Eda : szkice o wyobraźni i poezji

Abstract

The dissertation, which consists of five chapters, is a poetic record of Eda Ostrowska’s experiences, incorporated into the critical, as well as the historical and literary discourse. Titles of the chapters: The Outsider, The early works, The psychiatric hospital, The body, The son, indicate significant, themes which strike the reader upon his or her first reading of the books by the author of Letycja u miecznika. The first of the texts constitutes a sui generis introduction. It presents Eda Ostrowska as a detached author, one who is beyond her reality. The poet seeks refuge in ‘narcotic’ spheres because she is unable to establish an understanding between herself and the world. In her poems she preservers the hallucinations that she experiences after the intake of various substances. From her works emerges a vagabond lyrical I, existing at the edge, dicing with death. Such an image of the lyrical protagonist characterises above all the early works of Ostrowska. Therefore it seems that a continuation of the first text is the discussion featured in the second part of the book. However, the inspiration for this book is drawn from the diary, which was published for the second time by the poet in 2013. Many fragments of the texts, which were contained in the 1983 edition, are missing from the aforementioned edition. The reading of the notes by a 20-year-old woman, as well as of some of the works from the Małmazja volume of poetry, produces a sense of graphomania, but one that is construed as the furor poëticus mentioned before – an uncontrollable cacoethes scribendi, which constitutes for Eda certain self-therapy, a means of survival, of overcoming a hostile space which she inhabits. The third part also discusses the diary. It describes the psychiatric hospital as a space which is chosen by Eda. In order to analyse this problem, the author of the present book employs hospital as a different space, referring to it first as a heterotopy of crisis, and then as a perversion. The chapter entitled presents the poetry of the author of Śmiech i łaska as sensualistic, sensual poetry written by a person who is entangled in carnality. In Ostrowska’s works the body is tormented and worn out by the male, God and the surrounding reality. The son is the title of the final discussion which is contained in the book. It engages the theme of motherhood as one of the most painful od Ostrowska’s experiences, which is also brought to light in the last volumes of poetry by the author of Wierszownik.