Szachy literackie? : rzecz o twórczości Karola Irzykowskiego

Abstract

This book presents the literary output of an outstanding literary critic, Karol Irzykowski, an author of the precursor novel Paluba, a great essayist and an average poet yet attached to his poems; an interesting novelist, an outstanding playwright and a fascinating diarist. The lesser known part of Irzykowski’s work is mainly the subject matter of this book. As a writer was not only interested in the intellectual field but also keenly interested in politics. It would be an understatement to consider him solely a precise analyst and diagnostician. Irzykowski was open to intimate confessions and expressions of pain and loss; was committed to many things. Played part in disputes with plagiarists. As a juror made attempts to set the rules of literary competitions and strived to set more clear and logical rules of orthography. He was constantly engaged in polemics with somebody; difficult dialogues were conducted with Brzozowski, Hebbel and Freud. The attentive reader of Irzykowski’s and Gombrowicz’s literary output will certainly notice many convergences and astonishing similarities. There is also situated Leksykon wynalazków językowych at the end of the book. Irzykowski, the destroyer of mental and linguistic stereotypes, was always trying to find better, more explicit, well-phrased and more coloured words. He invented new terms. Great majority of them entered the universal dictionary and broadened our communication.