Kult świętej dziury. Trzy oblicza nihilizmu
Cult of the Holy Void. Three Faces of Nihilism

Summary/Abstract: This sketch discusses the image of the crises of civilisation as seen by Miłosz. The initial catastrophism, enrooted in the ideas and currents of the epoch (Spengler, Witkacy, Oskar Miłosz) was followed by the post-war period of the “Hegelian bite”, i.e. fascination with Marxism. At the beginning of the 1950s Miłosz severed all ties with the communist regime “chose freedom”, and wrote The Captive Mind and A Poetical Treatise, which deconstructed the doctrine of the “new faith”. In Berkeley, the poet confronted attitudes of consumerism and the ontological crisis (A View of San Francisco Bay); this resulted in a breakdown of religious imagination, which he attempted to overcome from the 1980s. Ultimately, all three civilisation crises can be reduced to nihilism and its prophet, Nietzsche. The poet, however, was capable of challenging the philosopher (A Theological Treatise): in the face of evil, man still has universal compassion creating human unity and the experience of epiphanic beauty, which revives in him the perception of a child.

• Details
• Contents