Dzieciństwo w biografii pisarza. Przypadek Brunona Schulza

The author considers childhood as an element of a writer’s biography, connected with the rest of his or her life in a complicated way. Under this approach, recounting the story of the writer’s childhood is the biographer’s duty, which he or she – striving to show the ‘truth’ – imposes on him- or herself, but does not necessarily fulfil. Biographers omit or reduce childhood for cultural reasons, based on the adopted convention, because of their own convictions, or simply due to the lack of sources. The author challenges all these reasons, arguing for the importance of childhood as a phase of human life.

Biografia jako figura myśli – założenia badań i narracji biograficznych

Beginning with a discussion of the peculiarities of biographical work, this article systematizes the field of Biography Studies by distinguishing several approaches, and then focuses on biographies as narratives. Although textual and other biographical narratives are unmistakably mediated constructions, the contents presented are often received as ‘truth’. Which textual strategies do biographies use to evoke this mode of reception, and how do they try to realize it? Finally, the article addresses the unique position of the biography between text and life, as well as their complex interactions.

Śmierć autora i jego żywoty

Writers’ biographies (written about writers by writers) constitute a genre with very long historical roots, which has flourished in the last twenty-five or thirty years. This is undoubtedly linked to the lifting of the post-structuralist ban concerning the author as a person, so that it became possible, at least in France, to legitimize biographical writing again. We date this revival to the mid-1980s, when Duras, Robbe-Grillet and Sollers all published (auto)biographical texts, whose status is certainly problematic, but nonetheless worthy of careful attention. Immersed in Romantic anthropology, in various transpositions and numerous genre nostalgias, this general ambiguity appears as the key characteristic of biographical productions of the 1980s. What we have here is a kind of a spectacle, in which the figure of the author re-enters the stage. At the same time, it is a “biographical illusion” (Bourdieu). Many contemporary biographers know that the ‘truth’ about the other can only be grasped through a play on forms (or on the memory of forms), if not, to evoke Lacan, in “a line of fiction”.

Mimowolna sylwa. O książce Anny Kaszuby-Dębskiej „Bruno. Epoka genialna”

The article offers a critical discussion of Anna Kaszuba-Dębska’s book Bruno. Epoka genialna [Bruno. The Age of Genius]. The reviewer argues that the main feature of Kaszuba-Dębska narrative is its heterogeneity; it manifests itself through the renouncement of the authorial voice, which it replaced by a dense tissue of quotations, as well as through the extensive discussion of cultural contexts and the lack of a consistently outlined dominant theme organizing the course of the protagonist’s life. For this reason, the reviewer regards Kaszuba-Dębska’s publication as a text reminiscent of a silva rerum (cf. commonplace book), whose heterogeneity, however, seems to stem from the author’s lack of control over her material, rather than from an attempt to cross the borders of the biographical genre.

Mamy „Mesjasza”!

The text refers to the question of affinities between the prose of Bruno Schulz and Olga Tokarczuk. Its narrative axis is the risky and provocative idea that Tokarczuk’s novel The Books of Jacob is, in its deepest essence, a literary realisation of Schulz’s unwritten or lost Messiah.

Wiedeńskie i lwowskie ślady Debory Vogel

A report on research conducted in Vienna and Lviv archives to locate information on Debora Vogel’s family and her young years: her exile in Vienna in 1914–1918, her education at the Realgymnasium at Albertgasse 38 (one of Vienna’s best and most modern educational institutions), and her studies at the John Casimir University (Pol. Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza) in Lviv in 1919–1924. The documents and facts presented in the article contribute to a reconstruction of the historical and cultural context in which the future writer’s mind was formed. Records such as school registers and Vogel’s student book also give an insight into the process of crystallization of her specific interests, which were later developed in her literary and critical work. Considering her tragic fate, in the case of Deborah Vogel, every new finding is particularly significant.

Debora Vogel w galicyjskim jidyszlandzie. Czasopismo „Cusztajer”

The paper sums up the history and analysis of Tsushteyer [Contribution] literary journal, published between 1929 and 1931 in Lviv. The goal of the group under the same name (comprising such writers as Debora Vogel, Rachela Auerbach, Ber Shnaper, Melekh Ravitsh and Mendl Neugröschl) was to create a strong Yiddish-speaking cultural centre in Galicia. One of their projects was establishing and publishing a literary journal. Three issues of Tsushteyer contained prose, poetry, essays and art reproductions. The paper describes the characteristics of the contents, emphasises the role of Debora Vogel in the editorial office and outlines the unique features of Tsushteyer in comparison with other Yiddish literary journals.

Próba biografii akustycznej Brunona Schulza. Doświadczenia audialne

The article analyzes the potential sonic experiences of Bruno Schulz. The numerous references to music in his prose inspire questions about Schulz’s attitude towards music. Based on the testimonies of his family and friends, it is impossible to determine Schulz’s opinion on the art of sounds, or whether he was musical and what kind of music he listened to. The ‘acoustic biography’ presented here becomes a metaphor for Schulz’s probable auditory experiences. Arranged in the chronological order, it respects the principles of probability, and is based on the historical and cultural context of 19th- and 20th-century Poland.

Witold Gombrowicz i Bruno Schulz. Biografie równoległe

This article gives an account of the overlapping biographies of Witold Gombrowicz and Bruno Schulz. It frames the events which brought the two writers together with a discussion of their literary debuts in 1933, which preceded their first meeting, and the post-war memories of Gombrowicz, who kept reminiscing about his “deceased friend”. The author describes the meetings and conversations between Schulz and Gombrowicz that took place at the latter’s apartment or in Zofia Nałkowska’s salon, their joint undertakings, such as the publication of open letters in Studio magazine, and their battle with literary critics, whose spiteful comments and attacks were aimed at what they called “young literature”. The article presents testimonies of Gombrowicz and Schulz’s mutual inspirations and interpretations, and discusses texts and events which echo their vigorous correspondence, mostly lost during the Second World War. This mosaic of dispersed facts and memories depicts a great friendship between two artists, who approached each other with curiosity and respect, but also with their typical penchant for self-irony. The idea of parallel biographies was born during the author’s work on the research project Calendar of the Life, Work, and Reception of Bruno Schulz.

Pan Karol i Pan Optikon

The relationship between Mr. Charles and the space of his abode is considered analogous to that between Rodyon Raskolnikov and his bachelor apartment. Both cases call for a resolution whether the habitational space has any impact on the character. An analysis of the fictional house’s layout makes it possible to distinguish a particular figure of the bed that, according to Yi-Fu Tuan’s conception of the object denoting place, can be modified into different landscape forms. Dynamic changes of space not only seem to take control over the apathetic, exhausted man, but also visibly influence his physicality. The author focuses on the aquatic and airless atmosphere of Mr. Charles’s house to connect its oppressive influence with the lodger’s mental condition by using symbolic explanations in terms of water and dust. The apartment preserved by still water becomes similar to an aquarium. In such an environment, the only possible form of existence is imitation of life resulting from a constant and acute feeling of imprisonment. The paper describes the position of the main character, referring to Michel Foucault’s concept of the Panopticon and suggests the use of this model to approach space in Schulz’s text.