A BIOPOETIC APPROACH OF KATALIN LADIK’S POETRY

Abstract

The aim of the study is to explore the biopoetic elements of the lyrical opus represented in Katalin Ladik’s volume Idővitorla – Válogatott versek (1962–2022) [Time-sail – Selected Poems (1962-2022)], published in 2022, thus providing the possibility of a new reading to complement the reception, which is essentially (neo)avant-garde-centric and focuses on folkloristic elements. Biopoetic (and other posthumanist approaches that question the hegemony of the human) approaches, by exploring the literary representation of life – bios – attempt to reveal layers of meaning that have hitherto remained hidden through the relationship between culture and nature, the human and the non-human, language and the body. In this collection, the characteristic features and recurring motifs of Katalin Ladik’s poetry, including the diversity of poetic representations of natural beings, which is of particular relevance to this research, can be clearly discerned. In addition to the poetic representations of the environment, flora and fauna, and their relations with humans, the essay also examines the poetic embedding of breathing (and sound formation) and questions of universal existence in the context of Idővitorla.