Andrzej Zanevsky ( Polish. Andrzej Zaniewski ; born April 13, 1939 , Warsaw ) is a Polish poet , translator , prose writer , songwriter, philosopher and literary critic.
| Andrzej Zanevsky | |
|---|---|
| Andrzej zaniewski | |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | |
| Citizenship (citizenship) | |
| Occupation | prose writer , poet , songwriter, novelist, translator, literary critic , philosopher |
| Direction | magical realism , existentialism , |
| Genre | novel , novel , author's song |
| Language of Works | Polish |
| Awards | Red Rose Prize, Vladislav Reymont Prize |
Content
Biography
He studied art history at the University of Warsaw . He made his debut in literature with the collection “Voice of the Coast”, in 1958. He is the author of several poetry books (Face to Face, Poem about the Present, Hope Comes in the Evening, etc.). He is one of the founders of the poetic community on the basis of the student club "Hybrydy" [1] . Winner of the Czerwona Róża Prize ( Russian Red Rose ), Vladislav Reymont Prize and other literary awards. Also known as songwriter, journalist [2] and literary critic.
The author began to write literary reviews and critical articles as a respite from the serious work of the novelist. In the process of work, he noted that many famous critics have no idea what modern literature is, which pulsates in clubs and independent magazines [3] .
Nameless trilogy
Rat
The most famous work of Andrzej Zanevsky is “The Nameless Trilogy”. The action of the first two stories develops in the past and present; the author has set the boundaries between them quite arbitrary. The third story, on the contrary, tells about the future. The writer drew many details for his book from Russian culture [4] .
The first part of the trilogy is the novel “Rats” written back in 1979. It was translated into more than thirty languages, but came out in the author’s homeland only after its translation into Czech (in 1990), and then into nine other languages, including German, English and Italian [4] .
Zanevsky himself claims that in Poland his book was published much later than in the West, because his story is an attempt to overthrow a person from the pedestal on which he was erected [5] . The author is skeptical of human abilities, utopian theories that put a person above the place that he deserves and denying his biological, earthly origin. He doubts that having an articulated, complex speech puts us above the rest of the creatures that inhabit the Earth.
The last words of the story are a direct analogy to the end of Dostoevsky's “ Notes from the Dead House ” - “What a wonderful moment, what a beautiful moment, what ...” .
Story
In the utility room near the bakery, the female rat produces large offspring. Few survive from the brood. An unnamed "protagonist", a male rat , still finds the strength to go out into the world so as not to disappear from hunger. Already in the first weeks of his life among people, he meets an extraordinary male, whose whole life takes place in wanderings. This male becomes a kind of survival mentor for him. Until the ship leaves the city and leaves the main character alone. Now the rat herself had to go the way of a wanderer, to find out the face of fear, to get acquainted with the unexpected actions of a person, so that after returning back to the hole where he was born, and there, caught by the employees of the bakery, lose his sight.
In the story-allegory, the writer took on the difficult task of describing the vision of the Universe from the point of view of a rat, to walk a life path from birth to death and to level any distance between the human world and the animal world. By the example of rodents, Andrzej Zanevsky describes a person, gives them the same qualities, the same fears [6] . Thus, the novelist wants to show that rats and humans are psychologically related.
In the preface to the story, the author said that for many years he tried to understand these animals, he watched rats in the alleys of Saigon , Istanbul , Berlin , Bucharest , Warsaw , rats living in the ruins of Gdansk [5] .
Pied Piper Shadow
There are two names to this story: Shadow of the Pied Piper and Gray. Andrzej Zanevsky took advantage of the motives of the legend about the Hameln Pied Piper , which he had heard as a boy from a German soldier during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. Then he got acquainted with the book of Victor Dyk “Rat”, which also had a considerable influence on the author. In this legend, Zanevsky was attracted by the fact that it openly placed an equal sign between the world of people and the world of rats [4] .
Story
The male of the rat also becomes the hero of the second story of the Nameless Trilogy. The story begins with the fact that he meets a blinded old man, whose path the reader walked in the first story. Subsequently, this rat will dream more than once, dreaming that he is this old man, which is why there really can be doubts whether the characters in both stories are the same character. The leitmotif of “Shadow of the Pied Piper” becomes a peculiar story of the rat’s escape from the attracting flute of the Pied Piper and from himself, from the transformation of fear in the male’s mind, from the initial conviction of the musician’s malicious desires to the fear of uncertainty: what motivates the prototype hero of the gamel legend, who he is looking for, for what angle is hiding. According to the plot, the rat repeatedly meets him on his way, but where is the rat-catcher really, and where is the fruit of fantasy and fear, the author deliberately veiled [5] .
All the landscapes in the book are carried very rapidly - a laboratory where experiments are conducted on rats, a warehouse forgotten by everyone, full of food, from the excess of which rodents lose their ability to think, underground passages, which are the only refuge from air bombing. Andrzej Zanevsky concludes his story with a rhetorical question: “Will the rats be able to go outside, has humanity destroyed itself? [5] . "
Civilization of Birds
The idea of writing a book came to the author in 1977, during a flight to Vietnam. In it, he plays up myths about birds, which were attributed to supernatural abilities - about the Firebird , Garuda , Phoenix , about the ravens Khugin and Munin , about Eurynome . The author assumes that human civilization will end its existence, a new one will come to replace it.
According to the plot, this story is the least realistic in the trilogy. Her characters are both mysterious translucent birds living in the sun, and representatives of the feathered Earth.
