Kontynenty. T. 1: Studia i szkice o twórczości Andrzeja Buszy
Kontynenty. Vol. 1: Studies and sketches on the work of Andrzej Busza
Contributor(s): Marian Kisiel (Editor), Janusz Pasterski (Editor)
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Kontynenty; Andrzej Busza;poet;
Summary/Abstract: The oeuvre of Andrzej Busza is undoubtedly among the most astonishing in Polish contemporary literature. What the foregoing largely stems from is the originality and singularity of his universal world vision, conspicuous poetic diction, and quite characteristic constellation of problems and issues, as well as Busza’s exceptional status as a bilingual writer, being in fact situated “in-between” at least two cultural traditions, but also his complex biography during which he has been meandering through the stage of an émigré, and then an emigrant. A poet, prose writer, translator, literary historian and critic, and a Joseph Conrad scholar – Busza remains one of the last, yet far from being the least, among the pro-independence representatives of Polish post-September 1939 emigration. Born in Kraków in 1938, he fled Poland with his parents on September 17 of the following year, spent the Second World War in the Middle East, to settle in England for the years 1947–1965 where he graduated from University College London with a degree in English. In 1965 he moved to Canada and took a tenure as a lecturer and then a professor of English literature at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. During the years 1958–1962 he was a member of editorial team of such London-based literary journals as Merkuriusz Polski – Życie Akademickie, Kontynenty – Nowy Merkuriusz, and Kontynenty, in addition to having been a member of the poetic group originating from those journals. He was awarded the following literary prizes: the Kościelski Award (1962), the Władysław and Nella Turzańscy Award (2005), and the Association of Polish Writers Abroad award (2013). Among others, he has published eight books of poetry, a dozen or so short stories, multiple translations of Polish poetry into English (in cooperation with Bogdan Czaykowski, including poems by Miron Białoszewski, Iwaszkiewicz, Jastrun, Miłosz, Wierzyński), and a monograph on the so-called Polish backdrop of Joseph Conrad and the seminal impact of the Polish literary tradition on Conrad, as well as many scholarly articles on the author of Heart of Darkness. […]
Series: Studia literackie
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-226-3500-1
- E-ISBN-10: 83-226-3500-1
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-226-3499-8
- Print-ISBN-10: 83-226-3499-8
- Page Count: 444
- Publication Year: 2019
- Language: English, Polish
Bibliografia twórczości Andrzeja Buszy, Noty o Autorach, Indeks nazw osobowych
Bibliografia twórczości Andrzeja Buszy, Noty o Autorach, Indeks nazw osobowych
(Bibliography of Andrzej Busza's works, Notes on authors, Index of personal names)
- Author(s):Not Specified Author
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies
- Page Range:409-438
- No. of Pages:40
Krótka autobiografia poetycka
Krótka autobiografia poetycka
(A Short Poetic Autobiography)
- Author(s):Andrzej Busza
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:17-26
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:autobiography; the Continents; emigration; Canada; Bogdan Czaykowski; Andrzej Busza;
- Summary/Abstract:Andrzej Busza begins his short poetic autobiography by reflecting on his qualifications to discuss his own poetry, when two dozen professional critics have assembled to examine various aspects of his work. He confesses that while he is endowed with imagination, abstract thinking is not his forte. Sociological and cultural aspects of the “Busza phenomenon” in the context of diasporic writing and in particular in relation to the so‑called Kontynenty (“Continents”) group have already been examined quite thoroughly and expertly. There is, however, something on which he can claim to be an expert: his own poetry. Stressing his various dualities (of which he has always been keenly aware): poet and academic, a fluent speaker of two languages, a homo duplex suspended between two identities and two cultures, Busza believes that he can offer some singular insights into his “case”. He proceeds to do this, first, by relating two occasions which could be said to have signaled the awakening of a poetic sensibility; then, he describes the beginnings of his writing, followed by a crucial encounter with a slightly older, more experienced poet, Bogdan Czaykowski, who became his first mentor; he concludes the account of his poetic apprenticeship by delineating the role of Zbigniew Herbert and Tymoteusz Karpowicz in his development. The next phase involved his move from England to Canada, where he joined Czaykowski, who had come there somewhat earlier. Together they embarked on several projects, translating modern Polish poetry into English. For Busza, the process in effect entailed the composition of poetic texts in English. Subsequently, he spent a year in France immersing himself in yet another language: French. On his return from Europe, he experienced a period of virtual (poetic) silence, and then started writing poetry in English, though in essence still intended for his implied Polish reader. Eventually, he found his readership in Poland largely as “a poet in translation”. The sketch ends on a question about the viability of Busza’s poetic practice. Is it just quixotic or somehow reverberant of the cultural and linguistic confusion of our time?
