Scamander
Skamander was a group of poets founded in 1918 and disbanded in 1929. The name comes from the river on which ancient Troy lay. The group was created in connection with a magazine of the same name, which appeared in 1920-28 and 1935-39. She distinguished herself from the young Pole . With literature aimed at broad impact and comprehensibility, they advocated the use of everyday language and everyday topics in poetry, but otherwise proclaimed a “program of no program”.
Members of the group and authors associated with it included: A. Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz , Antoni Słonimski , Julian Tuwim , Jan Lechoń , Kazimierz Wierzyński , Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna , Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska , Jerzy Liebert and Józef Wittlin .
main features
Skamander was an association of authors who were friends and who pursued common poetic interests without a specific program. The focus was always on the literary work, the respective work. They particularly valued the forbidden and frowned upon. Since all members could already look back on successes, the group was not so much concerned with promoting inexperienced authors. The group saw itself as a result of a changed social situation and wanted to create awareness for change processes, but not to be revolutionary. The well-known literary critic Karol Irzykowski said of the group that it has a "program without a program" and consists of "poets without a poetic idea".
As a demarcation to Young Poles, Skamander reacted to a blank space, as an answer to a social need. The "Literary News" (Polish: "Wiadomości Literackie"), which were published in Warsaw from 1924 to 1939, served as a model.
Basic principles
- Connect poetry with the present and everyday situations
- Use of colloquial language, dialect, humor, satire , irony
- further develop individual developments and talents
- Praise of life, philosophy
- social and economic activity, artists actively participate in life
- Heroes / protagonists as simple people
- Connect poetry with political life
- Meetings in public places, such as cafes (" Pod Picadorem ")
literature
- Barry Keane: Scamander. The poets and their poetry 1918-1929 . Warsaw: Agade, 2004 (en)
- Barry Keane: Scamander. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 5: Pr-Sy. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2014, ISBN 978-3-476-02505-0 , pp. 500–504.
- Otto Mallek: Scamander. In: Herbert Greiner-Mai (ed.): Small dictionary of world literature . VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig 1983. p. 260.
- Michał Głowinski: Literary group and poetry model - The example of the Skamander group. In: Fieguth, Rolf (ed.): Literary communication. 6 essays on the social and communicative character of the literary work and the literary process. Kronberg, 43-66.
