Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1998

Thesis Director

John Guzlowski

Abstract

This thesis consists of a Polish translation of a volume of Robert Penn Warren's poetry: Audubon: A Vision accompanied by an introductory essay focusing on historical, cultural and psychological aspects of the poems. As a novelist, Robert Penn Warren is well known to the Polish reading public. All his major novels have been translated into Polish and received with great acclaim, which has been confirmed by numerous editions. Warren's popularity among Polish readers may be attributed to the fact that his fiction is permeated with a peculiar sense of melancholy and a profound awareness of tragic national history, features inevitably appealing to all Slavic nations, and to the Poles particularly with their turbulent past. The first part of the introduction aims at making the readers aware of the difficulties of literary translation. It also briefly highlights the different approaches to translating poetry bringing the readers closer to those aspects of the poems that may possibly be lost in translation. This section of the thesis examines numerous syntactic and lexical discrepancies between Polish and English, and explains why the several liberties the author allowed herself should not be regarded as distortions of the original.

The next two sections introduce Warren the poet and Audubon the ornithologist to the Polish reading public and also discuss some critical responses to Audubon: A Vision which may enhance the reading and understanding of Warren's most representative poetic work The intriguing figure of Jean Jacques Audubon may be of interest to the Polish reader since Audubon, himself a cultural exile, may metaphorically personify the immigrant experience. This type of human experience is not unfamiliar to numerous generations of Poles who have been affected by the painful aftermath of being displaced, whether be it for political or other causes. Another reason for discussing the persona of Audubon in the introductory part is that his unusual personality encompassed an artistic nature alongside that of a frontier man.

From among the men of letters who have been inspired by Audubon's mysterious personality, Robert Penn Warren is probably the one who reveals the complexity of Audubon's nature in the most brilliant and condensed way. By moving smoothly from the image of Audubon the hunter and the explorer to Audubon the artist in the moment of vision, Warren builds a bridge that links his own artistic experience with Audubon's. In doing so, Warren places himself in the historical context of being an American, the new man who, reaching further and further, crosses the frontiers, both the real and the imaginary. Warren's Audubon: A Vision is unanimously regarded by critics as unparalleled in his literary output which makes it the best choice for translation. Because of the fact that this collection offers profound historical, cultural, mythical, biographical and autobiographical insights it may be of interest to the Polish audience. Another important reason that justifies translating it into Polish is that Audubon: A Vision reflects Warren's preoccupation with violence, historical awareness, an everlasting search for identity and the meaning of life. By creating, in this collection, both realistic and mythic images, and by consciously mixing frontier vernacular with abstract and sublime poetic diction, Warren proves his exceptional maturity of artistic vision.

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