Idea wolności w opowieści Andrzeja Struga Wyspa zapomnienia
The Idea of Freedom in the Tale of Andrzej Strug The Island of Forgetfulness

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the theme of freedom in the biography and in the artistic works of Andrzej Strug, especially in his long short story The Island of Forgetfulness. Strug was a leader of the Polish masonic organisation in the 1920–1929 period. However, masonic ideas were not widely presented in all of his works of prose. Nevertheless, The Island of Forgetfulness is the exception off this rule. Masonic symbols and themes create the matrix of the imaginary world in this tale. The model of initiation, which is based on masonic and esoteric symbols, forms the core of the text’s structure. The hero believes that the idea of freedom means liberation from the world of people, but eventually he turns out to be wrong, because he could not escape from himself, from his own crimes. The initiation model used in the analysis of the hero’s plot line consists of seven phases: 1) preparation (“awaking”), 2) “the darkness of the senses” (katharsis), 3) creation act, 4) illumination, 5) “the darkness of the soul”, 6) rite de passage (death motif), 7) unio oppositorum. Finally, the hero in Strug’s tale could not successfully complete his initiation and went mad.

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