The Wendish Research Exchange - Šěn, Franc: Kito Lorenc – An Authority on Sorbian Literature

Lětopis Abstract 2019 2: Franc Šěn: Kito Lorenc – An Authority on Sorbian Literature

Kito Lorenc (1938–2017) was not only an important Sorbian-German poet but he also published numerous essays and studies of poetic works when working as an academic in the department of literary history of the Institute for Sorbian Studies (Institute für Sorbische Volksforschung) (1961-1972) and later as the editor of a number of works on Sorbian literature. Worth mentioning here are his study of the free verse of Jan Lajnert, his description of rhyme in Sorbian metre, the origins of Slavonic modernism in the lyric poetry of Jurij Chěžka, the island motif in Sorbian literature and questions concerning the reception of the Sorbian literary heritage. It was above all the re-evaluation of older writers contained in his 730-page “Sorbisches Lesebuch” (Sorbian Reader) that revealed Lorenc as a major authority on Sorbian literature and its structures.