Ester Nelly Abuter Ananías - Fachbereich Philosophie und ...

Joanna Mazurska ( Vanderbilt Univerity, History, Nashville, Tennessee, u sa )
Eur-rica : Czeslaw Milosz’s Life Divided
Th e life of Czeslaw Milosz, a Polish poet born in 1911, was shaped by travels between
Europe and America. Milosz fi rst encountered America in 1946, when he became a
diplomat representing the Polish communist government in the United States. In
1950, Milosz went back to Europe, visited Poland, and broke ties with the Polish
government. Consequently, he found himself in exile in France, separated from
his family, left without a job, in the depth of a psychological crisis. Th e Cold War
propaganda prohibited Milosz from entering America. Eventually, in 1960, he once
again moved to America, this time for good in order to fulfi ll a new role of a professor,
and then of a Nobel prize holder. Th is travel inaugurated a long painful period of
separation from his European friends and the Polish readers. In 1980s, the cycle
of travels had brought Milosz back to the places of his childhood. In this paper I
introduce the concept of Eur-rica, which is an imaginative space created by Milosz in
order to unify the experience of Europe and America. My research on Milosz’s Papers
at Yale University shows his life as an inspiring struggle for a common denominator
to the life on both continents. Today, when we all strive to build Eur-ricas from
the pieces scatt ered in the globalized world, Milosz’s experience of travels between
Europe and America off ers a rich “case study” of the struggles and costs of a life lived
in perpetual displacement.
Email joanna.m.mazurska@vanderbilt.edu
Section Emigration and Exile
Panel 65
Date July 30
Time 13 :15
Location k l 29/208