Patyna a nie moda : kulturowa wartość literatury najnowszej

Abstract

According to Grant McCracken's distinction between "fashion" and "patina" as two strategies to accumulate the symbolic capital, the author proves that in contemporary Polish literary culture the literature functions as patina. In reference to the cultural past, literature is being contrasted with what is new: satellite television, computer games, the worship of celebrities. But since literature as such is the medium and is received in the same way, the technique of contrasting justifies, in fact, the new forms of pop culture. This phenomenon is at the service of the "new bourgeois literature" that has become more noticeable during the last years. The paper of Jacek Dukaj entitled "Lament miłośnika cegiel" ("The Lover of Book-bricks' Lamentation") has served as a manifesto calling for the old-fashioned literature. The paper was received with great approval and somewhat predicted the success of Jacek Dehnel's novel "Lala". The author analyzes Dehnel's prose and points that the writer ironically and ambiguously demonstrates the way in which he imitates the old-fashioned literature and symbolic capital. This issue, however, escapes the attention of readers and critics attention who are enchanted with the young author writing prose in the style of the 19th and 20th century.