Łukasz Tischner

Tekst jest polemiczną odpowiedzią na artykuł recenzyjny na temat książki Pau Freixy Terradasa Witoldo wyobrażony. Recepcja twórczości Witolda Gombrowicza w Argentynie i obraz pisarza w argentyńskim imaginarium kulturowym, który napisał Marian Bielecki. Tischner dowodzi, iż najważniejsze zarzuty stawiane Terradasowi nie mają uzasadnienia, i twierdzi, że książka Katalończyka pozostaje wiarygodnym i nieodzownym źródłem informacji na temat recepcji Gombrowicza w Argentynie.

Translation as a Test of Assent: Stanisław Barańczak’s Poem Five Postcards from and to Emily Dickinson

Stanisław Barańczak is well known not only as a poet, but also as an extremely prolific translator who became famous for translating the works of Shakespeare and British and American poets. In the 1980s, just before and immediately after his forced political emigration to the United States, he extensively translated religious poets (e.g. ‘metaphysical poets’, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Emily Dickinson). This was a rather surprising choice, given the fact that Barańczak was an agnostic, distrustful of the world of religion. On the other hand, however, it was at that time that he introduced in his own poetry (“Atlantis”, “A Postcard from this World”) phrases testing the possibility of religious “real assent” (John Henry Newman’s term). It seems that for Barańczak translation of some poets becomes not only an opportunity to broaden the scope of the Polish language and improve his own technique, but also an attempt to “assent” to the religious vision of the world, which is evoked by the lyric of the poets he admired. The poem Five Postcards from and to Emily Dickinson seems to support such an interpretation. My analyses are inspired by scholars of Barańczak’s work, as well as by those who study literature and religion: Paul Ricoeur and Charles Taylor.

Solaris należy do kanonu gatunku fantastyki naukowej, a ściśle do jej wersji wykorzystującej motyw kontaktu z obcym. Choć ma już przeszło 60 lat, nie przestaje fascynować kolejnych pokoleń czytelników. Czy wynika to z faktu, że otacza ją nimb nowoczesności i postępu technologicznego? Problem podboju kosmosu i zgłębiania jego tajemnic wciąż należy do kategorii fantastyki naukowej, postrzeganej jako namysł nad scenariuszami przyszłości. Sprawa jest jednak bardziej złożona, bo powieść jest jednocześnie zanurzona w futurologii i „retro”. W tekście pojawiają się zaskakujące inspiracje, które karmiły wyobraźnię Lema – opowiadanie Stefana Grabińskiego Kochanka Szamoty oraz niektóre filozoficzne idee Arthura Schopenhauera. Wpływy te wydają się zaskakujące, ponieważ nie pasują do popularnego wizerunku Lema jako zwolennika naturalizmu filozoficznego i antyromantycznego „mózgowca”. Autor sugeruje, że Solaris odniosło sukces, ponieważ jest jednocześnie futurystyczne i dobrze zakorzenione w tradycji.

The review discusses the book by Edyta Sołtys-Lewandowska O „ocalającej nieporządek rzeczy” polskiej poezji metafizycznej i religijnej drugiej połowy XX wieku i początków XXI wieku, which is aimed at describing contemporary Polish poetry in terms of its religious/metaphysical quests. Sołtys-Lewandowska distinguishes two types of poetry, namely, religious and metaphysical. The first type refers to the poems which depict a personal relationship with God; the second implies a premonition of an outer reality which transcends the limits of human cognition. Sołtys-Lewandowska interprets a variety of poems. She analyzes what she calls the “sacralization” and the “desacralization” effects, describes the figures of God (especially the figure of Father and Lord) and argues that contemporary Polish poetry may be interpreted as an expression of a “return of religion”. The reviewer appreciates the original idea of the book but criticizes the too broad scope of the project which results in very general conclusions. He also disagrees with some typological concepts which don’t seem to be really consistent and helpful.
 

“Is it worth being a pure sceptic, without any admixture?” Secrets of Witold Gombrowicz’s Opętani

The article analyzes Witold Gombrowicz’s pre-war novel Opętani (Possesed). The novel was published under a pseudonym and Gombrowicz had professed to be its actual author just before he died. This long-term concealment provoked an argument about the nov- el’s artistic value. According to Maria Janion, the novel is a legitimate and important part of Gombrowicz’s writings, whereas Jerzy Jarzębski, the second major participant of the dispute, pointed out the flamboyant schematism of the text. The author of the article espouses Jarzębski’s viewpoint, although he believes Opętani to be a mediocre good book rather than a good bad book. The novelty of this interpretation lies in discovering an im- portant inspiration of Gombrowicz’s text: Julian Ochorowicz’s writings on mediumship. The author proves that Hińcz, one of the novel’s characters, was undoubtedly modeled on Ochorowicz. The author also states that Gombrowicz composed the plot of the novel under the influence of some accounts of Ochorowicz’s mediumistic experiments. The ar- ticle suggests that the poetics of popular fiction and gothic novel might hide some more sophisticated psychological meanings, but they are revoked by the schematism of Opętani to eventually come to the fore in Ślub (The Marriage) and Pornografia.