Odczytywanie śladów : w kręgu dwudziestowiecznego autobiografizmu

Abstract

Interpreting Traces comprises nine essays about various autobiographical forms which appeared in the years 1910-2004. These forms reveal their authors’ entanglement in different historical, existential, political, social and communicational contexts. Thus, Interpreting Traces deals with the works that appeared during the whole of the 20th century: Pamiętnik (Diary) by Stanislaw Brzozowski, written during the period of partitions of Poland, novelistic Wspólny pokój (Common Room) by Zbigniew Uniłowski, Witold Gombrowicz’s Dziennik (Diary), which was written for “Kultura”, the selection of intimate and political notes from Mieczysław Jastrun’s Dziennik (Journal), subjective Pamiętnik (Diary) by Paweł Jasienica, the cycle of Jerzy Andrzejewski’s columns Z dnia na dzień (From Day To Day) printed in “Literatura”, Roman Przeźrocza (Slides) by Maria Kuncewiczowa, Dziennik (Journal) by Zygmunt Mycielski, who pigeonholed his writing for almost forty years, and finally, Manuela Gretkowska’s works from the beginning of the 21st century Polka (Polish Woman) and Europejka (European Woman), the latter published a year after Poland joined the European Union. We can see here forms of diary-testament and a novel of a beginner, notes of an emigrant and notes written under strict supervision, intimate confessions and a fictionalised autobiography. In each case the form results from the communicational situation and in each of them the author’s identity is a trajectory, the cohesion of which depends on the reflective reference to the broader social context. Privacy constructs a stem of the identity narration, which also has a moral dimension. In the successive interpretations the author examines the conclusions based upon the general remarks on the reflective projects of identity in the metadiscourse. The author reconstructes the “ideal identities” anticipated in various autobiographical texts, the identities which are necessary in the process of defining oneself. The question “who?” is answered circuitously, by first answering the questions “what?” and “how?” and then following the trajectories traced out by the authors of the autobiographical texts. Obviously, each of the trajectories is different, but together they constitute a configuration characteristic of the culture of a given period.Stanisław Brzozowski in his Pamiętnik creates the image of an artist-testator, who writes down a message about the need for Europeanization of Polish literature and for Eberating it from its provinciahsm through individualization and a new attitude towards tradition. With his Eterary debut Zbigniew Uniłowski became part of the fiction which perversely develops the project “I - Writer”, in which he presents the vision of PoEsh Eterature liberated from national ideology, Eterature which does not distort reality, accepts its social chaUenges and is aimed towards its universals. In the times of “thaw” Witold Gombrowicz was building and consolidating his position of a “mentor” by reviewing PoEsh literature and condemning its conformism, pragmatism and hypocrisy, i.e. by denying its importance and significance. Whether he Eked it or not, he became the “conscience of PoEsh Eterature” - the evidence for which we can find in official and unofficial texts on Gombrowicz from the time of the PoEsh People’s RepubEc. Because of Gombrowicz many artists reevaluated their achievements and yet again raised the questíon what it means to be an artist and what artisüc creations are supposed to be. In his Dziennik Mieczysław Jastrun, a Polish Faustus, described his accession to communism and ridding himself of its influence in the form of morally devastating struggle with Satan It was a victorious fight, visible in his poetry as a shift from socialist realism towards the greatest national and European Eadition. Zygmunt Mycielski, who was always individual and aristocratic, by referring to Gombrowicz’s apology of individualism, strengthened himself in the position of an outsider who contested egalitarian art and piercingly diagnosed the age of globaEzation. Pamiętnik by Paweł Jasienica, who out of necessity had to pigeonhole his writing, brought the notion of the expert - a writer and historian who examines historical sources and compares them with his own experience, in order to fully describe the traits of the 20th century. Jerzy Andrzejwski’s Gra z cieniem turned out to be an anficipation of post- -Gombrowicz identity of master and Maria Kuncewiczowa’s Przeźrocza turned out to be a self-portrait of a lady-writer, who is interested mainly in the bright side of life. These two works, which were published officially and with no delays, differ from the others as far as the vision of the world is concerned - here it is predictable and weU-known, it sometimes raises objections but never raises doubts. Manuela Gretkowska, who since her Eterary debut has been changing her identity outfits, in Polka and Europejka corrects her previous identities, realizes postmodemis ically voluminous notion of show-woman and successfuEy enters the commercialized market. Narrative self-presentation of a writer in each of the mentioned works proved to be a realization of the pattern of the art they created. In case of the autobiographical writings of the 1910 Generation this pattern is established through the belief in artists’ moral obligation towards their nation (or - in case of Gombrowicz - towards his art or himself as an artist) and through social and national duties of Eterature, which should be a testimony not only to its time but also to the universal values. This pattern is a source of the individual identities - the mentor, the master, the lady, the expert, the 20th century Faustus, the outsider i.e. the writers who accept chaUenges of reality and are sensitive to its concerns. In Polish culture such pattern is nothing new as it has been reappearing through the 19th and 20lh centuries in the harsh moments of Polish history. Each of the mentioned identities is an individual modification of this pattern and the fact of interiorization of this pattern proves that each of the writers has a strong sense of social and generational identity and accepts and develops traditional cultural patterns. Unilowski’s novel and the works of Gretkowska indicate that in a democratic country where the open market is developing, writers include their biographies in fiction, whereas in official publications under an oppressive regime the process is reversed and writers include fiction and concealment in their biographies, e.g. Kuncewiczowa’s Przezrocza and Andrzejewski’s Gra z cieniem. The pigeonholed journals of other writers from this time served the purpose of their personal moral record - a form of opposition to the dominant ideology and a testimony of internal truth. These journals also dealt with many social problems that could not be expressed in the official writing. At that time, writers were looking in privacy and intimacy for the things that the external reality could not offer - truth, ethics and auto-therapeutic integration of their identity in the personal narration.