Different Faces of Elegy in the Poetry of Adam Zagajewski Cover Image

Różne oblicza elegii w poezji Adama Zagajewskiego
Different Faces of Elegy in the Poetry of Adam Zagajewski

Author(s): Michał Fałtynowicz
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Review, General Reference Works, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku
Keywords: elegy; contemporary Polish poetry; memory; past; Adam Zagajewski

Summary/Abstract: The article analyses Adam Zagajewski’s poems that observe the elegiac convention. While summarizing the existing critical thought on the function of elegia in Zagajewski’s poetry, the author presents his own interpretations of selected works. He proves that the elegiac form, realised in Zagajewski’s work in many different ways, is not just an expression of the poet’s nostalgia for the past. By recalling past events, by remembering his deceased friends, and by maintaining the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, Zagajewskimakes the lyrical hero of his poems the guardian of the past. This remembrance must be allowed to influence the future.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 19
  • Page Range: 265-280
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish