The poetry of the “dry pogrom”– March 1968 in Polish poetry (a reconnaissance)

• Published in: Studia Litteraria et Historica 2017 (6), p.1-24
• Main Author: Kuczyńska-Koschany, Katarzyna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Poetry; Polish Literature; Post-War period (1950 - 1989); Theory of Literature
• ISSN: 2299-7571

The paper construes the distinctive character of March 1968 against the classical definitions of pogroms (hence the selection of Adam Michnik’s phrase “dry pogrom”). It analyzes direct responses to the events, pointing to examples of Aesopian language (Artur Międzyrzecki) and satire (Janusz Szpotański, Natan Tenenbaum), as well as other reactions (Jerzy Ficowski, Aleksander Rymkiewicz). Further, it is concerned with poems by artists affected – to a larger or smaller extent – by the dry pogrom, such as Arnold Słucki. Views from afar – including Kazimierz Wierzyński’s Izrael [Israel] and Jacek Bierezin’s Wygnańcy [Exiles] – have also been analyzed. Michał Głowiński’s formula of “March talk” has been used to interpret the poetics of the poetry about March 1968, with reference to Orwellian Newspeak and Klemperer’s LTI. Finally, in the conclusion, a question is posed of whether the poems of the dry pogrom are “poetry of dry despair” (a term used by Julia Hartwig to describe Paul Celan’s poems), as they speak about impossible liquids – blood and tears.