- Price: 4.50 €
Miejsca autobiograficzne Andrzeja Buszy
Miejsca autobiograficzne Andrzeja Buszy
(Andrzej Busza’s Autobiographical Places)
- Author(s):Jolanta Pasterska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:27-43
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:Andrzej Busza; autobiographical place; Kosow; London; Vancouver;
- Summary/Abstract:Andrzej Busza, expatriate writer, wanderer, and flaneur, creates his autobiographical place by drawing on a number of models, whose plurality corresponds to his nomadic life story and psychological make‑up. These topographic sites include such locations as Palestine, London, and Vancouver. Palestine as the first topographic site acquires the status of the primary space, to which the poet returns through the exercise of his own memory. Here, too, the process of self‑creation begins. Subsequent sites on Busza’s autobiographical map are shifted places. It is from their standpoint that the poet considers the possibility of taking root, of dwelling, as well as develops descriptions of “lost places”: Krakow, Kosow, even, in a sense, Palestine and London. These places also become a space for a dialogue between the present and the past. Finally, in the space of these shifted places one discerns “no‑places”, meeting points of identity and homelessness, which constitute the chief landmarks of Busza’s poetic topography.
- Price: 4.50 €
Czytając wiersze Andrzeja Buszy
Czytając wiersze Andrzeja Buszy
(Reading Andrzej Busza’s Poems)
- Author(s):Jacek Gutorow
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:45-56
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:Andrzej Busza; pastoral poems; modernism; intertextuality;
- Summary/Abstract:The essay begins by situating Andrzej Busza’s poetry in the context of a broadly understood Anglo‑Saxon modernist tradition, the stress being put on its multivocal, allusive and meditative qualities. One of Busza’s most characteristic literary gestures is his constant effort towards questioning traditional poetic forms, a Modernist device per se. Importantly, the essay focuses on the Polish poet’s ironic treatment of the pastoral mode. Busza’s anti‑pastoral sentiments are attributed to various influences, the most significant ones being the Manichean ontological pessimism and the Romantic concept of the split self with its inability to re‑integrate man and his world.
- Price: 4.50 €
Czytając angielskie wiersze Andrzeja Buszy
Czytając angielskie wiersze Andrzeja Buszy
(Reading Andrew Busza’s English Poems)
- Author(s):Ross Labrie
- Language:English, Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:57-72
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Andrzej Busza; English poetry; literary tradition;
- Summary/Abstract:Beginning on a personal note: how he enjoyed the friendship of both Andrew Busza and Bogdan Czaykowski for many years, Ross Labrie relates an occasion when Busza confessed to him some uneasiness about being a poet who is a cultural and linguistic hybrid. In response, Labrie suggested that being such a hybrid is probably the clearest indication of following a distinct path. Moreover, in his opinion, Busza’s English demonstrated a meticulous sensitivity to English idioms and rhythms, as well as a profound knowledge of the English literary tradition, acquired first as a student and then deepened as a teacher of literature. The focus of Labrie’s essay are poems by Busza in the volume Full Moon and Summer Solstice (Toronto, 2008), containing his own poems and those of Czaykowski in Polish and English versions. In addition to analyzing Busza’s poems, Labrie relates them to some major poetry movements in England and America. Like other twentieth‑century modernist poets, Busza is clearly indebted to William Carlos Williams and imagism. Although just as Wallace Stevens, he enriches the imagist technique to evoke deeper levels of perception, Busza does not share Stevens’ romanticism and implicit pantheism. Comparatively speaking, Busza’s poems are fundamentally rational. Though religious and metaphysical concerns are central to his work, unlike the romantics, he does not confer on the imagination mystical knowledge. He shares this restraint with the writings of such high modernists as Eliot and Pound. Busza also follows the practice of high modernists in their frequent recourse to symbol and allusion in an effort to enhance the authority of poetry. He is a poet steeped in the culture of Western civilization, though not attracted to the sophisticated mundanity of postmodernism and its ramifications (a stance some will deem quixotic), who has consistently taken the high ground.
