The Possibilities of Plant Vocalization: Attila József’s “Trees” [Fák] and Lőrinc Szabó’s “In the Black Forest” [A Fekete Erdőben] Cover Image

The Possibilities of Plant Vocalization: Attila József’s “Trees” [Fák] and Lőrinc Szabó’s “In the Black Forest” [A Fekete Erdőben]
The Possibilities of Plant Vocalization: Attila József’s “Trees” [Fák] and Lőrinc Szabó’s “In the Black Forest” [A Fekete Erdőben]

Author(s): Anna Enikő Ágoston
Subject(s): Hungarian Literature
Published by: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem
Keywords: modern poetry; metapoetics; biopoetics; plant vocalization; Lőrinc Szabó; Attila József; Percy Shelley; Charles Baudelaire; George Meredith

Summary/Abstract: The poetic possibilities of plant vocalization take new directions in the poetry of Lőrinc Szabó and Attila József, feeding on the traditions of romantic and modern poetry, but also renewing them, as we see in the translations and reading methods. They come into contact with the poems of Percy Shelley, Charles Baudelaire, and George Meredith. The study focuses on two poems: Attila József’s “Trees” [Fák] and Lőrinc Szabó’s “In the Black Forest” [A Fekete Erdőben] contextualized with other poems in the oeuvre, the antecedents of the poetic forms, and the comparative influences. In the case of “Trees”, plant thinking and biological operations are paralleled, creating the sound effects of the poem together; in the poem “In the Black Forest”, the equivalence of human and plant life is emphasized through sensual-poetic communication.

  • Issue Year: 3/2023
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 89-115
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: English
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