Bohater obok świata: o poezji i prozie Ireneusza Iredyńskiego

Abstract

A quater of century after Ireneusz Iredyński’s (1939–1985) death, his oeuvre deserves closer attention. Iredyński made his debut as a poet in the period of the anti‑Stalin thaw; he was a significant representative of the circle of artists connected with the Współczesność magazine. In the beginning of the 1960s, he became well‑known due to his prose debut Dzień oszusta [A Day of a Swindler], the book that official critics and authorities found outrageous. In the next years, Iredyński achieved popularity owing to his dramatic works, valued also outside of Poland. After his death, the writer virtually sank into oblivion. Even though he is still, admittedly, associated with a legend stemming from the hot atmosphere around his first novel as well as from his openly rebellious behaviour, younger generations of readers and theatregoers do not know much about Iredyński’s literary output. The first chapter of this work is an attempt at describing Iredyński’s articles on cultural and literary subjects, his participation and position in the Polish literary life of the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s. This part deals as well with non‑artistic activity of Iredyński in different periods, his relations with other writers and reactions of the literary circle to his works. It also brings some pieces of biographical information and outlines the background of Iredyński’s work. Next two chapters present his poetry – the poems published in the press from 1955 onwards, the highly valued first collection Wszystko jest obok [Everything is beside me] and the autobiographical poem Testament 1965 [Last Will 1965]. The subsequent five chapters cover prose writings by Iredyński. This part of the book begins with a report on the case of Dzień oszusta. The next chapter brings a counter‑proposal for stereotypical interpretation of the micro‑novel Ukryty w słońcu [Hidden in the sunlight] as a continuation of the “black literature” (a trend built on opposition to the official ideology). Zdzisław Marcinów attempts to draw attention to the motif of difficult, unbearable affection. Two final chapters are focused on a specific autobiographical code in the Iredyński’s novels written in the 1970s. The study dealing with Człowiek epoki [Man of an Era] presents an analysis of a threat posed by totalitarianism to individuals, whereas in the chapter on Manipulacja [Manipulation] the attention of the author is on buffoonery of the contemporary art market. The book has not been meant as a comprehensive monograph of the Iredyński’s work; it deals with his poetry and prose, in line with the subtitle. Its scope – let us point it out – has been determined by the results of bibliography and library research. The research has revealed many literary texts that are worth studying due to interesting contexts they create for poetical and prose works by Iredyński. It also turned out that forgotten documents relating to the writer’s biography and accounts of the reception of his texts can still provide researchers with inspiration.