- Price: 4.50 €
Znaki wodne… – astrologia i przemiana w poezji Andrzeja Buszy
Znaki wodne… – astrologia i przemiana w poezji Andrzeja Buszy
(Water Sings… – astrology and transformation in Andrew Busza’s poetry)
- Author(s):Brigitte Gautier
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:73-81
- No. of Pages:9
- Keywords:contemporary poetry; astrology; mountain; raven; emigration;
- Summary/Abstract:Travel and change impress their mark on Andrew Busza’s life, as well as Joseph Conrad’s, whom he chose as an object of research. Bearing that in mind, one might read Znaki wodne… [Water Signs…] as a poetical attempt to describe the influence of stars on man’s life, although they also appear as signs on water, a symbol of fleetingness. As a whole, the author’s first volume of poems testifies to the need of expressing himself in his native language and finding a shelter from the destructive power of history and alteration. Some literary Baroque echoes in his poetry are born from these diverse tensions.
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„Dym koloru ochry” Jerozolima Andrzeja Buszy
„Dym koloru ochry” Jerozolima Andrzeja Buszy
(„Umber smoke”. Andrzej Busza’s Jerusalem)
- Author(s):Beata Tarnowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:83-104
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:Jerusalem; Polish emigre literature; Andrzej Busza`s writings; comparative literature; terrorism in the Middle East;
- Summary/Abstract:The article „Umber smoke”. Andrzej Busza`s Jerusalem is an attempt to describe – in a comparative perspective – an episode in Busza`s biography and writings, namely his stay in Jerusalem during the World War II. This period, being a part of Busza`s early childhood, was a specific time in the history of Jerusalem, as escalation of the terrorist campaign was going on. The traumatic events that Busza witnessed, as well as his living in a multicultural environment, have become a source of his later ambivalent attitude towards life in general. On the one hand, the remaining sense of unrootedness, as well as “hidden catastrophism” can be observed. On the other – this attitude is also marked by openness and positive cosmopolitism. The same ambivalence is expressed in Busza`s works in which Jerusalem is both his own city and the alien and dangerous one.
- Price: 4.50 €
Po śladach Miłosza
Po śladach Miłosza
(In the Footsteps of Miłosz)
- Author(s):Aleksander Fiut
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies
- Page Range:105-117
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Czesław Miłosz; Andrzej Busza; Kontynenty; Elegia latem;
- Summary/Abstract:The article examines the affinities of Andrzej Busza’s poems with the poetry of Czesław Miłosz. The author argues that the personal contacts of the two poets, the familiarity of both of them with Anglo‑American writing, their translation work, and such features of their poetry as poetic and intellectual discipline, density of expression, authenticity and straightforwardness, as well as pervasiveness of acerbic irony – all point to the likelihood of traces of Miłosz’s impact on the poetry of the former member of the London‑based “Kontynenty” group. Other factors which cannot be ignored are parallels in their existential situation, especially, the experience of expatriation and similarities of poetic sensibility.
