Myth and Music Serving the Function of the “Inexpressible” Desire. On Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s “Psyche” Cover Image

Mit i muzyka w funkcji ekspresji „niewypowiadalnego” pożądania. O „Psyche” Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza
Myth and Music Serving the Function of the “Inexpressible” Desire. On Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s “Psyche”

Author(s): Wojciech Śmieja
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: J.Iwaszkiewicz; "Psyche"; camp aesthetics; homosexual discourse

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the signs of the repressed homosexuality of the writer present in J. Iwaszkiewicz’s short story "Psyche". Homosexual desire is seen here on various levels. The first is visible in the musical form given to the short story. The second is the mythological skeleton used to present a biographically understood fascination with masculinity. The writer’s identification with a goddess connects with the camp aesthetics, which marks the third level of the text’s construction revealing the author’s homosexual motivation. Apart from the aforementioned levels, homosexuality comes into light through activating of “secret signs” of homosexual discourse as seen in the introduction of the well-known motif of the superiority of “symbolic motherhood” (homosexuality) over “bodily motherhood (heterosexuality) from Plato’s "Feast".

  • Issue Year: 2006
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 43-64
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Polish