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Obsession with Repulsion

Vision of Decay and the Category of Disgust in Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer’s Poetry

Summary/Abstract: The paper is devoted to common in Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer’s poetic work visions of decay, the catalytic agent in which is repulsion experienced by the subject, in particular the one described by Julia Kristeva as „fear of the self.” The body and soul, life and death, nature and poetry, subject and its memories and feelings in Tetmajer’s imaginarium are subordinated to decay—a destructive force in its nature. Most representative examples of uncommon accumulation of the motifs in question are two earliest volumes: the first (1891) and the second (1894) series of “Poezje” (“Poetry”). Assumptions of affective studies are employed to interpret Tetmajer’s poetry. The article also touches the following issues: repulsion to life, landscapes of decay, repulsion figures, decay of the self, repulsion of the bodily, decay of memory and memories.

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