The Kosciuszko Foundation Online Programs and the Polish Program at the CUNY Hunter College present the webinar Transformation of Mr. Cogito: Debating Zbigniew Herbert Poetic Legacy by Jaroslaw Anders. A discussion moderated by Małgorzata Pospiech, Ph. D., will follow the lecture.
Zbigniew Herbert was of the most recognizable poetic voices of the postwar East-Central Europe. He was hailed for his intellectual and moral clarity, his erudite cultural references, his stoic poise in the face of historical cataclysms, and his imperviousness to pressures of the communist regime. Some critics noticed, however, a darker more pessimistic vision of the human condition. After the poet’s death in 1998, literary scholars, biographers, and Polish poets of younger generations have been debating his impact on Polish letters, his continued literary relevance, and the troubled (and troubling) aspects of his personality. Jaroslaw Anders talks about Herbert’s poetic and moral vision, his image of a “citizen-poet”, and some recent controversies about his life and work.
The webinar is presented together with the Polish Program at CUNY Hunter College and is part of the Tadeusz Solowij Lectures of the Kosciuszko Foundation. It is free and open to the public. Spots are limited and registration is required. In lieu of admission, a donation towards the KF Cultural Fund is appreciated.
Jaroslaw Anders is a freelance writer, translator, and editor. He is the author of Between Fire and Sleep: Essays on Modern Polish Poetry and Prose (Yale: Yale University Press, 2009) and numerous articles in The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and other publications. He has translated several books from English into Polish and from Polish into English. In the past, he served as a writer and broadcaster for the Voice of America and worked in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. Department of State. He lives in Washington, DC.