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American Scream: & Palindrome Apocalypse
What is America? For renowned Croatian poet Dubravka Oraic Tolic, it is "what is born from our dreams without our knowing." As Columbus' dream of reaching India was interrupted by the discovery of a new land, we too discover unexpected lands in pursuit of our dreams. These new lands are the reality of our hopeful voyages. American Scream explores the tension between a nation's dream of freedom and the outworking of that dream. "Palindrome Apocalypse" explores the history of the twentieth century, beginning with the October Revolution of 1917 and ending with the bombing of Zagreb in 1991-a shadow of apocalypse. Here the exceptional poem is presented side-by-side with the Croatian so the reader can appreciate the amazing palindromic verse.
224 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2005
11 people want to read
About the author
Dubravka Oraić Tolić
28 books3 followersDubravka Oraić Tolić studirala filozofiju i ruski jezik s književnošću na Filozofskom fakultetu u Zagrebu (1962.-1966.) i Beču (1967.-1969.). Doktorirala tezom “Citatnost. Univerzalni tipovi i povijesni modeli”. Od 1971. do 1998. radi u Zavodu za znanost o književnosti Filozofskoga fakulteta u Zagrebu. Godine 1997. izabrana u znanstveno-nastavno zvanje redovite profesorice pri Odsjeku za slavenske jezike i književnosti, od 2004. pri Odsjeku za istočnoslavenske jezike i književnosti. Prevodila s ruskoga (A. Bjeli: Petrograd, V. Katajev: Trava zaborava, poezija V. Hljebnikova).
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February 27, 2016Remember when you first started to realize just how distorted and incomplete the world history you were taught in grade school really was? Sure you do; it was right around the same time you righteously informed your parents and peers that you were now a vegetarian in protest of factory farming, and began sneering derisively at kids wearing heavily branded t-shirts and sneakers, shouting about third-world sweatshops and "pathetic, mindless consumer-drones." You remember.
Well, American Scream is a bit like that—which isn't wholly surprising, since Tolić composed it as an idealistic youth in the late 1970s. In her letter to the then-US ambassador to Croatia (which is included here, thank god!) Tolić explains that her knowledge of the US was radically minimal: she had heard in the fifth grade about its unintentional discovery by Columbus, and she'd seen a handful of imported Hollywood flicks. You'd think such a deficiency of information about her central subject would guarantee failure, but, in a clever twist, that ends up being the whole point.
The America of American Scream has very little to do with the actual, existing country. Tolić actually does a truly impressive job of articulating her intent for the poem in the aforementioned letter to the Ambassador:
Yes, I realize that sounds complicated, and even pretentious. It is. Because of the inherently subjective nature of Tolić's "America," very few readers are likely to understand the poem as she did and does. But that subjectivity is also a strength. We all have our own complicated, conceptual "America;" even those of us who live or have traveled in the US harbor our personal, largely unconscious metaphorical "America" alongside it within our psyches. And it's that America that Tolić is drawing upon here.
The result is a sprawling wasteland of a poem. It echoes Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems in form and style. Like "Howl," it often feels a bit juvenile or unrefined but, again, that's the point. This is a portrait of America painted from a perspective most of us would otherwise not be privy to. Sometimes, in its idealism, its melodrama can seem petty or naive, but don't let that put you off. Naiveté can be beautiful, moving, instructive, and redemptive. American Scream is, at various points, all of those things.
Well, American Scream is a bit like that—which isn't wholly surprising, since Tolić composed it as an idealistic youth in the late 1970s. In her letter to the then-US ambassador to Croatia (which is included here, thank god!) Tolić explains that her knowledge of the US was radically minimal: she had heard in the fifth grade about its unintentional discovery by Columbus, and she'd seen a handful of imported Hollywood flicks. You'd think such a deficiency of information about her central subject would guarantee failure, but, in a clever twist, that ends up being the whole point.
