Herbert’s Postcolonial Antiquity and Defensive Nationalism

  • Dirk Uffelmann Justus Liebig University Giessen
Słowa kluczowe: Zbigniew Herbert; poetry; antiquity; Polish People’s Republic; postcolonialism; nationalism; internal colonization

Abstrakt

The Polish version of this article was published in Roczniki Humanistyczne vol. 65, issue 1 (2017).

This paper proposes a postcolonial reading of antiquity motifs from Zbigniew Herbert’s po-ems from the times of socialism. References to ancient history, mythology, and biblical allusions are interpreted as allegories of the political culture in the Polish People’s Republic. While in his poems written between 1956 and 1990 Herbert depicts communism as an attempt at Russian colonization of Poland, in seminal texts the focus lies mainly on the internal effects for the Polish colonized mind.

Linking communist Moscow to ancient Rome, Herbert accomplishes a peculiar anti-imperial translatio imperii. It is this trans-chronic perspective of Herbert’s poems which allows for rounding off the paper with connecting Herbert’s anti-imperial attitude with defensive nationalism and proposing recent right-wing tendencies in the Polish appropriation of post-colonial theory (Ewa Thompson et al.) as a heuristic model for understanding Herbert’s civil position during communism.

Bibliografia

Adamiec, Marek. “Pomnik trochę niezupełny…” Rzecz o apokryfach i poezji Zbigniewa Herberta („A Monument a Little Incomplete…”: On Apocrypha and Zbigniew Herbert’s Poetry. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, 1996.

Artwińska, Anna. “Kompleks polski. Krytyka postkolonialna a PRL” (The Polish Syndrome: Postcolonial Critique and the Polish People’s Republic). In Opowiedzieć PRL (To Tell About the PRL), ed. Katarzyna Chmielewska, Grzegorz Wołowiec, 33–48. Warszawa: IBN, 2011.

Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London: Routledge, 1989.

Bainczyk-Crescentini, Marlene. “Mythos und Gegenwart. Die ‘Ilias’ im lyrischen Werk Zbigniew Herberts” (Myth and Present Age: The ‘Iliad’ in the Poetical Work of Zbigniew Herbert). In Slavische Identitäten. Paradigmen, Poetiken, Perspektiven (Slavic Identities: Paradigms, Poetics, and Perspectives), ed. Gernot Howanitz, Christian Kampkötter, Heinrich Kirschbaum, 113–125. Munich–Berlin–Washington, D. C.: Sagner, 2014.

Barańczak, Stanisław. Uciekinier z utopii. O poezji Zbigniewa Herberta (A Fugitive from Utopia: The Poetry of Zbigniew Herbert). London: Polonia, 1984.

Bigaj, Jan. “Za przesłaniem Herberta nie pójdę” (I Will Not Follow Herbert’s Legacy). In Herbert. Poetyka, wartości i konteksty (Herbert: Poetics, Values, and Contexts), ed. Eugeniusz Czaplejewicz, Witold Sadowski, 165–172. Warszawa: DiG, 2002.

Buchowski, Michał. “The Specter of Orientalism in Europe: From Exotic Other to Stigmatized Brother.” Anthropological Quarterly 79, nr 3 (2006): 463–482.

Domańska, Ewa. “Obrazy PRL w perspektywie postkolonialnej. Studium przypadku” (Depictions of the Polish People’s Republic from a Postcolonial Perspective: A Case Study). In Obrazy PRL. O konceptualizacji realnego socjalizmu w Polsce (Pictures of the Polish People’s Republic: On the Conceptualization of Real Socialism in Poland), ed. Krzysztof Brzechczyn, 167–187. Poznań: IPN, 2008.

Etkind, Alexander. Internal Colonization: Russia’s Imperial Experience. Cambridge: Polity, 2011.

Fik, Marta. Kultura polska po Jałcie. Kronika lat 1944–1981 (Polish Culture After Yalta: A Chronicle of the Years 1944–1981). London: Polonia Book Fund, 1989.

Habermas, Jürgen. Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns (The Theory of Communicative Action), vol. II, Zur Kritik der funktionalistischen Vernunft (A Critique of Functionalist Reason). Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, 1995.

