“A Face Calmly Looking into the Darkness”: An Understanding of the Essence of Poetry in the Later Poems of Dan Pagis
In a number of later poems, the Israeli poet Dan Pagis (1930–1986) persistently reproduced one and the same plot: the fullness of expression achieved by the artist suddenly turns into emptiness, and the seemingly unrestricted possibility of free poetic speech turns into silence. It seems, this parad...
| Format: | Article |
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| Language: | Russian |
| Published: |
Ural State Pedagogical University
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Филологический класс |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://filclass.ru/en/archive/2022/27422e/litso-spokojno-smotryashchee-v-temnotu-ponimanie-sushchnosti-poezii-v-pozdnikh-stikhotvoreniyakh-dana-pagisa |
| _version_ | 1827937503793905664 |
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| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In a number of later poems, the Israeli poet Dan Pagis (1930–1986) persistently reproduced one and
the same plot: the fullness of expression achieved by the artist suddenly turns into emptiness, and the seemingly
unrestricted possibility of free poetic speech turns into silence. It seems, this paradox is due to the denial of the
principle of mimesis (when art is interpreted as the practice of a continuously renewed, but obviously unattainable
representation) and the poet’s attraction to such a statement, which ideally could become a form of silence.
For example, in the prose miniature “Towards a literary survey” it is said that poems are written with “sympathetic
ink”, and the poem “Small Poetics” depicts the process of creating a poetic text as passive listening to the “voice
of a blank sheet”.
The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the understanding of the essence of poetry, underlying these and
some other (rather numerous) texts of Pagis, which can be conditionally called “poems about art”. The analysis
carried out takes into account, among other things, the circumstances of the biographical plan – mainly, memories
of the events experienced by the poet during the period of the Jewish Holocaust. The internally incomplete
experience of being in his own past, perceived as a continuous but invariably unsuccessful return from the world
of the dead to the world of the living, prompts the lyrical protagonist of Pagis (the poet) to perceive the writing of
poetry as a painful attempt to overcome the horror of the emptiness surrounding him. At the same time, the poetic
text turns out to be nothing more than a system of “scaffolding” (definition by the Israeli literary critic Vered
Karti Shem Tov), which is not intended to erect a new building (“house” as an image of the world order), but only
so that in this emptiness it might find at least some – albeit very fragile – support. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T08:26:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-33f7b85937ff4cc5927475ed40dc07f0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2071-2405 2658-5235 |
| language | Russian |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T08:26:35Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Ural State Pedagogical University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Филологический класс |
| spelling | doaj.art-33f7b85937ff4cc5927475ed40dc07f02023-05-31T04:44:23ZrusUral State Pedagogical UniversityФилологический класс2071-24052658-52352022-12-01415417010.51762/1FK-2022-27-04-14“A Face Calmly Looking into the Darkness”: An Understanding of the Essence of Poetry in the Later Poems of Dan PagisIn a number of later poems, the Israeli poet Dan Pagis (1930–1986) persistently reproduced one and the same plot: the fullness of expression achieved by the artist suddenly turns into emptiness, and the seemingly unrestricted possibility of free poetic speech turns into silence. It seems, this paradox is due to the denial of the principle of mimesis (when art is interpreted as the practice of a continuously renewed, but obviously unattainable representation) and the poet’s attraction to such a statement, which ideally could become a form of silence. For example, in the prose miniature “Towards a literary survey” it is said that poems are written with “sympathetic ink”, and the poem “Small Poetics” depicts the process of creating a poetic text as passive listening to the “voice of a blank sheet”. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the understanding of the essence of poetry, underlying these and some other (rather numerous) texts of Pagis, which can be conditionally called “poems about art”. The analysis carried out takes into account, among other things, the circumstances of the biographical plan – mainly, memories of the events experienced by the poet during the period of the Jewish Holocaust. The internally incomplete experience of being in his own past, perceived as a continuous but invariably unsuccessful return from the world of the dead to the world of the living, prompts the lyrical protagonist of Pagis (the poet) to perceive the writing of poetry as a painful attempt to overcome the horror of the emptiness surrounding him. At the same time, the poetic text turns out to be nothing more than a system of “scaffolding” (definition by the Israeli literary critic Vered Karti Shem Tov), which is not intended to erect a new building (“house” as an image of the world order), but only so that in this emptiness it might find at least some – albeit very fragile – support.https://filclass.ru/en/archive/2022/27422e/litso-spokojno-smotryashchee-v-temnotu-ponimanie-sushchnosti-poezii-v-pozdnikh-stikhotvoreniyakh-dana-pagisaisraeli poetryisraeli poetsjewish poetrypoetic creative activitypoetic genresartistic representationpoetological utopiablank sheeteuropean jewish communitypoems |
| spellingShingle | “A Face Calmly Looking into the Darkness”: An Understanding of the Essence of Poetry in the Later Poems of Dan Pagis Филологический класс israeli poetry israeli poets jewish poetry poetic creative activity poetic genres artistic representation poetological utopia blank sheet european jewish community poems |
| title | “A Face Calmly Looking into the Darkness”: An Understanding of the Essence of Poetry in the Later Poems of Dan Pagis |
| title_full | “A Face Calmly Looking into the Darkness”: An Understanding of the Essence of Poetry in the Later Poems of Dan Pagis |
| title_fullStr | “A Face Calmly Looking into the Darkness”: An Understanding of the Essence of Poetry in the Later Poems of Dan Pagis |
| title_full_unstemmed | “A Face Calmly Looking into the Darkness”: An Understanding of the Essence of Poetry in the Later Poems of Dan Pagis |
| title_short | “A Face Calmly Looking into the Darkness”: An Understanding of the Essence of Poetry in the Later Poems of Dan Pagis |
| title_sort | a face calmly looking into the darkness an understanding of the essence of poetry in the later poems of dan pagis |
| topic | israeli poetry israeli poets jewish poetry poetic creative activity poetic genres artistic representation poetological utopia blank sheet european jewish community poems |
| url | https://filclass.ru/en/archive/2022/27422e/litso-spokojno-smotryashchee-v-temnotu-ponimanie-sushchnosti-poezii-v-pozdnikh-stikhotvoreniyakh-dana-pagisa |