Bronisław Malinowski and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz: Journey to the Polish Sources of Modern Anthropology

International audience In 1967, Bronisław Malinowski’s daughter published part of the journal that he kept from 1908 to 1918, as A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term. Malinowski had never intended these personal reflections, recorded during his expeditions to Mailu and the Trobriand Islands between 1914 and 1918. They became the subject of discussions and polemics. The “triviality” of the issues addressed in the Diary astonished many readers and led some critics, such as anthropologist Clifford Geertz, to conclude that the author was a “hypochondriacal narcissist.” This paper takes up several themes that arise in the debate surrounding Malinowski’s Diary in confrontation with Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s autobiographic novel 622 Downfalls of Bungo written in 1910‑1911. Witkiewicz, the Polish novelist, playwright, and artist, was a very close friend of Malinowski’s and took part in one of the anthropologist’s field expeditions. This article reconsiders Malinowski’s journal and explores the impact of Polish culture on modern anthropology. It also proposes a new perspective on the resonance of the Diary and attempts to dispel some of the misconceptions surrounding its interpretation. Le Journal d’ethnographe de Bronisław Malinowski, compilation de notes non destinées à la publication, réunies pendant les séjours de l’anthropologue sur l’île Mailu et les îles Trobriand entre 1914 et 1918, a suscité de nombreuses polémiques au moment de sa publication posthume en 1967. La trivialité des préoccupations du futur grand anthropologue n’a pas manqué de choquer et a valu à l’auteur d’être qualifié de « narcisse hypocondriaque » par Clifford Geertz. Cet article se propose de reprendre le débat sur le Journal d’ethnographe à la lumière du roman de jeunesse de Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Les 622 chutes de Bungo (écrit en 1910/1911). S.I. Witkiewicz, peintre, dramaturge et romancier, était alors lié avec Malinowski par une grande amitié et l’a accompagné au début de son expédition en 1914. Une telle relecture du Journal d’ethnographe permet de reconsidérer l’apport de la culture polonaise à la charte de l’anthropologie moderne et de dénouer certains malentendus que le Journal a pu susciter. W roku 1967 córka Bronisława Malinowskiego opublikowała pod tytułem A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term część dziennika, prowadzonego przez antropologa w latach 1908‑1918 i nieprzeznaczonego przez samego autora do publikacji. Notatki te, pochodzące z okresu pobytów antropologa na wyspie Mailu oraz na wyspach Trobrianda w latach 1914‑1918 stały się przedmiotem licznych komentarzy i polemik. «Trywialność» problematyki Dziennika zdumiała wielu spośród jego czytelników, prowadząc na przykład Clifforda Geertza do stwierdzenia, że autor ujawnia się tam jako «hipochondryczny narcyz». Artykuł podejmuje niektóre wątki debaty na temat Dziennika Malinowskiego w świetle 622 upadków Bunga, pisanej w latach 1910‑1911 autobiograficznej powieści Stanisława Ignacego Witkiewicza. Witkacy, połączony od czasów młodzieńczych wielką przyjaźnią z Malinowskim, wziął udział w pierwszym etapie jednej z wypraw badawczych antropologa. Tego rodzaju lektura ma pozwolić na ponowne przemyślenie wkładu kultury polskiej w nowoczesną antropologię, a jednocześnie rozwiać pewne nieporozumienia, związane z dotychczasowymi interpretacjami Dziennika.

Beyond Content. On the Form in Sound Art

Form in sound art is the crucial aspect for both analysis and per- ception. The theoretical basis includes, among others, the theory of ‘Pure Form’ devised by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and Susan Sontag’s theory of interpretation. Later in the text, issues of aesthetics and anti-aesthetic are mentioned. The research questions dealt with in this text were: What is the position of form in sound art and how is it related to content? What kinds of means of expression can be applied? The employed methods in- clude literary analysis and criticism as well as some elements of structural analysis. The examples analyzed in this article were broadcasts by Gregory Whitehead, Eugeniusz Rudnik, Tomasz Plata, and Antye Greie. The per- ception of the art can be disturbed by certain means of expression such as formal chaos or noise which is also considered in the text.

IRENA JAKIMOWICZ: AN IDEAL MUSEOLOGIST

Having studied history of art on clandestine Warsaw University courses run in 1943–1944, Irena Jakimowicz (1922–1999) graduated in 1951. In 1945–1991, she worked at the National Museum in Warsaw, initially in the Educational Department, from 1953 in the Polish Graphic Arts Department, out of which in 1958 she selected works executed after 1914, turning them into the Department of Graphic Arts and Contemporary Drawings which she headed as curator. Until early 1982, the Department formed part of the Gallery of Contemporary Art, yet it subsequently gained autonomy as the Cabinet of Graphic Arts and Contemporary Drawings curated by Irena Jakimowicz. Jakimowicz mounted some dozens exhibitions, mainly monographic ones of Polish contemporary artists, e.g. Bronisław Wojciech Linke (1963), Zygmunt Waliszewski (1964), Feliks Topolski (1965), Wacław Wąsowicz (1969), Tadeusz Kulisiewicz (1971), Konstanty Brandel (1977), Henryk Gotlib (1980), Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1989/1990). All the exhibitions were accompanied by reasoned catalgoues. Furthermore, Jakimowicz authored several cross-sectional, such as ‘Within the Circle of the Rembrandt Tradition’ (1956), ‘From Young Poland to Today’ (1959), ‘Polish Contemporary Graphic Arts 1900–1960’ (1960), ‘The Formists’ (1985), ‘Five Centuries of Polish Prints’ (1997). In 1970, she defended her doctoral dissertation dedicated to the collector Tomasz Zieliński. Moreover, she authored many papers, reviews, and books, e.g. Witkacy – Chwistek – Strzemiński (1976), Witkacy Malarz [Witkacy the Painter] (1985), Jerzy Mierzejewski (1996). She was a wonderful Boss: demanding, but strict with herself, too. Attentive to her employees’ development, she could appreciate and use their abilities to their own benefit and to the benefit of their institution. Those who had the privilege and pleasure of cooperating with her, recall her with admiration saying what a likeable person she was.

„622 upadki” Witkacego w listach do żony o żonach

The article is a view of relation that bonds Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz and Jadwiga Unrug-Witkiewicz that emerges from his mails to the wife. His view of imperfect relationship of man and woman, marriage, a relation towards the sacrament, offspring, love and faithfulness contains the traces of God’s reality.

„Połniejszyj bardak i untiergang”. O degeneracji w literaturze (z nieustającym odniesieniem do Maxa Nordaua)

The article deals with the topic of degeneration, thereby bringing back the name Max Nordau for reflection on the literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Nordau’s writings are not, however, the subject of autonomous reflection or ideological reconstruction here. The aim is to present a model of the attitude stigmatizing everything that the author of Entartung considered a disease. Branding literature and art as degenerate meets with the crisis of the late nineteenth century – partly envisaging this crisis, partly aggravating it. In this perspective – tracing the signs of degeneration not following Nordau, but referring to his diagnoses – I read selected works of H.G. Wells, Wacław Berent, Jerzy Żuławski, and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. The theme of degeneration itself is differently functionalized and metaphorized in their writings. Common for them appears to be a pessimistic attitude to evolution as in fact involution, increasing morbidity, bestiality, misfortune.