The Quest for Roots: The Poetry of Vasko Popa(2 Balkan Studies)

This work analyzes and elucidates the principal motifs and images in Popa's work in relation to Yugoslav traditions of myth, time, and history. Popa's poetry reflects a fascinating synthesis of existential concerns and a primitivist belief in the transcendent dimensions of human existence. The pagan vision of man and time in Papa's principal collections signifies an attempt to compensate for the loss of faith which lies at the root of twentieth-century existentialism. The modernist sense of rootless and alienation is overcome by a return to the mythic roots of poetry, language and human existence.

About the Author :
The Author: Anita Lekic, a Yugoslav citizen born in the United States, received her M.A. in English from the University of Maryland and her Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition to articles and book reviews in professional journals, she has published translations in English of selected poems by contemporary Yugoslav poets.

Review :
Much has already been written about Vasko Popa; he is a fascinating subject. But it took the thinking and pen of Anita Lekic to make the most profound observation to date concerning the author of 'Vucja so' - that he is plainly speaking as an exorcist 'a rebours': he does not cast out, but casts into poetry spirits from Slavic myth, stories and legends, history and the daily events of the common man, into whom has already entered the most implacable spirit of all, the spirit of contemporaneity. Anita Lekic was the most implacable spirit of all, the spirit of contemporaneity. Anita Lekic was the first to hear in Popas's text this dreadful and at the same time beautiful duet. (Tymoteus Karpowicz, University of Illinois at Chicago) Vasko Popa was the one of the most significant European post-war poets. Lekic's book is the first study in English, and the most successful to date in any language, to provide a framework for analyzing the poet's powerful and magical oeuvre. (Andrew Wachtel, Northwestern University) Her study should be useful to those who would like to enter Popa's enchanted world of symbols and myths with a helpful guide. Yet this study is much more than a guide. It is an astute scholarly achievement of presenting Popa's poetry as it is intended... An uncluttered appendix tracing Popa's work, a select bibliography and a useful index contribute to the overall value of the book, making it one of the best on the subject. (Vasa D. Mihailovich, Slavic Review)