Schulz: A desire for self-creation

The article refers to Jerzy Jarzębski’s Powieść jako autokreacja [The novel as self- creation]. In this collection of essays Bruno Schulz’s prose is both discussed together with other examples from Polish literature and presented as unique in terms of self-cre- ation. This inconsistency is justified by Schulz’s worldview: he preferred ‘mythologi- cal delusion’ to purely verbal self-creation (ex nihilo). Following this lead, the author of the article adds to Jarzębski’s intuitions a few remarks on the complicated relation- ship between mythologisation and Schulz’s more or less hidden quest for self-creation. Schulz’s approach to the biblical myth of Joseph is juxtaposed with Die Geschichten Jaakobs by Thomas Mann, who kept on creating new variants of the original myth. Through contrast, Mann’s method reveals the self-creational tendencies of Schulz, who, reaching into the depths of his own prehistory, repudiates the biblical myth. At the same time, Schulz mythologises the reality, deliberately obliterating boundaries between poiesis and mythos and thus demonstrating demiurgic aspirations, which can be considered the final attempt to reconcile not only two poetics, but also two opposing visions of the world.
 

The article refers to Jerzy Jarzębski’s Powieść jako autokreacja [The novel as self- creation]. In this collection of essays Bruno Schulz’s prose is both discussed together with other examples from Polish literature and presented as unique in terms of self-cre- ation. This inconsistency is justified by Schulz’s worldview: he preferred ‘mythologi- cal delusion’ to purely verbal self-creation (ex nihilo). Following this lead, the author of the article adds to Jarzębski’s intuitions a few remarks on the complicated relation- ship between mythologisation and Schulz’s more or less hidden quest for self-creation. Schulz’s approach to the biblical myth of Joseph is juxtaposed with Die Geschichten Jaakobs by Thomas Mann, who kept on creating new variants of the original myth. Through contrast, Mann’s method reveals the self-creational tendencies of Schulz, who, reaching into the depths of his own prehistory, repudiates the biblical myth. At the same time, Schulz mythologises the reality, deliberately obliterating boundaries between poiesis and mythos and thus demonstrating demiurgic aspirations, which can be considered the final attempt to reconcile not only two poetics, but also two opposing visions of the world.