Story
Humanity has destroyed itself. In cities and towns, no human conversations or car noises are heard now, but a wolf howls. The story in the first part of the story is conducted on behalf of the jackdaw . Birds of Andrzej Zanevsky are already much more noble creatures than rats, they live in the desire for the highest, a sense of love. The jackdaw sisters and brothers begin an independent life, and he, also the nameless main character, who became the leader of the pack, does not want to leave the parents of Cro and Mi. While the earthquake that destroyed their nests and destroyed Cro, does not make the jackdaws leave this place in search of a new nesting place. Over time, the leader begins to build family relationships with a white daw named Kei, and also takes Mi into his nest. The thirst to go back to the native walls makes the jackdaws fly back. Mi disappears in the clutches of an eagle, and Kei, having wet his wings, disappears in the stream of the river. The former pack leader alone lives out his days and dies in old age. Death in Zanevsky’s philosophy is the only guarantee of a just settlement and progress. Only thanks to this there is development, transformation of the world [3] .
The second part of the story tells of the magpie , which the author gave the Faulknerian name Sartoris. His parents die when he was still a chick, from a tree lit by a lightning strike. An older sister took him into her nest. With the love of his life, he chose the most cocky and daring magpie. More than anything, Sartoris is afraid of the return of people and believes that man came from a wolf. The sculpture of a she-wolf who nourished Romulus and Remus prompted him to such an idea. After the earthquake, he and his flock leave the city and go in search of a better place for nesting, but they choose it dangerously close to an active volcano. Over time, Sartoris begins to suffer nightmares, he recalls the white daw, which he drove away because of its unusual coloring from the neighboring flock in fear for his life, all the nests that he ravaged. He is no longer considered the leader of the flock, because he does not dare to attack small birds, to destroy nests, it seems helpless, unable to protect anyone. His magpie, with whom they have sat more than one offspring, goes to a younger male - together with the whole flock they make another flight. Sartoris flies closer to the volcano, and when the eruption begins, it rushes into puffs of smoke and disappears into the veil.
In the third part of Civilization of Birds, a pigeon flock is narrated. At first, the story is led by a young male who really wants to like one dove, a companion of Om's strong old dove, but, entangled in a horse's mane, he falls into a death trap. Further the narration is conducted on behalf of the dove. In that unfortunate earthquake, she loses Ohm and travels south. Lonely wandering ends with the creation of a new family with a black dove. They do not manage to land any offspring (due to the constant attacks of birds of prey), and soon her companion dies when they decide on a long flight across the sea. The little dove again remains alone, traveling from place to place. Life leads to an old lonely turtledove, which it helps to get food. Once having returned from the city, she does not find a turtledove. A strong storm begins, the dove wants to test his strength. It rises so high that it can no longer fight the wind and surrenders entirely to its fate. The storm throws her to distant hot countries, where food is enough, and quite safe. But the little dove breaks into his hometown. She flies at random, travels for so long that she meets old age along the way. But at the end of the story Andrzej Zanevsky gives her incredible strength and desire. The dove soars up and wants to fly as high as possible. From above, she notices dust clouds and learns that this man has returned, that the two-legged are not extinct and are again conquering the territory of wild animals with arms.
In the epilogue of the Nameless Trilogy, Andrzej Zanevsky describes a small dialogue between two representatives of humanity.
They discuss how people brought themselves to such a state and what will be ahead if humanity does not change its mind :
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Interesting Facts
- An illustrator of many of Zanevsky’s latest books is his wife Amanda Zanevskaya.
- The profession of the writer Andrzej Zanevsky calls the freest, because in order to create, the writer does not need anything but a sheet of paper and a pen, and with this alone he can create a weapon stronger than an anti-tank grenade or mine [3] .
- Andrzej Zanevsky, comparing the work of Crusaders in 1410 by Jozef Kraszewski and the novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz “ Crusaders ”, gave preference to the first, calling it a masterpiece of Polish literature [3] .
Notes
- ↑ Biography of Andrzej Zanevsky .
- ↑ Zanevsky's article on Cheslav Milos in the journal “Patron and Peace” .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Interview with Andrzej Zanevsky Archive copy of January 10, 2012 on the Wayback Machine (Polish)
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 “The Nameless Trilogy” by Andrzej Zanevsky (unavailable link) . Date of access April 4, 2012. Archived May 10, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Fear, or Nameless trilogy / Andrzej Zanevsky; per. from polish. E. Smirnova. - Yekaterinburg: U-Factoria; M .: Astrel, 2009 .-- 624 p. ISBN 978-5-271-24698-2
- ↑ Review of the book “Rats” (English) .
Literature
- Zanevsky A. Rat: Novels / Andrzej Zanevsky; Per. from polish. E. Smirnova; The artist. F. Barbyshev. - M .: Lokid, 1996 .-- 592 p. - (Palette). - 16,000 copies. - ISBN 5-320-00128-2 .
- Zanevsky A. Rat = Szczur / Andrzej Zanevsky; Per. from polish. E. Smirnova. - M .: AST Moscow, U-Factoria, Harvest, 2009 .-- 224 p. - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9757-0431-3 , ISBN 978-5-403-00512-8 , ISBN 978-985-16-6721-1 .
- Zanevsky A. Shadow of the Pied Piper = Cien Szczurolapa / Andrzej Zanevsky; Per. from polish E. Smirnova. - M .: AST Moscow, U-Factoria, 2009 .-- 256 p. - 4000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9757-0432-0 , ISBN 978-5-403-00827-3 .
- Zanevsky A. Fear, or Nameless trilogy / Andrzej Zanevsky; Per. from polish. E. Smirnova. - Yekaterinburg: U-Factoria; M .: Astrel, 2009 .-- 624 p. - ISBN 978-5-9757-0399-6 .
- Zanevsky A. Only these few individuals ... M.: "Wahazar", 2009. Per. from polish. A. Bazilevsky.