HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

198 HAROLD B. SEGELhave come, but also the only book-length studies of his works in English. AlexanderFiut, too, because of his closeness to Miłosz, his past teaching at Berkeley, his collaborationwith Ewa Czarnecka (another longstanding member of the coterie) on abook of conversations with Miłosz {Conversations with Czesław Miłosz, 1987), and,finally and not insignificantly, the publication of the English version of his monographon Miłosz by the University of California Press, must be seen in this samelight. While such proximity to Miłosz hardly diminishes the value of studies such asFiut's or Nathan's and Quinn's, it does explain a certain lack of distance in thesebooks and, if not precisely a lack of objectivity, a perceptible admiration that precludesvirtually any negative criticism. Miłosz is an intellectually interesting ifsometimes exceptionally complex and demanding poet whose work brims withambiguities, contradictions, and no small degree of self-absorption and self-torment.It is splendid that his writing—above all, his poetry—has been made the subject oftwo intelligent studies that to a great extent complement each other. Critical introductionsof this type in English are timely. But these studies, rooted in a considerablepersonal familiarity with their subject, are in essence adulatory in nature. Both,and especially Fiut's more acute work, are fine for the present, but there is still roomfor balanced, less reverential studies of Miłosz the poet and prose writer originatingoutside the magic circle.Columbia University