BOOK HERE

Following Norwid’s recent bicentennial birthday anniversary and this year’s celebration of the Year of Polish Romanticism, Ognisko Polskie (the Polish Hearth) and the Polish Cultural Institute have the pleasure to invite you to Charles Kraszewski’s talk titled, “Loneliness and Engagement: The Plays of Cyprian Kamil Norwid”

Cyprian Kamil Norwid’s poems, novellas and plays examine many universal themes that the speedily modernising world of the 19th century passionately discussed – similarly to ours now – including questions related to the concept of loneliness and engagement. Norwid’s universal lens was not merely systemic but focused on the experience of an individual, on the personal, the everyday and the concrete.

Join Charles Kraszewski as he explores these notions in the upcoming talk.

Charles Kraszewski (born 1962) is the author of three volumes of original poetry in English and one in Polish (Hallo Sztokholm, Kielce: 2021) and one novel (Accomplices, You Ask? San Francisco: 2021). He is a literary translator from Polish Czech, and Slovak. His English versions of Polish literature include classics such as Adam Mickiewicz’s Dziady (Forefathers’ Eve) and experimental poets of the modern period like Tytus Czyżewski A Burglar of the Better Sort: Poems, Dramatic Works, and Theoretical Writings. He is a member of the Kraków branch of the Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich and the London-based Związek Pisarzy Polskich na Obczyźnie.

Last year a volume of Norwid plays translated by Kraszewski was published in the UK by Glagoslav Publications. The book includes works such as Pierścień Wielkiej Damy, czyli Ex-machina Durejko (“The Ring of a Grand Lady, or Ex-machina Durejko”), Krakus. Książę nieznany (”Krakus. Unknown Prince”), Noc tysiączna druga. Komedia (”The Thousandth and Second Night. Comedy”), Wanda, Kleopatra i Cezar (“Cleopatra and Caesar”), Zwolon, and Za kulisami (”In the Wings”). Each guest will receive an exclusive purchase discount on the book.