Slovenska Literatura (Mar 2020)
Poetry as an Escape into Language (On poems by Ján Ondruš and Alexander Vutimski)
Abstract
The focus of the current study is the construction of poetic meaning, which the eminent Slovak author Ján Ondruš and the Bulgarian one Alexander Vutimski employ in some of their poetry texts. First, are being analyzed the poetic strategies of ‘overcoming the language deficiency’ in Ján Ondruš’s poetry. The argumentation is based on two main problems and initial points of similarity that can be found in the works of both poets: the multiple lyrical subjects and ‘the enclosed circle.’ Second, we look at four poetry works by Alexander Vutimski in terms of ‘the naming problem,’ ‘the alternative language’ and ‘the alternative reality.’ Furthermore, we project those problems on two main lyric presences in the texts – the blue boy and the rotted angel, which represent two methods of lyrical subject identification/self-identification. We briefly map the traces of homosexuality as a social problem in the 1940s in Bulgarian context – during A. Vutimski’s life and writing years.
