Poetry and the Language of Oppression
Essays on Politics and Poetics
Carmen Bugan
Reviews and Awards
"...an extraordinary book...The poems reprinted here are in their different ways remarkable but nothing can beat "The Divorce" for its combination of emotional power and linguistic restraint. It's one of the most memorable modern poems of witness I have read... I find Bugan's analysis of the role played by poetry in her survival to be honest and truthful—and to achieve that is itself a kind of miracle. It has been the making of her... You can feel the extent to which the book is driven by a burden of responsibility towards other victims of oppression; as Seamus Heaney put it, she is driven by a feeling of "solidarity with the doomed". This is in every way a stunning volume by an utterly remarkable writer." -- Duncan Wu, The Oxford Magazine
"Bugan's writing demonstrates her resilience and courage to nevertheless express herself when facing oppression." -- Martha Stuit, Pulp
"In this powerful and personal book, Bugan brings up questions about literary testimony and the meaning of freedom in current times, while confronting the power of language." -- Best Books for Writers, chosen by Poets & Writers
"These are books to purchase, mark up, and return to, one essay at a time...Bugan has so many smart things to say about poetry and politics that one exits the encounter not just illuminated but shocked" -- Lee Oser, ALSCW President, Literary Matters
"Poetry and the Language of Oppression probes the delicate interface between realities that bind and words that free. We follow Bugan from Communist Romania where she discovers the tensions of writing under political oppression, to the US, Britain, France, and back to the US, where she becomes an accomplished public voice speaking for poems as meeting places of hope and marvel in uncertain times. Like the poets from whom she draws strength, among them Czeslaw Milosz, Seamus Heaney, and Pablo Neruda, Bugan believes passionately that poets can contribute to history by telling the truth and speaking 'heart to heart' about political discontent. Poetry and the Language of Oppression testifies to the vital work that poetry does in our lives, by healing division and imagining new spaces of freedom. This is a deeply moving and convincing book." -- Elleke Boehmer, Professor of World Literature in English, University of Oxford
"Bugan has written a deeply personal account of her travels across the languages of poetry and oppression. These two languages, she argues with admirable clarity, are not isolated from one another; they are often co-present, compelling us to come to terms with the fragility of poetry. Bugan's own poems scattered across the pages are a gift, as are her reflections on Whitman, Mandelstam, Milosz, Wole Soyinka, and so many others." -- Galin Tihanov, George Steiner Professor of Comparative Literature , Queen Mary University of London