Zbigniew Herbert’s Journeys to the South. A Conversation with Andrzej Franaszek and Francesco Matteo Cataluccio, Conducted by Krystyna Pietrych (during the discussion panel at the 12th ‘Puls Literatury’ Festival in Łódź, 8 December 2018)

Francesco Matteo Cataluccio; Andrzej Franaszek; Krystyna Pietrych

doi:10.18778/2299-7458.08.30

Authors

Francesco Matteo Cataluccio
Andrzej Franaszek
Krystyna Pietrych University of Lodz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2299-7458.08.30

Keywords:

Zbigniew Herbert, essay, culture of south Europe, art history

Abstract

The topic of a conversation of three literary scholars which took place in the last months of the Zbigniew Herbert Year (2018) is the experience recorded in the poet’s poems and essays of the Mediterranean culture, antiquity as a tool of cognition, an important code as well as the experience of his real journeys to the south of Europe being a kind of dividing line in his literary output and resonating in it.

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Author Biographies

Francesco Matteo Cataluccio

Francesco Matteo Cataluccio (1955) studied philosophy and Polish philology in Florence and Warsaw. He is an author of many articles on the history and culture of Poland and Eastern Europe as well as an editor of the Italian edition of works by Witold Gombrowicz, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński or a collective Italian and Spanish edition of works by Brunon Schulz. He is known to the Polish reader as an author of books such as Niedojrzałość, choroba naszych czasów [Immaturity: Disease of Our Time] (ZNAK, Kraków 2006), Jadę zobaczyć, czy tam jest lepiej. Niemalże brewiarz środkowoeuropejski [I’m Going to See if It’s Better There] (ZNAK, Kraków 2012) and Czarnobyl [Chernobyl] (Czarne, Wołowiec 2013). His correspondence with Zbigniew Herbert was published in the volume Herbert. Studia i dokumenty [Herbert: Studies and Documents] edited by Piotr Kłoczowski (Warsaw, 2008). He received the Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage in 2013.

Andrzej Franaszek

dr hab. Andrzej Franaszek (1971) – a literary critic, a lecturer at the Pedagogical University of Krakow, a secretary of the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award. He is the author of Miłosz. A Biography (Kraków, 2011; for which he was granted, for instance, the Kościelski Award, the Nike Audience Award, Kazimierz Wyka Award as well as The Award of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage), Ciemne źródło. Esej o cierpieniu w twórczości Zbigniewa Herberta [Dark Spring. An Essay on Pain in Zbigniew Herbert’s Work] (Londyn, 1998; 2nd edition: Kraków, 2008), Przepustka z piekła. 44 szkice o literaturze i przygodach duszy [A Pass from Hell. 44 Drafts on Literature and Adventures of the Soul] (Kraków, 2010) and Herbert. Biografia, t. 1-2 [Herbert. Biography, vol. 1-2] (Kraków, 2018). He is currently working on a biography of Józef Czapski.

Krystyna Pietrych, University of Lodz

Krystyna Pietrych – the head of the Department of Literature and Tradition of Romanticism at the University of Lodz. She is the author of a monograph on Aleksander Wat’s poetry (O “Wierszach śródziemnomorskich” Aleksandra Wata [On “Mediterranean Poems” by Aleksander Wat], Warszawa 1996) and the editor of his writing (Dziennik bez samogłosek [A Diary without Vowels], Warszawa 2001). Later she published a book titled Co poezji po bólu? Empatyczne przestrzenie [What Good Pain and Suffering Bring in Poetry. Emphatic Dimensions of Reading] (Łódź 2009). Her main area of interest is the twentieth-century Polish poetry, and she has written about, for instance, the poems by Bolesław Leśmian, Julian Tuwim, Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, Aleksander Wat, Wisława Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert, Miron Białoszewski, Stanisław Barańczak, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Tadeusz Różewicz, Czesław Miłosz, Tyszard Krynicki, and Piotr Sommer. She has recently published a book titled O czym (nie) mówią poeci? [What do Poets (Not) Speak About] (Łódź 2019). She is the editor-in-chief of the yearly “Czytanie Literatury. Łódzkie Studia Literaturoznawcze”. She is also the Head of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Research Centre of the University of Lodz.