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PARTISAN REVIEW
years, he has castigated the political greed of nationalists and the religious
institution trying to overinfluence Polish society.
I'm not trying to establish a new literary or political theory here. By
identifying the ontological and epistemological features of literature, 1
mean just different stresses, different accents, not two totally different
species. Still,
1
think there is something in the air, both in the rarified air
of high culture and in the lower atmosphere of political movements, that
justifies this distinction and perhaps helps to understand why some phe–
nomena that were positive and hopeful under the Communist system can
turn into hideous or at least menacing developments in the new era.
Milosz's poems are widely read and acclaimed in this country. Perhaps we
should encourage publishing in Central Europe some of the episte–
mologically-minded books that have been written here.
Edith Kurzweil:
Thank you very much. We now go to Dubravka
Ugresic.
Dubravka Ugresic:
The title of my remarks is "Parrots and Priests," and
I
will begin with a quotation
1
came across by Osip Mandelstam, from
his
FOllrth
Prose,
which echoes nicely what I want to speak about:
A writer is a mixed breed of parro t and priest. He is a parrot in the
loftiest sense of the word. He speaks French if his master is French,
but sold in Persia he will speak Persian: "Polly is a fool ," or "Polly
wants a cracker." A parrot knows no age, nor can he tell day from
night. If he begins to bore his master, he is covered over with a black
cloth, and that, for literature, is the surrogate of night.
[ want to recount a humorous coversation I had recently with my
colleague, countryman, and fellow writer Petar Petrovic, who, thinking
aloud, said to me,
"I
wish I could at least be a Czech or a Hungarian–
if I can't be an Englishman or an American ."
" How do you mean?"
1
asked.
"It's my last name."
"I don't see ... "
"If it at least began with a
K ...
that would help."
"Whad"
" I could hook up to Kundera, Konrad, Klima ... "
" If you were named Krleza or Kis, that would be good," I said.
"It would make a real difference .. . " nodded my colleague.
"How about changing your name?"