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„Przybyliśmy z Bogdanem na ten brzeg / szlakiem szalbierzy drwali lemingów” O dialogu poetyckim Andrzeja Buszy i Bogdana Czaykowskiego
„Przybyliśmy z Bogdanem na ten brzeg / szlakiem szalbierzy drwali lemingów” O dialogu poetyckim Andrzeja Buszy i Bogdana Czaykowskiego
(„Przybyliśmy z Bogdanem na ten brzeg / szlakiem szalbierzy drwali lemingów” On a poetic dialogue between Andrzej Busza and Bogdan Czaykowski)
- Author(s):Bożena Szałasta-Rogowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:121-136
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:Andrzej Busza; Bogdan Czaykowski; literary dialogue; Polish poetry in Canada; emigre literature;
- Summary/Abstract:The paper deals with the more than fifty‑year‑old friendship and the accompanying literary dialogue between Andrzej Busza and Bogdan Czaykowski. These two outstanding Polish poets first met in the fifties of the last century in London, England, in the milieu of the poetic group “Kontynenty”. Subsequently, both taught at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. What united them, above all, was a shared passion for literature: the main topic of their dialogue. The conversations of the two poets focused to a large extent on their poetry; but at the same time, they worked jointly on translations (mostly from Polish into English). They also published dialogues in which they discussed a variety of contemporary issues.
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W poszukiwaniu „złotego fotonu”, czyli o pożytkach z nauk ścisłych w poezji Andrzeja Buszy
W poszukiwaniu „złotego fotonu”, czyli o pożytkach z nauk ścisłych w poezji Andrzeja Buszy
(In search of “the golden photon”: scientific motifs in Andrzej Busza’s poetry)
- Author(s):Janusz Pasterski
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:137-151
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Andrzej Busza; emigration; poetry; science;
- Summary/Abstract:The paper explores the role of scientific motifs in the poetry of Andrzej Busza. Scientific subject matter, which does not occur too frequently in contemporary lyric poetry, has been present in Busza’s work since his first volume Znaki Wodne… (1969), but it has become more prevalent in recent volumes. Busza’s reflective and cerebral poetry tends towards generalization and synthesis. Less concerned with the mundane and transient vibrations of sensation and feeling, it gravitates towards symbolic formulations and favours sparing imagery and the compression of metaphor. These are tendencies that one associates with scientific thought and perspective on the world, rational, universalizing, resorting to metaphor and analogy. Focusing on poems which refer to quantum mechanics and astronomy, the author discusses the artistic and cognitive aspects of these allusions. He concludes that they are related to the poet’s essentially rationalist, scientific worldview.
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Obraz i obrazowanie w poezji Andrzeja Buszy
Obraz i obrazowanie w poezji Andrzeja Buszy
(Imagery in the Poetry of Andrzej Busza)
- Author(s):Justyna Budzik
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:153-166
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:sequential imagination; images‑signs; diaeresis; ellipsis; transgressions;
- Summary/Abstract:The paper examines the nature and function of images in Andrzej Busza’s poetry. Budzik is above all interested in the film image, exploring it both as a medium of expression and a source of inspiration. She considers the issue to what extent actual film techniques can be identified in Busza’s poetic texts. She constructs her argument by analyzing several poems, including Powrot Hamleta (Hamlet Returns), Łazarz (Lazarus) and Tajni Agenci (The Secret Agents), in which cinematic techniques are especially evident. One filmmaker, whose method of creating his “world” seems to appeal to Busza is Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Budzik refers to some of Pasolini’s ideas on the “cinema of poetry”. She further argues that the manner in which Busza structures his imagery is also indebted to painting; for example, the work of such artists as Rene Magritte and Edvard Munch.
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Mikrokosmologia: O poetyckiej wyobraźni Andrzeja Buszy
Mikrokosmologia: O poetyckiej wyobraźni Andrzeja Buszy
(Microcosmology: The Poetic Imagination of Andrzej Busza)
- Author(s):Ewa Bartos
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:171-190
- No. of Pages:20
- Keywords:imagination; mythology; cosmology; physics; stars;
- Summary/Abstract:The aim of the article is to describe the nature of poetic imagination in Andrzej Busza’s work. Ewa Bartos begins by referring to Busza’s “Notes Towards a Poetic Credo”, a series of aphoristic statements, written in the late sixties, which coincided with the virtual end of the poet’s so‑called Polish phase. Among Busza’s tenets are links between life and poetry through the poet’s mythopoeic activity, poetry’s heuristic function, and the therapeutic effect of poetic order on the poet’s inner and outer sense of disquiet and chaos, in part a consequence of his fragmented life and cultural dislocation. Bartos then proceeds to develop the various themes by means of a detailed contextual reading of a number of poems. Thus, the poem “Mikrokosmologia” serves to illustrate the role of art, culture and mythology in the structure of Busza’s poetic world. Science appears in Busza’s world in the form of astronomical and cosmological imagery; while poems such as “Niepewność” (Uncertainty) and “Trzeci Testament” (The Third Testament) interweave religious metaphysical thought and ideas relating to quantum physics. Created from a panoply of images, allusions, and symbols, the world of Andrzej Busza’s poetic imagination seeks to convey the complexness of both the micro‑ and the macro‑cosmos.
