Stanisław Barańczak as a critic of language. On two essays from Poetry and Spirit of Generalisation Cover Image

Stanisław Barańczak jako krytyk języka. Wokół dwóch esejów z tomu Poezja i duch Uogólnienia
Stanisław Barańczak as a critic of language. On two essays from Poetry and Spirit of Generalisation

Author(s): Hanna Trubicka
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Poetry, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: S. Barańczak; theory of poetry; essay; language criticism;

Summary/Abstract: The articles derives from a conviction that the later essays writing of Stanisław Barańczak in one of its important aspects is a criticism of the morally destructive features of the language. His theory of poetry as a particular kind of speech – directed to the concrete, multimeaning, always individual – is a simple consequence of a conviction abot what should be the language in general results from the deeply ethical objection to the generality, exaggerated abstractness, one-sidedness of an opinion. Manifestations of such “a laying the language in charge”, to use Barańczak’s own words, I can be found mostly in his two late essays titled Człowiek, Który Za Dużo Wie [The Man Who Knows Too Much] and Poezja i duch Uogólnienia [Poetry and the Spirit of Generalisation]. In their rhetoric I am looking for the supplement of his relation to language.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 16
  • Page Range: 133-156
  • Page Count: 24
  • Language: Polish