The fantastic in the works of Srečko Kosovel

/, Literature, Blesok no. 51/The fantastic in the works of Srečko Kosovel

The fantastic in the works of Srečko Kosovel

Kosovel’s poetic production features several types of poems in terms of the level of experience or reality they contain. Nevertheless, eventually this presence decreases and the techno-poetic transformation completely destroys and pulverises reality; all that remains are fragments. And then critics try to reconstruct the original story, the one that “caused” the poem, introducing into the poem narrative elements, even though it is utterly clear that each reader weaves into it his own story, not necessarily the one the poet had in mind. Whatever the case may be, the poet’s interest certainly shifts from the material relationship man – nature to a rather visionary and fantastic relation of my world – the universe. The method of using reality in Kosovel’s poetry constantly runs in the direction of de-materialising and substituting reality with inscrutable cosmic eternity.
In parallel with this de-realisation of the scene runs the process of a profound experience and sensitive re-experience of the abstract world which has splintered into an a-logical, fantastic and surreal reality. “To create should mean to show spiritualness in matter (that is in the form – symbol – of matter).
”To create should mean to spiritualise matter” – says Kosovel in his letter to Černigoj. And goes on: “Every art lives and grows from life, but its form is symbolic of the time in which we live.” In his letter of January, 1924, addressed to the painter, Černigoj, Kosovel chooses the form as the artist’s way of expressing and liberating himself. Matter, reality, life – an artist cannot change these, only the form is “his.” And with it he “translates” matter into art. “I step through letters / behind the golden curtain. / Through golden letters” (Kalejdoskop) “I would like to walk / in a small coat / of words” (Majhen plašč). These are but a few echoes of the poet’s faith in the form as a manner of individual expression in time and space. To return for a moment to the premise of the three “phases” of Kosovel’s artistic career, we realise that the process of “technicalising” runs from the impressionist form through the expressionist and then to constructivist form. This is yet another suggestion that this representative of extreme modernism was increasingly aware of the form as the essence of art. The form eventually became an increasingly obedient and loyal means of spiritualising matter.
And what are the themes and motifs that find their way into Kosovel’s process of abstracting and spiritualising? We may say that his themes are exceptionally varied, ranging from ethical and religious poems (particularly in the first volume of his collected works) to de-sacralisation of the hitherto sacred, mythicised phenomena (museums, ideas, science, capital… Europe), which can be interpreted also as an anti-spiritualisation process and attitude awakened by the poet’s political persuasion. Here also belong an ethereal and at the same time ecstatic re-experience of the fundamental elements of life: earth, heaven, water, plants, wind… Even when he sings about the poet and poetry he waxes abstract and mythical: The future he expects will be beautiful, pure, real, while poetry sets the scene for the preparations for “The Great Truth.” For this poet, art is also a special personal religion which must be served loyally and to the end, sacrificing everything, even life, if necessary. The mission of the artist is “sacred and inscrutable.” Kosovel also wrote very religious poems, placing God at the centre of the world, while the humble, miserable poet tries – almost always in vain – to uncover the mysteries of this world (for example in the poems Truden ubit, Povej, razodeni II; Dead Tired, Tell, Reveal II).
Has it ever been defined what in fact is meant by the expression: “Kosovel is the poet of the Karst?” This often repeated description is one of the most generalised labels that have been justifiably associated with the name of this poet. The Karst region is of course the poet’s haven, his home with a fire, burning red in the fireplace, crackling fire soothing the evening traveller and pilgrim. The Karst is bathed in the sun; this is where the heart flares up, golden willpower begins to ripple… (Ob začetku; At the Beginning) The sun, light and shine are the sources of energies, life and work. Kosovel describes the infinite number of positions from which the eye of the subject absorbs light which endows him with power (Na večer; In the Evening). But the fire may also be “icy”, “burning in the cold,” in a way suggesting the sadness of the Karst region which is also universal. It may be universal (“hanging over us like the sky”), but that Karst sadness is somehow transparent and human, “like a melancholy, cried-out face.” In the splendour of light, in the sea of sunshine, fire and gold, the poetic subject does not force the imagery of some real and final death and oblivion on the reader, but only wonders: Have we really lost our way, have we really died? But he cannot make the final decision, because for him there is no final and definite truth about this or any other sadness (Na večer; In the evening). Throughout this poetry there is always the Karst, particularly light, glowing, sunshine. The Karst is also the kind of haven that protects the subject against the fall into final desperation. It is a place which preserves the possibility of the subject’s indecision and undecidedness, his openness to the dual, dramatically opposing meanings of the fundamental existential values: nature, time, death, birth… The world of light in Kosovel’s poetry means a greater than the real world. For him light is a magical realm bringing to life new, unheard-of connections. In this realm of light there may be no witches or gods, but light itself is revealed as a magical, delicate, airy connection between the Karst and love, between the Karst and matter, matter as a symbol of birth with death, as the mythical attainment of all goals, etc. And all of these correspondences and similarities, all of these connections are realised through language, through new poetic forms, in unusual syntagmas, in verse which refuses to follow traditional rhymes and established rhythms.
In the opulence of light, in the play of sparkling sunshine, which is so characteristic of the Karst region, we encounter the first, albeit very simple, structured poem which can be labelled as fantastic. It runs as follows:
A silent thought shines bright
over the evening land,
the soul’s shine faded
with the golden glow.

Silent – where has it gone
the gazing soul,
as if a bird
flew across the evening?…
We may indeed say that some clear and unexpected thought “is shining bright” and indeed, the first verse “A silent thought shines bright” is first understood allegorically. But in the general shining and glowing atmosphere of the Karst, Kosovel uses the mentioned verse in its literal meaning: a thought, shining bright was given its space: It shines “over the evening land” and its dimension is rather substantial. But the soul, as the refection or sparkle of thought, becomes something material, tangible: as a kind of mirror reflecting a cosmic, brilliant thought. The allegory somehow rolled over and turned into the fantastic, into a miracle: Since the thought shines bright over the evening land and the soul is reflected in it, it is born and disappears. Like a sunbeam in the mirror, the thought is a refection, but also an object in its own right; like a bird which can fly not only over the land but also across time: “as if a bird flew across the evening?” In conformity with the principles of the fantastic, Kosovel in this poem of somewhat fantastic structure opted for a non-committal attitude, for open questionableness as an “exit” from a situation: The intermediate, indecisive and undecided position remains for the reader as well as for the poet himself.

AuthorMarija Mitrović
2018-08-21T17:23:12+00:00 November 27th, 2006|Categories: Reviews, Literature, Blesok no. 51|0 Comments