Rafał Wojaczek (December 6, 1945 – May 11, 1971) was a
Polish poet of the postwar generation. He was a son of a respected family in
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...
. His life was marked by abortive studies, alcoholism, depression and suicide attempts, the last one of which was successful. His short career took place during the turbulent years of modern Poland when the younger generation began to realize that they were trapped in a mendacious political system. Other Polish poets and writers with comparable biographies include
Edward Stachura,
Marek Hłasko and
Tadeusz Borowski
Tadeusz Borowski (; 12 November 1922 – 3 July 1951) was a Polish writer and journalist. His wartime poetry and stories dealing with his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz are recognized as classics of Polish literature.
Early life
Boro ...
.
Work
Wojaczek's work translates the political and practical circumstances of life in Poland into universal and existential terms. His lyrical subject is often preoccupied with the brutality of the physical body along with its suffering and pleasures. By placing the physicality and sexuality of the individual in the context of the practical and political he achieves a depth of erotic and existential expression. His work has been compared by some to that of
Lautréamont and
Rimbaud, but was strongly connected with international trends of his time, particularly
confessional poetry and the
Beats. His earlier work was chiefly what
Robert Lowell
Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...
would have referred to as "raw," but his late style became well "cooked," with increasing attention to structure and subtle rhyme schemes using for example
assonance
Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar phonemes in words or syllables that occur close together, either in terms of their vowel phonemes (e.g., ''lean green meat'') or their consonant phonemes (e.g., ''Kip keeps capes ''). However, in ...
between related (but not identical) Polish vowels, with no loss of emotional intensity.
Wojaczek debuted with seven poems in the very first issue of the poetry journal ''Poezja'' (December 1965). Individual volumes of poetry include:
*''Sezon (Season)'', 1969
*''Inna bajka (Another Tale)'', 1970
*''Nie skończona krucjata (Unfinished Crusade''), 1972
*''Którego nie było (Who Was Not)'', 1972
Wojaczek's collected works were published by PIW in 1999 and in a more complete Zebra edition in 2005.
In popular culture
The 1999 Polish film ''
Wojaczek'' is his biopic, and loosely based on his life and works. Actor
Krzysztof Siwczyk played his role
and was consequently nominated for a
European Film Award for Best Actor.
See also
*
Polish poets
References
External links
Profile of Rafał Wojaczekat Culture.pl
Rafał Wojaczekat poezja.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wojaczek, Rafal
Polish male poets
People from Mikołów
Poètes maudits
1945 births
1971 suicides
1971 deaths
20th-century Polish poets
20th-century Polish male writers
Drug-related suicides in Poland