Łukasz Tischner

The article shows Adam Zagajewski’s relationship with Charles Taylor’s thought. The author argues that the poet’s dialogue with the philosopher is not limited to quotations and direct references but is also revealed at a deeper level. Based on Zagajewski’s essays and interviews, the author concludes that the poet studied Sources of the Self and The Ethics of Authenticity, and probably also drew on later works dealing with the condition of religion in a disenchanted world (“A Catholic Modernity?” and A Secular Age). Zagajewski borrowed from Taylor’s historical argument about the genealogy of modern identity. He also alluded to the philosopher’s diagnoses of the Enlightenment-Romantic lineage of modern Europeans and his conviction that the struggle for more demanding forms of spiritual life is preserved. The most direct traces of the conversation with Taylor can be found in the essays from The Defense of Ardor. The author suggests that Zagajewski also alludes to Taylor’s diagnoses in poems (e.g., “Tierra del Fuego”, “Senza flash”, and “The Kingfisher”), in which the motifs of spiritual lobotomy and the epiphanic power of poetry appear.

The aim of the article is to present the individual and intense experience of sensing the world, whose account can be found in the novel Salt of the Earth. The term “religious experience” was taken from William James. The author of the article first mentions the interpretative difficulties connected with the structural irony, which calls into question the statements verbalized in the novel. Taking into account this complexity, he points out four elements which justify talking about a religious experience in the Salt of the Earth. Firstly, he points up the title, which evokes a religious perception of the world and assumes a response to a calling which comes from God. Secondly, he refers to the Prologue (which does not contain structural irony), which contains the motif of war as a blasphemy. Thirdly, he analyses those passages in which the narrator weakens their distance towards Piotr Niewia­domski’s point of view and favourably assumes the magical interpretation of natural phenomena. Lastly, he refers to the Christian-Orphic-Hutsul motif of the immortality of the soul and contact with the dead.

Solaris belongs to the canon of the science fiction genre, and strictly speaking to its subgenre that uses the motif of encounter/contact with an alien. Although it is already 60 years old, it does not cease to fascinate successive generations of readers. Could it be due to the fact that it is surrounded by the nimbus of modernity and technological advancements? The problem of conquering the cosmos and penetrating its mysteries still belongs to the category of science fiction, seen as a reflection on the possible scenarios of the future. The issue, however, is more complex, because the novel is at the same time immersed in futurology, and ‘retro’. The text highlights some surprising inspirations that fuelled Lem’s imagination – a short story by Stefan Grabiński Szamota’s Mistress and some philosophical ideas by Arthur Schopenhauer. Such influences seem surprising because they do not fit the popular image of Lem as an advocate of philosophical naturalism and a ‘cerebral’, anti-Romantic artist. The author suggests, that Solaris is so successful because it is both futuristic and well-rooted in tradition.

The aim of the article is to present the individual and intense experience of sensing the world in religious categories, an account of which can be found in the novel The Salt of the Earth. The term “religious experience” comes from William James. The author of the article first mentions the interpretative difficulties connected with structural irony, which calls into question some of the statements verbalized in the novel. Taking into account this complexity, he points out four elements that justify discussion of a religious experience in The Salt of the Earth. First, he points to the title, which evokes a religious perception of the world, and assumes a response to a calling that comes from God. Second, he refers to the Prologue (deprived of structural irony), which introduces the theme of war as blasphemy. Third, he analyses those passages in which the narrator shortens his distance from Piotr Niewiadomski’s point of view and approvingly accepts the magical interpretation of natural phenomena. Lastly, he refers to the Christian-Orphic-Hutsul theme of the immortality of the soul and contact with the dead.

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.

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.

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.