Rzecznik miejsc pokonanych : przestrzenie Filipa Springera

Abstract

The paper focuses on the notion of space in four books by Filip Springer: Miedzianka, Źle urodzone, Zaczyn, Wanna z kolumnadą. In the works of this young reporter space seems to be defeated and that makes him some kind of spokesman for the conquered places. The chapter The conquerors of the space deals with the destroying forces: historical periods and their reality, political systems and, most of all, human cluelessness or greed. Next three chapters are an attempt to analyse three Springer’s methods of defending places he describes: “the dignifying” (by the mythologisation of some places and the appreciation of utopian ideas), “the humanisation” (by using metaphors associated with people and describing the spaces in their connections with their users) and “the literarisation” (by mentioning works of some famous writers, using poetic language and mixing the process of writing with the space, the art of words with the idea of architecture). The chapter Woe to victors presents the effects that the failures of the spaces have on the community. The main loser in the situation is not the place itself, but the interpersonal bond. However, the people do not want to listen to the spokesman (the spokesman for the space but — as it turns out — for the people themselves). And that makes him “spokesman in revolt”, who (along the lines of the Camusian Sisyphus) speaks against all odds.