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Kolory (w) poezji Andrzeja Buszy
Kolory (w) poezji Andrzeja Buszy
(Colours (in) Andrzej Busza’s Poetry)
- Author(s):Jan Wolski
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:191-200
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:colour; motif; symbol; colour code; continentals;
- Summary/Abstract:Colour imagery plays a significant role in Andrzej Busza’s poetry. This article is devoted to an examination of the semantic function and configuration of colour images in the poetry of Andrzej Busza. The author catalogues the most frequently recurring colours and colour combinations in these poems, describes their various contexts and thus denotes the way in which the poet uses colour. According to Wolski, colour in Busza’s poetry constitutes that element of description which aims at particularizing what is being represented, directs interpretation and enhances symbolic expression. The poems in which colour imagery is especially foregrounded recall impressionistic landscapes and prompt the reader to examine more closely the topography of the poem and the world that it reveals.
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Odwołania do literatury i kultury francuskiej w poezji Andrzeja Buszy
Odwołania do literatury i kultury francuskiej w poezji Andrzeja Buszy
(The References to French Literature and Culture in Andrzej Busza’s poetry)
- Author(s):Justyna Zych
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:201-208
- No. of Pages:8
- Keywords:French culture; references; inspiration; art; tradition;
- Summary/Abstract:Although English literature and culture are (in parallel with Polish) the most important influences on Andrzej Busza’s writing, the French tradition is also a discernible presence in his work. The author demonstrates the variety of ways in which the French ingredient manifests itself in Busza’s poetry: from citations in French and allusions to specific literary texts, to references to French painting and the impact of the symbolist esthetic on his poetic practice.
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Andrzeja Buszy „podróż do kresu nocy”
Andrzeja Buszy „podróż do kresu nocy”
(Andrzej Busza’s “Journey to the End of Night”)
- Author(s):Stanisław Dłuski
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:209-218
- No. of Pages:10
- Keywords:existentialism; catastrophism; tragedy; heroism; faith;
- Summary/Abstract:Unlike many Polish poets of the mid‑twentieth century, Andrzej Busza largely eschews themes of war and patriotic sacrifice. His concerns are universal in scope. He offers an insightful, if catastrophic, diagnosis of contemporary civilization. Dłuski writes that the title of his paper “Journey to the End of Night” not only alludes to Celine’s famous novel but also implies cognitive and moral striving, indeed a heroic endeavor to find meaning in life. As Janusz Pasterski has argued, the tragic dimension of this enterprise resides in the fact that Busza painfully feels the absurdity of history, the homelessness of the cosmos, the lack of any kind of bearings in universal emptiness. His poetry is imbued at every level with this eschatologically pessimistic vision. The only antidote to this deeply nihilistic and catastrophic (i.e. full of menace) worldview is the act of writing. The poet defends himself against the horror of meaninglessness by adopting an ironic stance towards the world, life, and even himself. Frequently, the feeling of despair is mitigated by an elegiac tone, and the sense of the absurd collides with cognitive and axiological need and a yearning to create order out of chaos. In the final analysis, however, the poet seems to be on the side of hope, believing that in spite of everything there is always a new dawn at “the end of night.” The struggle to overcome nihilistic despair is itself the beginning of hope.
