Czesław Miłosz, photo. AKG Images/East News
The jury of Shenzen Literary Month had a hard task to complete. Chinese journalists, literary critics and professors of literature were not able to come to a consensus which work should receive the title of recommended book of the year. Eventually, it was decided to award 10 best books, including prof. Yi Lijun and prof. Wu Lan's Chinese translation of The Captive Mind, written by Czesław Miłosz in 1953.
The Captive Mind was written in France during the writer's exile due to the period of Stalinism in Poland. The Literary Institute in Paris, a Polish publishing house in exile, released the book in 1953. Along with the Polish edition, the book was released in English in the UK, the United States and Canada. The Chinese translation was released last year.
The Captive Mind describes the environment of writers which was well known to Miłosz. It features, under pseudonyms, Jerzy Andrzejewski, Tadeusz Borowski, Jerzy Putrament and Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński, amongst others. By observing their environment, Miłosz attempts to examine the ethical and intellectual strife which faces men and women living under totalitarianism. His work is a universal study about the human state, freedom and slavery in a totalitarian country.
Source: www.wyborcza.pl, ed. NZ, translated: Katarzyna Maksimiuk, 26.02.2014