumstances find reflection in a concern about the variety of relationship between history, aesthetics and politics in available conceptualisations of the return of the baroque in (European, Western, global) Modernity, multiple shapes of the New World baroque, and variously conceived neobaroques only recently discovered and rehabilitated or presently arising as ways of interpreting possible futures of our planet. This staggering richness of ideas promises stimulating and very productive discussions.
Bednarczyk's Press and Feliks Topolski: Artists under Waterloo Arcades. Guided Tour
Welcome to a guided tour exploring the history of Polish art and emigration in the dynamic and vibrant context of London. This bilingual event is organised by the Research Centre on the Legacy of Polish Migration and Blue Point Art Gallery. We invite you to join us for a series of engaging conversations. Discover how the social responsibility of academic research, digital humanities and interdisciplinarity can enhance the contributions of the Polish community to London's cultural landscape.