Hechter, Michael. Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development, 1536–1966. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975.

Herbert, Zbigniew. Poezje / Gedichte, ed. Karl Dedecius. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2007.

Herbert, Zbigniew. Poezje wybrane / Selected Poems, trans. John and Bogdana Carpenter, Czesław Miłosz, and Peter Dale Scott. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1999.

Herbert, Zbigniew. Raport z oblężonego miasta. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, 1995.

Herbert, Zbigniew. Struna światła. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, 1994.

Herbert, Zbigniew. Studium przedmiotu. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Dolnośląskie, 1997.

Herbert, Zbigniew. The Collected Poems 1956–1998, ed. Alissa Valles. New York: Ecco, 2007.

Herbert, Zbigniew. Wiersze zebrane (Collected Poems), ed. Ryszard Krynicki. Kraków: Wydawnictwo A5, 2008.

Herlth, Jens. “Wer sind Herberts Barbaren?“ (Who Are Herbert’s Barbarians?). In Herr Cogito im Garten. Zbigniew Herbert (Mr Cogito in the Garden: Zbigniew Herbert), ed. Andreas Lawaty, Piotr Przybyła, Marek Zybura, 135–151. Osnabrück: Fibre, 2018.

Hingley, Richard. “Post-Colonial and Global Rome: The Genealogy of Empire.” In Globalisation and the Roman World: World History, Connectivity and Material Culture, ed. Martin Pitts, Miguel J. Versluys, 32–46. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Jakobson, Roman. “Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry.” In Selected Writings, vol. III, 87–97. Den Haag, Paris: De Gruyter, 1980.

Jakobson, Roman. “Poezija grammatiki i grammatika poezii” (Poetry of Grammar and Grammar of Poetry). In Selected Writings, vol. III, 63–86. Den Haag, Paryż: De Gruyter, 1980.

Janion, Maria. Niesamowita słowiańszczyzna (The Uncanny Slavdom). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2007.

Kaliszewski, Andrzej. Gry Pana Cogito (Mr. Cogito’s Games). Łódź: Wydawnictwo Łódzkie, 1990.

Kornhauser, Julian. “Herbert: z odległej prowincji” (Herbert: From Faraway Provinces). In Kornhauser, Julian, Adam Zagajewski. Świat nie przedstawiony (The Unrepresented World), 100–109. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1974.

Kowalczyk, Andrzej. “Złote runo nicości” (The Golden Fleece of Nothingness). Tygodnik Powszechny 11 (1983): 4.

Kwiatkowski, Jerzy. “Polski archetyp oblężenia. Historia—Sienkiewicz—Mrożek—Herbert” (The Polish Archetype of Siege: History—Sienkiewicz—Mrożek—Herbert). In Magia poezji (O poetach polskich XX wieku) (The Magic of Poetry: Polish Poets of the 20th Century), 391–405. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1995.

Lachmann, Piotr. Wywołane z pamięci (Retrieved from Memory). Olsztyn: Borussia 1999.

Łukasiewicz, Jacek. Poezja Zbigniewa Herberta (Zbigniew Herbert’s Poetry). Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne, 1995.

Mattingly, David J. Imperialism, Power, and Identity: Experiencing the Roman Empire. Princeton (NJ), Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Michnik, Adam. “Potęga smaku” (The Power of Taste). In Z dziejów honoru w Polsce (A History of Honor in Poland), 199–280. Paris: Institut Littéraire, 1985.

Mikołajczak, Małgorzata. “Między mimikrą a rebelią. Pejzaż (post)kolonialny regionalnej literatury” (Between Mimicry and Rebellion: The (Post-)Colonial Landscape of Regional Literature). Teksty Drugie nr 5 (2015): 283–305.

Prokop, Jan. “Raport z oblężonego Miasta po dwudziestu latach” (Report from a Besieged City Twenty Years Later). In Herbert i znaki czasu. Colloquia Herbertiana (I) (Herbert and the Signs of the Time: Colloquia Herbertiana [I]), ed. Elżbieta Feliksiak, Mariusz Leś, Elżbieta Sidoruk, 191–200. Białystok: Towarzystwo Literackie im. A. Mickiewicza Oddział Białostocki, 2001.

