The article concerns Karol Irzykowski’s attitude towards Leon Chwistek. The dispute between the author of Słoń wśród porcelany [Elephant Among Porcelain] and Chwistek focuses on an understanding and conceptualisation of reality, the limits and reasons for the autonomy of art, attitudes to the tradition of realism and the value of modern art treatments (formism and futurism). The author not only reconstructs the planes of his confrontation with the philosopher, thematised by Irzykowski, but also reveals the contexts in which the critic places this polemic, diagnoses the roots of the dispute and presents the different positions of both critics on the literary and political map in the second decade of the interwar period.

The purpose of the article is to trace “relationships with Pałuba” through Karol Irzykowski’s dreams, or rather: the connections between Pałuba and entries in the diary of the aspiring writer from the 1890s, in which self-analysis and reflections on his own work abound with reports of dreams about Zosia Piotrowska, a cousin with whom Irzykowski was in love. The parallel between dreams about love and dreams about creativity is strong, thanks to the neo-Romantic inclinations of the young Irzykowski. It is revealing of his strong rationalism that allows his unfinished project of “dream analysis” to be placed next to Freud’s as one of the key symptoms of modernist revaluation.

The text is an attempt to indicate the common places in the works published by Kasprowicz as volume VI of his Dzieła poetyckie [Poetic Works]. In the field of research interest, the basic human experiences are – according to Kasprowicz – pain, associated fear and literary strategies for taming them. The cycles Ginącemu światu [To the Dying World] and Salve Regina, as well as the poems from the volume O bohaterskim koniu i walącym się domu [Of the Heroic Horse and the Wrecking House] are read in the perspective of a modern allegory. Detailed interpretations use the concepts of classical psychoanalysis (such as fetish, symptoms, denial). The source of inspiration also comes from Walter Benjamin’s proposed description of the disappearance of experience and the disintegration of significant structures – which can be recognised as phenomena characteristic of modernity.

This article is a discussion of Dominika Niedźwiedź’s monograph entitled Jak Tadeusz Żeleński stworzył Boya. Strategie, autokreacje, wizerunki [How Tadeusz Żeleński created Boy. Strategies, autocreations, portraits], which analyses the pioneering literary marketing strategies applied by Tadeusz Żeleński (Boy) in Poland (such as building his own intellectual brand, creating and promoting texts as products tailored to the expectations of the audience, the commercialisation of talent and cooperation with other market players, e.g. the press, publishing houses and literary groups).

The article critically discusses Xięga poezji idyllicznej [The Book of Idyllic Poetry], edited by Barbara Stelingowska and published in 2023. The authors focus on the editorial and substantive issues of the analysed edition – in particular, on problems related to the identity of the volume’s author, Maria Komornicka/Piotr Odmieniec Włast, shown in the necessary context of contemporary gender and queer studies.