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O poemacie Kohelet Andrzeja Buszy
O poemacie Kohelet Andrzeja Buszy
(On Andrzej Busza’s poem Kohelet)
- Author(s):Wiesław Setlak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:219-237
- No. of Pages:21
- Keywords:Andrzej Busza; Kohelet; codes of transcendence; culture; metaphisics of presence;
- Summary/Abstract:Although ostensibly Busza’s poem Kohelet is a polemic with Czesław Miłosz’s Traktat Poetycki (A Treatise on Poetry), it is above all an existential reflection on the situation of the artist in culture, on tradition, and even more generally on the modern human condition. At the philosophical level, the anthropological perspective dominates. According to Setlak, Busza views culture as an omnitemporal domain and tries to enter into dialogue with its various historical manifestations. The poet’s main frame of reference is the pessimism as well as stoicism of the biblical Book of Kohelet and of its author. If for the poet the human being seems a necessity, God is something he can only assume by trying to decode the “ciphers” of transcendence (in Karl Jaspers words). We can view Kohelet in terms of a “metaphysics of presence”, though it is difficult to find in it any metaphysical statements declared expressis verbis. Andrzej Busza craves to revitalize poetry in our increasingly dehumanized world and to restore to humanity its innate multi‑dimensionality. The polyphonic poem is a projection of the state of mind of an artist unable to absolutize what he knows is not absolute. That is the underlying source of the melancholy emerging from the verses of this poem
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Karły. O wierszu Andrzeja Buszy
Karły. O wierszu Andrzeja Buszy
(Andrzej Busza’s poem Karły [Dwarfs])
- Author(s):Marian Kisiel
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:241-254
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:Karły; dwarf; giant; symbol; imagination;
- Summary/Abstract:The paper offers a contextual and critical reading of Busza’s poem. The author begins with a survey of the “dwarf” topos in Polish poetic tradition, underscoring the motif’s semantic rather than ontological essence, based upon the binary opposition with the connotations of the concept of “giant”. Kisiel then questions the degree to which the “dwarf” image in Busza’s poem belongs to the Polish tradition, in that it does not function allegorically (which is the case in most of the Polish texts he cites) but instead partakes of the irrational imaginary of such poetic traditions as symbolism or surrealism. The critic then relates the poem intertextually to two modernist works with a similar apocalyptic theme: Alexander Blok’s Scythians and Cavafy’s Waiting for the Barbarians. Like Blok’s and Cavafy’s poems, Busza’s Dwarfs is a powerful poetic reflection on the theme of the crisis of Western culture and civilization.
- Price: 4.50 €
O pisaniu wierszy z ironicznym uśmiechem: O groźbie wszechpolucji atramentem i Niedziela w supermarkecie
O pisaniu wierszy z ironicznym uśmiechem: O groźbie wszechpolucji atramentem i Niedziela w supermarkecie
(Poems written with a Snicker: O groźbie wszechpolucji atramentem and Niedziela w supermarkecie)
- Author(s):Grażyna Maroszczuk
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:255-270
- No. of Pages:16
- Keywords:the supermarket metaphor; experience; consumerism; studies on objects; identity;
- Summary/Abstract:the supermarket metaphor; experience; consumerism; studies on objects; identity;The paper discusses two of Andrzej Busza’s poems: O groźbie wszechpolucji atramentem and Niedziela w supermarkecie. Both poems reflect critically on the crises of contemporary civilization and the consequences in the cultural, existential and intellectual spheres, and give them an ironic and humorous spin. The attitude of the poems is detached, objective and ambiguous. The juxtaposition of the social imaginaries of modernity (the culture of the supermarket, the painful sense of acceleration, proteophilia [Bauman], the feeling of being lost in the world of consumerism) with timeless values (tradition of culture) underlies Busza’s irony, and underscores his sensitivity and ethical concern for the modern human condition.
