A Wretched Subjectivity
This article rethinks critically a landmark work of the twentieth century—The Captive Mind, by Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz. Published in 1953, the book sought to understand human subjectivity, or, as it put it, “how the human mind functions,” in Cold-War Eastern Europe. I argue that, while probin...
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Septentrio Academic Publishing
2021
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oai:doaj.org-article:5fdf607678aa4359a0b7b0500bb2ec992021-12-04T20:57:44ZA Wretched Subjectivity10.7557/6.58281500-75021890-9671https://doaj.org/article/5fdf607678aa4359a0b7b0500bb2ec992021-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/vestnik/article/view/5828https://doaj.org/toc/1500-7502https://doaj.org/toc/1890-9671 This article rethinks critically a landmark work of the twentieth century—The Captive Mind, by Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz. Published in 1953, the book sought to understand human subjectivity, or, as it put it, “how the human mind functions,” in Cold-War Eastern Europe. I argue that, while probing what Western intellectuals of that time saw as the historical novelty of totalitarianism, Miłosz formulates an analysis that is rather retro. He represents Eastern Europe in terms of colonialism and imperialism—as a colonized realm and a colonized mind. What is more, he casts his representation in the terms of what Edward Said famously called “Orientalism”—producing a distorted, Orientalist work. Finally, while intimating hope for overcoming Eastern Europe’s domination, Miłosz shows that hope as illusory. Milen JissovSeptentrio Academic PublishingarticlecaptivitycolonialismCzeslaw MiloszimperialismmindorientalismLiterature (General)PN1-6790Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languagesPG1-9665ENRUPoljarnyj Vestnik: Norwegian Journal of Slavic Studies, Vol 24 (2021) |
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DOAJ |
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EN RU |
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captivity colonialism Czeslaw Milosz imperialism mind orientalism Literature (General) PN1-6790 Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665 |
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captivity colonialism Czeslaw Milosz imperialism mind orientalism Literature (General) PN1-6790 Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665 Milen Jissov A Wretched Subjectivity |
| description |
This article rethinks critically a landmark work of the twentieth century—The Captive Mind, by Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz. Published in 1953, the book sought to understand human subjectivity, or, as it put it, “how the human mind functions,” in Cold-War Eastern Europe. I argue that, while probing what Western intellectuals of that time saw as the historical novelty of totalitarianism, Miłosz formulates an analysis that is rather retro. He represents Eastern Europe in terms of colonialism and imperialism—as a colonized realm and a colonized mind. What is more, he casts his representation in the terms of what Edward Said famously called “Orientalism”—producing a distorted, Orientalist work. Finally, while intimating hope for overcoming Eastern Europe’s domination, Miłosz shows that hope as illusory.
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| format |
article |
| author |
Milen Jissov |
| author_facet |
Milen Jissov |
| author_sort |
Milen Jissov |
| title |
A Wretched Subjectivity |
| title_short |
A Wretched Subjectivity |
| title_full |
A Wretched Subjectivity |
| title_fullStr |
A Wretched Subjectivity |
| title_full_unstemmed |
A Wretched Subjectivity |
| title_sort |
wretched subjectivity |
| publisher |
Septentrio Academic Publishing |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| url |
https://doaj.org/article/5fdf607678aa4359a0b7b0500bb2ec99 |
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AT milenjissov awretchedsubjectivity AT milenjissov wretchedsubjectivity |
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