Básník jako oběť, svědek i žalobce
The poet as victim, witness and prosecutor

Counter-history in the poetic work of Ivan Diviš: My eyes had to see (1987–1989)

Summary/Abstract: Ivan Diviš’s My Eyes Must See (1987–1989) can be considered one of the finest poetic creations and performances of Czech poetry at the end of the 20th century. Its powerful effect lies in the fact that it combines poetic testimony, (auto)biographical intimacy, a suprapersonal, generally applicable message and a reflection on universal history and the modern Czech history of the last century in both fiction and fact. It is as if the identity of the poet is actually determined by the testimony: the poet is the one who sees, must see, and bear witness to what he sees. In Diviš's work, this witness has the character of a dramatic testimony, where the position of the poetic self overlaps in several places with the role of characters from ancient tragedy. Diviš’s work is at the same time a remarkable example of how poetic language can lend certain events their historicity, but also that poetic texts are not just about conveying historical “knowledge” or “knowing”, but about conveying an experience of history and at the same time a critique of historical existence and historicism.

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