Two Models of Poetry: Srečko Kosovel and Julian Przyboś

Abstract

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, reality has increasingly attacked man in the process of continuous transformation, becoming his contextual partner. Reality, by entering art, has modified the viewpoint of the artist, his attitude towards the material, the function of art, and the author’s place in it. – In the act of establishing an alternative world in language, now a poet cannot omit such phenomena as motion, speed, visuality, simultaneity, diversity, pragmatism, and the effects triggered by indirect communication, in which poetry competes with other media. The fascination and a feeling of danger that were directed towards the technical possibilities and the new lifestyle intensified the anthropological awareness in art in the context of communication, formed by various kinds of perception. – The poetry of Julian Przyboś and Srečko Kosovel presents a crucial moment for the subsequent discussion and artistic transformations, although the two poets perceived the participation of poetry in the social dialogue differently. To Przyboś, a poet was a revealer, an expert within the domain of new sensitivity to and perception of the world. Kosovel emphasized his ethical duty, not only with regard to poetry but also toward other people. – The phenomenon of motion that dominated the mental processes of the time was an aesthetic challenge for both poets; an ethical and anthropological challenge that resulted in two models of committed poetry: the autonomous, aesthetically perfect, and revelatory (Przyboś), and the critical, emphatic, and partnering (Kosovel).