Czesław Miłosz wobec/dla kultury
CZESŁAW MIŁOSZ TOWARDS/FOR CULTURE

Summary/Abstract: The author presents Miłosz as a poet and essayist, but above all as a writer who feels responsible for the sphere of Polish culture; engaged in promoting Polish writers abroad (through translating them into English) and creating a history of Polish literature for foreigners, which exerted an undoubted impact on the reception of Polish literature abroad. She also presents Miłosz as someone who was securing grants for Polish artists and scholars as well as translators of books addressed to the Polish reader. But also as an organiser of cultural projects, such as poetry evenings, his own meetings with readers and international projects, for example, the “Meetings of Poets” in Krakow, which he hosted. Miłosz as portrayed in this article is not only a writer involved in the promotion of literature, but also a chronicler of cultural events. The youthful period (1931–1939) was particularly rich in journalistic writings. The author focused on one event – the World Congress of Writers in Defence of Culture (Paris 1935), in which the poet took part and wrote an account of it (Na zjeździe antyfaszystów [At an anti-Fascist Convention ]). The poet’s opinion on the anti-Fascist congress becomes a pretext for asking the question about the role and meaning of cultural congresses.

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