Poetic history and criticism of literature in perspective of Czesław Miłosz

Abstract

The article presents a reflection on those poems by Czesław Miłosz which reflect the trend of meditation on literature. It is about the texts in which the creativity of other poets and literature as such are made the subject of reflection by Miłosz. The Professor of Slavic literature at the University of California reconstructs poetic style, poetry conception and language of various authors, entering their achievements in historic time and historical-literary process (the most important in this respect is A Treatise on Poetry). In Miłosz’s poetry, one can find numerous traces of his literary competencies. The poet also uses them in his literary polemics (characteristic poem Against Philip Larkin Poetry), what mentions critic-literary endeavours. In the present article, the works of Miłosz connected with a reflection on literature appear to be a sign of a broader tendency in contemporary poetry—its inclination for metafiction.