The main aim of this dissertation is to provide an English-language edition of the poems written by Aleksander Wat in the last five years of his life (1962-1967), with annotations elucidating the complex literary, intellectual, historical and religious context and publication history of the poems, as well as an extensive biographical-critical essay examining the circumstances in which the poems arose - including political exile, physical pain, and philosophical doubt - and the triad of aesthetic, ethical and spiritual concerns that dominated the poet's final years. The essay also considers the problems of translation posed by Wat's poetry, the role in shaping his corpus and reputation played by Wat's widow Ola, the poet Czeslaw Milosz, and the art by Jan Lebenstein used for Wat's book covers. The essay proposes a broader intellectual framework for the understanding of Wat's life and work that draws on Kierkegaard and Jewish studies. The main body of the translations consists of poems of 1962-1967 that Wat published in his posthumous volume Ciemne Świecidło (Lumen Obscurum) and poems written in the same period but not included in the book, some of which were subsequently published in periodicals. The dissertation also includes a basic chronology of Wat's life and contemporary events and a list of the poems translated in the order in which they were composed, to the extent this can be determined from available sources.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/42665 |
| Date | 04 June 2021 |
| Creators | Leigh-Valles, Alissa Z. |
| Contributors | Ricks, Christopher |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0023 seconds