The History of Polish Literature
Krzyzanowski, Jerzy R.
the task. All parents have to do (no small trick, but it gets easier with practice) is to decide what's important by following their intuition, instinct, and common sense, which have" worked since...
...For Milosz's study is more than just a history of literature --it is a history of a proud nation determined to fight for its free- dom...
...he places it in the historical and cultural context...
...Finally, Hinojosa's association of the charismatic renewal with Montanism is a very poorly chosen slur...
...rural history, to comprehend the impor- tance of"the Polish Pope," John Paul II, and to appreciate the significance of the "Solidarity" movement which has re- suited in a Nobel Peace Prize given to its leader, Lech Walesa in 1983...
...She writes that one of the challenges of this task is to he "tolerant while mainraining your standards...
...Spanning a millen-nium, it is a history determined, perhaps, by Poland, s geographical location be- tween Germany and Russia, two neighboring powers whose aggressive appetites spelled doom for Poland throughout centuries...
...By any objective academic standards Martin cannot be classified in the tradi- tion of fundamentalism...
...True to her own advice, she has written a noble book which, like a good parent, provides the confidence of sure expectations and the safety of loving limits...
...Milosz's poetic personality shines on the pages of his study...
...He comments with compassion or irony on Poland's history...
...2) dialogue is primarily a mode of communication (and persuasion) rather than a vehicle for radical ecclesial self-transformation...
...Reymont, another Polish Nobel Prize winner in 1924, he covers them in a short, two- ages-long space, but to personalities who attract his imagfnatinn, like an eighteenth century adventurer, Potocki, he gives twice as much space...
...and he comments warmly about facts, works, and writers who come close to his heart...
...No other study thus far, published either in the West or in Poland, covers the span of a thousand years as completely and comprehensively as Milosz's work...
...Fourthly, Hinojosa uses the term "fundamentalism" much too loosely...
...For the American reader he provides his own poetic translations of poems ranging from the Middle Ages to the most contemporary times, including his own poetry which has won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980...
...And this is especially true for Milosz...
...After all, not only a poet but a scholar, too, is entitled to his own, sub- jective interpretations of a literary history as long as he renders its letter and spirit...
...Martin's position ~E~BYW n~BLITEU~K Czeslaw~ Jerzy R. Krzyzcmowski A POET, a novelist, an essayist, and a Nobel Prize winner...
...Milosz does not restrict its scope to a dry enumeration of facts, dates, and authors...
...In one thing Mr...
...An American reader, who by this time is probably familiar with James Michener's hestselling novel Poland, will be able to place that novel in the broad context of Polish literary and culCommonweal: 446...
...But his study represents more than just a textbook for students of Polish litera- ture at American colleges and univer- sities...
...The image of Poland emerging from the pages of his book is faithful to that coun- try's turbulent history with her age of glory during the Renaissance period and her tragic downfall at the end of the eighteenth century, her heroic struggles for freedom spirited by the Romantic poets, and her stubborn resistance against the Nazis and the Communists ever since the beginning of World War II...
...Well, Milosz is also a scholar whose history of Polish literature has been recently reissued in a new edi- tion, some fifteen years after it was origi- nally published...
...he argues with and challenges what he does not like...
...Martin stands very firmly within the Catholic theologi- cal tradition in his appreciation of the significance of dogmatic truth for intel- lectual, moral, and spiritual develop- ment...
...In naming Mr...
...Cere is totally on target...
...DANIEL CERE The utlmr replies San Antonio, Tex...
...Correspondence (Continued from page 418) Christian truth (his so-called "lust for certainty") is over-argued...
...Rim Kramer suggsts that parenthood is not only a noble, but an enobling, task...
...It underlines once more the Reader's Digest type of research that forms the basis for most of our assessments of the historical and theological significance of the charis- rrmtic renewal...
...With a new epilogue covering the 1960s and 1970s, it is there- fore the most up-to-date study on the subject, and chances are it will maintain its leading position for many years to come...
...He writes about all that literature lucidly, with involvement and some-times even passion...
...All parents have to do (no small trick, but it gets easier with practice) is to decide what's important by following their intuition, instinct, and common sense, which have" worked since history began whenever affection was guided by individual life experience...
...Martin's concept of dialogue as evangel- ical strategy is more consistent with the thrust of Vatican II documents than that proposed by Hinojosa...
...Some critics, par- ticularly in Poland, thus find his study opinionated and uneven but this is hardly the case...
...If he does not like some authors, e.g., W.S...
...Third, Hinojosa's critique of Martin's assessment of church-world dialogue lacks the sociological realism that serves as the backdrop for Martin's Comments: (1) meaningful dialogue cannot take place when a community is deeply insec- ure in its own self-identity...
...What more can a man be, having achieved the highest honor bestowed every year upon men and women of letters...
...Of course, choosing responsibility makes parents responsible (answerable, account-able) -- a fact which leads not to burdens or repression, but to greater freedom in Poetry across a turbulent history making their own decisions by their own standards...
Vol. 111 • August 1984 • No. 14
