From Lethargy to Acrobatics. On the Vertical Orientation of the Subject in Marek Bieńczyk’s Essays Cover Image

Od letargu do akrobacji. O wertykalnej orientacji podmiotu w eseistyce Marka Bieńczyka
From Lethargy to Acrobatics. On the Vertical Orientation of the Subject in Marek Bieńczyk’s Essays

Author(s): Jacek Bielawa
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Studies of Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego
Keywords: Marek Bieńczyk; two-handedness; subject; verticality; acrobatics; essay

Summary/Abstract: Initially two-handed, Marek Bieńczyk’s writing evolved towards a hybrid, multi-genre essay formula. Referring to Sloterdijk’s concept of theoretical life (bíos theōrētikós), this evolution was presented as an expression of an attitude reluctant to create a coherent theoretical framework of scientific discourse and to construct a clearly defined identity of a scientist. It has been shown that this attitude is reflected in an increasingly frequent appearance of sylleptic selves in Bieńczyk’s essays. These subjects are placed in heterotopic spaces of acrobatic activism (which provides an alternative for a lethargic state of a theoretical man). By creating such subjects, the writer uses topoi of vertical poetics of rising and falling, which is characteristic for the melancholic imagination.

  • Issue Year: 18/2022
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 53-63
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Polish