Jan Skácel and Adam Zagajewski: The Czech and the Polish Poet on the Civilization and the Barbarians
Jan Skácel and Adam Zagajewski: The Czech and the Polish Poet on the Civilization and the Barbarians

Summary/Abstract: The article reflects on the striking discrepancy between the Western idea of the civilization of Eastern Europe and the way East European poets tend to understand themselves. Indeed, it shows on the examples of the poems by Adam Zagajewski (born in 1945) and Jan Skácel (1922-1989) that the identification with the classical Western civilization and culture is one of the major defining elements of the creation of these authors. The Antiquity and classical culture seem to represent for both poets a major aspect of their own bonding with the civilization of the West. The study focuses especially on their creation of the 1980s, last years of Skácel’s life and also the last years of the totalitarian regime in Eastern Europe when the East-West division was still a tangible, everyday reality and in Zagajewski’s case also on his texts written in the 1990s that very well reflect the post-communist transformation of the Eastern part of Europe and the new challenges it brings along.

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