Poetry in Exile : Czech Poets During the Cold War and the Western Poetic Tradition

Hrdlicka, Josef; Pinkava, Václav Z. J. (TRN); Sweney, Matthew (TRN)

ISBN 10: 8024646579 / ISBN 13: 9788024646572

Published by Karolinum Press, Charles University, 2021

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Poetry in Exile : Czech Poets During the Cold War and the Western Poetic Tradition
• Publisher: Karolinum Press, Charles University
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8024646579
• ISBN 13: 9788024646572
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

In this comparative tour de force, Josef Hrdlička--one of the Czech Republic’s foremost experts on lyric poetry--examines the impact of exile, literal or spiritual, on poetry. Hrdlička argues that exile serves to disrupt the fundamental elements of poetry, especially its linguistic and cultural framework. Beginning with an examination of exile as a cultural phenomenon in the Western tradition, Hrdlička follows its complex history and treatment by poets from Solon to Celan. Focusing on the specific poetics of exile, he identifies Ovid’s elegies as an early model of exile in poetics before tracing the metamorphosis of exile as a concept through the modern age and the very Baudelarian idea that a person can be metaphorically exiled by the act of daily living itself. The core of Poetry in Exile, however, hews closer to Hrdlička’s homeland, homing in on the postwar poetry of Czech exiles. Poets such as Ivan Blatnŭ, Milada Součková, Ivan Diviš, and Petr Král are investigated as examples to test the theoretical questions raised in the first part of the book and discover the answers that their individual poems provide.

About the Authors

Josef Hrdlička is associate professor of Czech and comparative literature at Charles University, Prague.

Václav Z. J. Pinkava is a Czech-British poet and translator.