Młodość i starość : szkice o twórczości Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza

Abstract

The subject of description an d in terp re tatio n contained in th e book entitled Młodość i starość... [Youth and old age...] are the selected works that belong to the early and late works of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. This youthful prose, already a little bit forgotten and not analyzed by the scholars as often as the mature works of the author of Panny z Wilka [The Young Girls of Wilko], occupies more place in the monograph. The works of th e Old-Poet (prose an d lyric) are th e subject of the second part of the book. The entire text is joined not only by the author as a person, but mostly by th e theme of youth and old age, th e problem of mem o ries, de ath and passing of time. The relations between th e themes, artistic form, contents concerning philosophy and outlook on th e world of th e early works and those from th e writer's later life period are interestingly revealed in this aspect. The fact of th e author's perm an en t need of constant search for the language, 'style' for th e new sensations seems interesting; h e expressed his care about it in his youthful prose, whereas in th e old age he again wan ts to come off victorious from this creative task. It is easy to notice, during careful reading, how th e old age goes hand in hand w ith the youth; how these phases of life determine each other in th e background of the artistic works. The attempt to look at the in tertextual entanglement of Iwaszkiewicz's works sets new interp re tatio n al directions in the book for the prose which is so representative of the literature, not only Polish but also foreign, of the past century. The analysis covers among others such works as: Wieczór u Abdona [Evening at Abdon's], Zenobia. Palmura, early novels of Iwaszkiewicz: Hilary syn buchaltera [Hilary son of a bookkeeper], Księżyc wschodzi [The moon rises] and Pejzaże sentymentalne [Sentimental landscapes] which were n o t appreciated by th e lite ra tu re specialists. The poetic prose an d the elegiac lyric from th e last years of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz's life (Mapa pogody [Weather Map], Ogrody [Gardens], Serenite) is the subject of analysis that reveals human fears, the need to assess life outcome, reflections on dying, eschatological themes at th e verge of n othingness. In the perspective of the interpretation al studies of the writer's earlier and late prose that were undertaken in here, its internal, artistic homogeneity reveals itself clearly.