Months

Jacek Gutorow

Monaten is a book comprising short texts published between 2011 and 2015 in the Wrocław-based magazine Odra. These fragments are formally and thematically diverse – ranging from impressions and aphorisms a few sentences long to critical, topographical, and autobiographical passages several pages in length. Several dominant themes can be identified in the book: issues of memory and the past, reflections on the role and function of poetry in the contemporary world, an attempt to assess the state of literary criticism at the beginning of the 21st century, and an effort to describe cultural phenomena in a personal and critical mode. Above all, however, it is a collection of detached reflections and impressions that do not form any coherent whole, leaving the reader ample room for their own interpretations, elaborations, and even narrative constructions.