The America of American Scream has very little to do with the actual, existing country. Tolić actually does a truly impressive job of articulating her intent for the poem in the aforementioned letter to the Ambassador:
In my book "America" was always—a symbol, a metaphor. The poem, as I see it, was built as a linguistic and stylistic variation on the theme of one idea—the idea of modern European civilization as the history of the liberation of mankind and the realization of the Absolute.
Yes, I realize that sounds complicated, and even pretentious. It is. Because of the inherently subjective nature of Tolić's "America," very few readers are likely to understand the poem as she did and does. But that subjectivity is also a strength. We all have our own complicated, conceptual "America;" even those of us who live or have traveled in the US harbor our personal, largely unconscious metaphorical "America" alongside it within our psyches. And it's that America that Tolić is drawing upon here.
The result is a sprawling wasteland of a poem. It echoes Ginsberg's Howl and Other Poems in form and style. Like "Howl," it often feels a bit juvenile or unrefined but, again, that's the point. This is a portrait of America painted from a perspective most of us would otherwise not be privy to. Sometimes, in its idealism, its melodrama can seem petty or naive, but don't let that put you off. Naiveté can be beautiful, moving, instructive, and redemptive. American Scream is, at various points, all of those things.
July 4, 2016
Here's my approach to poetry: I read through the poem once, and if anything at all caught my attention, even if it's just a word or a particular image that popped into my head, I go back for a second read. I am also a practical poetry reader. I know that I am not going to understand or comprehend everything that the poet was trying to articulate or create—and that's okay. Poetry is personal. It's raw emotion and loaded words and stark images. It's twisted and odd and confusing.
This isn't the poetry you studied in high school. The poet writes in a relatable, yet intricate and introspective manner of exploration and discovery. We are all on a journey to find our America—our freedom and our strength. Perhaps what I enjoyed the most in this collection was the eclectic variety of poetic forms that the poet utilized, from paragraphs to phrases to scattered words to shouting capital letters and even illustrations. It's impossible to get bored. Dubravka Oraic Tolic uses Columbus's journey to America and his subsequent discovery of India (the Indies) as a basis of comparison and contrast throughout. The very first poem had me intrigued and hooked from the start, reading, "America has a smiling face / And usually arrives with the best intentions / Usually in spring, when the mayflowers flower / Of sailors and seas. When you want to vomit / From the waves on shore." Each word, each combination, each point of stress and emphasis was carefully chosen and balanced to create a cohesive, vivid image in the reader's mind.
Another aspect of this collection that I enjoyed were the references to historical artwork and other literature. There is a short poem in the collection that compares Columbus to Odysseus and America to the siren, "And we are hostages all / On the road to Ithaca." The intricacy of the metaphor here has layers, as not only are we looking at the discovery of India and eventually America, but also the epic journeys of Greek mythology and the journey towards discovery that we all face.
This isn't the poetry you studied in high school. The poet writes in a relatable, yet intricate and introspective manner of exploration and discovery. We are all on a journey to find our America—our freedom and our strength. Perhaps what I enjoyed the most in this collection was the eclectic variety of poetic forms that the poet utilized, from paragraphs to phrases to scattered words to shouting capital letters and even illustrations. It's impossible to get bored. Dubravka Oraic Tolic uses Columbus's journey to America and his subsequent discovery of India (the Indies) as a basis of comparison and contrast throughout. The very first poem had me intrigued and hooked from the start, reading, "America has a smiling face / And usually arrives with the best intentions / Usually in spring, when the mayflowers flower / Of sailors and seas. When you want to vomit / From the waves on shore." Each word, each combination, each point of stress and emphasis was carefully chosen and balanced to create a cohesive, vivid image in the reader's mind.
Another aspect of this collection that I enjoyed were the references to historical artwork and other literature. There is a short poem in the collection that compares Columbus to Odysseus and America to the siren, "And we are hostages all / On the road to Ithaca." The intricacy of the metaphor here has layers, as not only are we looking at the discovery of India and eventually America, but also the epic journeys of Greek mythology and the journey towards discovery that we all face.
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