Przybylski, Ryszard. “Między cierpieniem a formą” (Between Suffering and Form). In To jest klasycyzm (This Is Classicism), 124–175. Warszawa: Czytelnik, 1978.

Roman Imperialism: Post-Colonial Perspectives. Proceedings of a Symposium Held at Leicester University in November 1994, ed. Jane Webster, Nicholas J. Cooper. Leicester: School of Archaeological Studies, University of Leicester, 1996.

Schmid, Ulrich. “Nach dem Kommunismus. Herberts politische Interventionen in der Dritten Republik” (After Communism: Herbert’s Political Interventions in the Third Republic). In Herr Cogito im Garten. Zbigniew Herbert (Mr Cogito in the Garden: Zbigniew Herbert), ed. Andreas Lawaty, Piotr Przybyła, Marek Zybura, 191–200. Osnabrück: Fibre, 2018.

Skórczewski, Dariusz. Teoria—literatura—dyskurs. Pejzaż postkolonialny (Theory—Literature—Discourse: The Postcolonial Landscape). Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL, 2013.

Terrenato, Nicola. “The Deceptive Archetype: Roman Colonialism in Italy and Postcolonial Thought.” In Ancient Colonizations: Analogy, Similarity and Difference, ed. Henry Hurst, Sara Owen, 59–72. Londyn: Duckworth, 2005.

Thompson, Ewa. “A jednak kolonializm. Uwagi epistemologiczne” (It Is Colonialism After All: Some Epistemological Remarks). Teksty Drugie nr 6 (2011): 289–301.

Thompson, Ewa. “Nationalism, Imperialism, Identity: Second Thoughts.” Modern Age 40, nr 3 (1998): 250–261.

Trocha, Bogdan. “Mythopoeiczne aspekty liryki Zbigniewa Herberta” (Mythopoeic Aspects of Zbigniew Herbert’s Poetry). In Pojęcia kiełkujące z rzeczy. Filozoficzne inspiracje twórczości Zbigniewa Herberta (Notions Germinating from Things: The Philosophical Inspirations of Zbigniew Herbert’s Works), ed. Józef M. Ruszar, 101–137. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Platan, 2010.

Uffelmann, Dirk. “Autobiografizm i antropologia. ‘Ecce Homo’ F. Nietzschego i ‘Pan Cogito’ Z. Herberta” (Autobiography and Anthropology: Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘Ecce Homo’ and Zbigniew Herbert’s ‘Mr. Cogito’). In Postać literacka (The Literary Character), ed. Edward Kasperski, Brygida Pawłowska-Jądrzyk, 53–75. Warszawa: Uniwersytet Warszawski, 1998.

Uffelmann, Dirk. “Podvodnye kamni vnutrennei (de)kolonizatsii Rossii” (The Pitfalls of Russia’s Internal (De-)Colonization). In Tam, vnutri. Praktiki vnutrennei kolonizatsii v kul’turnoi istorii Rossii (There within: Practices of Internal Colonization in Russia’s Cultural History), ed. Aleksandr Etkind, Dirk Uffelmann, Il’ia Kukulin, 53–104. Mosvka: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2012.

Uffelmann, Dirk. “Postcolonial Theory as Post-Colonial Nationalism.” In Postcolonialism Cross-Examined: Envisioning New Relations to the Colonial Past and Postcolonial Future, ed. Monika Albrecht, 135–152. London: Routledge, 2019.

Van Dommelen, Peter A.R. On Colonial Grounds: A Comparative Study of Colonialism and Rural Settlement in First Millennium BC West Central Sardinia. Leiden: University of Leiden, 1998.

Zarycki, Tomasz. “Polska i jej regiony a debata postkolonialna” (Poland, Its Regions, and the Postcolonial Debate). In Oblicze polityczne regionów Polski (The Political Countenance of the Polish Regions), ed. Małgorzata Dajnowicz, 31–48. Białystok: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Finansów i Zarządzania, 2008.

Opublikowane
2019-10-29