- Price: 4.50 €
Hałda w Aberfan: O wierszu Mała Apokalipsa Andrzeja Buszy
Hałda w Aberfan: O wierszu Mała Apokalipsa Andrzeja Buszy
(Slag Heap in Aberfan: Andrzej Busza’s poem Mała Apokalipsa)
- Author(s):Katarzyna Niesporek-Klanowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:271-283
- No. of Pages:13
- Keywords:heap; Mała Apokalipsa; catastrophe; Wales; black hill;
- Summary/Abstract:The paper offers a contextual close reading of Andrzej Busza’s poem Mała Apokalipsa (Small Apocalypse), which appeared in the volume Znaki wodne… published in 1969. The poem was written after the tragic collapse of the slag heap in Aberfan in South Wales on September 21, 1966.What brought death and destruction to the small Welsh village was, ironically, one of its most familiar features: a towering colliery spoil tip, matter tamed and domesticated, the work of human hands; the daily companion of the villagers, witness to their humdrum life of drudgery and toil. Raised over many years, it slid downhill in a moment.
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Słowa, które bolą – Andrzej Busza Elegia dla Wili
Słowa, które bolą – Andrzej Busza Elegia dla Wili
(The Ache of Words: Andrzej Busza’s Elegia dla Wili)
- Author(s):Alicja Jakubowska‑Ożóg
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:285-299
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:elegy; genre pattern; context; archetype; imagery;
- Summary/Abstract:The paper discusses Andrzej Busza’s poem Elegia dla Wili dedicated to his dead wife, Wilhelmina. It appeared in the literary magazine “Fraza” in two translations into Polish: one by Beata Tarnowska, the other by Jacek Gutorow. The form, affective issues, as well as the stylistic differences between the two translations are considered. The link between the creative process and emotion, clearly manifested in Busza’s text, not only constitutes the substance of the poem but also determines its mode of expression. This topic, too, receives attention in the analysis.
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Pod znakiem Skorpiona – O prozie Andrzeja Buszy
Pod znakiem Skorpiona – O prozie Andrzeja Buszy
(Under the Sign of Scorpio – Andrzej Busza’s Prose)
- Author(s):Magdalena Rabizo-Birek
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:301-336
- No. of Pages:39
- Keywords:Kontynenty; Polish literaure in the world; bilingual authors; Middle East; Conradian inspirations;
- Summary/Abstract:The article is devoted to the less prolific and so far less well‑known area of Busza’s work: his prose fiction. The author outlines the circumstances of the writing of the stories, discusses their themes and autobiographical contexts, as well as considers their genre and stylistic features. She singles out the prevalence of the realistic mode, occasionally supplemented by grotesque and absurdist elements; the presence of biblical and Middle Eastern motifs; echoes of Conrad and Said; striving for brevity and succinctness; and a predilection for metaphoric and parabolic narrative tropes.
- Price: 4.50 €
(Nie)odwracalnie pusty los? O Święcie szpitalnym Andrzeja Buszy
(Nie)odwracalnie pusty los? O Święcie szpitalnym Andrzeja Buszy
(An (Ir)redeemably Empty Lot: Andrzej Busza’s about Święto szpitalne)
- Author(s):Agnieszka Nęcka
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:341-351
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:hospital; totalitarism; illness; absurdity; Kafka;
- Summary/Abstract:The subject of the article is Andrzej Busza’s Kafkaesque story, about Święto szpitalne. It describes the conflict of the individual with an anonymous system, the absurdity of existence, the sense of menace and uncertainty, as well as a situation which disturbs the established order and everyday monotony. The protagonist and narrator is Andrzej Busza, a conscientious male nurse, who becomes sick and tired of his occupation and increasingly critical of the authoritarian hospital system. Like Susan Sontag, Busza seems to treat illness as a polysemous metaphor. Incarcerated in an inhumane system and surrounded by callous indifference to suffering, the protagonist rebels hysterically and pointlessly. Nęcka relates the story to some of the pervasive themes of Busza’s writing: pessimism, sense of alienation, inability to cope with inner division.
