KAFKAESQUE ATMOSPHERE IN VASKO POPA’S BARK Cover Image

КАФКИЈАНСКА АТМОСФЕРА У КО­РИ ВАСКА ПОПЕ
KAFKAESQUE ATMOSPHERE IN VASKO POPA’S BARK

Author(s): Katarina N. Pantović
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Serbian Literature
Published by: Матица српска
Keywords: Vasko Popa; Franz Kafka; Atmospheric Studies; grotesque; Typological Analogies

Summary/Abstract: In this paper we analyse different aspects that participate in shaping the specific atmosphere (Schmitz, Böhme) in poetry of Vasko Popa, especially in his first poetry collection Bark (1953) which we recognize as kafkaesque, after the writer Franz Kafka. This comparison, which is methodically founded in theory of typological analogies (Zhirmunsky, Guillen) aims to prove that the emerging sense of danger, which creates the eerie atmosphere especially in cycles “Besieged Serenity” and “Landscapes”, shares roots with the atmosphere in Kafka’s known prose works, such as in the novel The Trial or stories “The Judgment” and “The Metamorphosis”. In Kafka’s oeuvre it is materialised in slightly more subtle signals, whereas in Popa’s early poetry it is presented in intense, sugestive poetic images in which the world is quite directly and animalistically crashing down onto the lyrical subject.

  • Issue Year: 73/2025
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 713-727
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Serbian
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