W reakcji na katastrofę. Upadek Francji w dziennikach Andrzeja Bobkowskiego i Alexandra Wertha z wiosny 1940 roku
In Response to the Catastrophe. The Fall of France in the Diaries of Andrzej Bobkowski and Alexander Werth in the Spring 1940

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to interpreting the diaries of Andrzej Bobkowski (1913–1961) and Alexander Werth (1901–1969). The two authors, a Polish intellectual and an English journalist, were in the French capital at the time of the German attack on France in May 1940 and kept their diaries there. So, these are diaries of war, but not of occupation or from the front lines. The first text remains in manuscript so far, while the second was published in the fall of 1940 under the title The Last Days of Paris. Bobkowski’s and Werth’s diaries document the reaction to France’s impending catastrophe, the catastrophe of themselves and the capital. Bobkowski does so with reference to personal fate, seeing the fall of France as the cause of yet another life crisis, which he will interpret after a while as a circumstance that makes him realize his writing vocation. Werth, on the other hand, sees the collapse of the Third Republic as a threat to European civilization, which leads him to discover the value of the basic elements of which it is composed. Thus, both authors ultimately present the historical solstice as a conflict of an axiological (moral, aesthetic, spiritual) nature.

• Details
• Contents