- Price: 4.50 €
Starożytni akademicy, czyli Trzej mędrcy Andrzeja Buszy
Starożytni akademicy, czyli Trzej mędrcy Andrzeja Buszy
(Ancient academics, or Trzej mędrcy by Andrzej Busza)
- Author(s):Justyna Fruzińska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:353-360
- No. of Pages:8
- Keywords:Andrzej Busza; Three Wise Men; Campus novel; the Bible; Middle East;
- Summary/Abstract:This text is an attempt to analyze Andrzej Busza’s short story Trzej mędrcy through the prism of a campus novel. In this story, Busza takes up the well‑known motif of the Biblical Three Kings, but presents them as participants in an ancient scientific conference. The article demonstrates how Busza creates a specific kind of “campus story”, as well as how, thanks to a historical mask, he presents the contemporary academic world. Interestingly, the contemporary language characteristic of university life is blended in the story with historical realities that clearly evoke the ancient Middle East. Another interesting issue is the use of the theme of Jesus’ death, shown here as the background to the story of the Three Kings rather than the main theme, which reverses the traditionally accepted hierarchy of events.
- Price: 4.50 €
Conrad Andrzeja Buszy
Conrad Andrzeja Buszy
(Andrzej Busza’s Conrad)
- Author(s):Joanna Skolik
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:361-369
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:Andrzej Busza; Joseph Conrad; Conradian studies; literary tradition; heritage;
- Summary/Abstract:The article presents Professor Andrzej Busza, a Conradian researcher, who is connected with the subject of his research, Joseph Conrad, by common experiences of alienation and growing into a different culture, life on the border of different worlds. Busza presents Conrad’s Polish heritage and its later influence on the writer’s work. Busza writes about Conrad’s deep pessimism, which links the writer with contemporary Poles, as well as about Conrad’s popularity during the war and occupation, when “fidelity becomes the greatest of virtues, and betrayal – the greatest crime”. Busza also speaks of Conrad’s attitude to Flaubert and Dostoyevsky, which, being full of paradoxes and contradictions, reflects his complex relations with the East and West, as well as with Polish cultural and historical duality. Busza’ Conrad is a committed writer, but at the same time a writer rooted in the tradition of European literature and culture.
- Price: 4.50 €
Andrzej Busza’s Contribution to Conrad Scholarship/ Zasługi Andrzeja Buszy dla conradystyki
Andrzej Busza’s Contribution to Conrad Scholarship/ Zasługi Andrzeja Buszy dla conradystyki
(Andrzej Busza’s Contribution to Conrad Scholarship)
- Author(s):John G. Peters
- Language:English, Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:373-379
- No. of Pages:6
- Keywords:Andrzej Busza; Conradian studies; Polish contexts;
- Summary/Abstract:In the short, concise paper, the author considers Andrzej Busza’s contribution to the study of Conrad. He stresses the significance of Busza’s monograph Conrad’s Polish Literary Background and Some Illustrations of the Influence of Polish Literature on His Work, published in 1966. While early commentators, such as Gustav Morf, noted the impact of Conrad’s Polish heritage on his writing, Busza’s book offered the English‑speaking community of Conrad scholars a systematic account of the influence of Polish literature on his work together with convincing evidence and arguments concerning how Conrad worked from Polish literary sources. In later essays, Busza extended the Polish influence beyond literature, situating Conrad’s experience in Poland (and subsequently his writing) within contemporaneous Polish history. Along with his studies into Conrad’s Polish background and the influence of Polish literature, Busza commented on the broader European context of Conrad’s work, relating it to, among others, Dostoevsky and Flaubert.
- Price: 4.50 €
Jak z Andrzejem wiersze tłumaczę
Jak z Andrzejem wiersze tłumaczę
(How I Translate Poetry with Andrzej)
- Author(s):Roman Sabo
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:381-397
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:Andrzej Busza; translations; Niepewność; Elegia dla Wili;
- Price: 4.50 €
Notatki do credo poetyckiego / Notes towards a Poetic credo
Notatki do credo poetyckiego / Notes towards a Poetic credo
(Notes towards a Poetic credo)
- Author(s):Andrzej Busza
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Polish Literature
- Page Range:401-407
- No. of Pages:7
- Keywords:Notes towards a Poetic credo; Andrzej Busza`s writings;
- Summary/Abstract:I do not write poems in accordance with a theory – I construct theories post factum to fit my practice. However, I suspect that once I have become aware of certain tendencies in my work and have formulated them theoretically, they begin to exert an influence on my writing. My approach, then, is fundamentally empirical.
- Price: 4.50 €
