Political but Non-party Cover Image

Polityczna, niepartyjna
Political but Non-party

Author(s): Piotr Śliwiński
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: literary criticism; engagement; the political; political turn; contemporary polish literature

Summary/Abstract: In recent years, involvement has become almost the main topic of literary life; this is due largely to the fact that, firstly, there has emerged a group of authors who manifest not only their political views, but also their obligations; secondly due to the fact that some critics appeal for a „political turnaround” in literature and thirdly, due to the popularization of the thought of several world philosophers, with Jacques Rancier at the helm, who try to extract the political out of the aesthetic, and fourthly, as a consequence of the reactivation of old languages – Marxist one on the left side and conservative-identity one on the right. The resistance which these tendencies have aroused in some milieus is associated with the conviction that the discovery of the political possibilities of literature and its interpretation leads (or will lead) to its literariness, utilitarization, subordination to the languages that dominate on the public scene. The author of the article shares the above fears; he is of the opinion that literature should rather be an instrument for undermining instruments, pragmatism and sociologism by means of a language that does not belong to the territory of defined discourse; whereas the most interesting aspect of its political nature consists in its ability to resist politics.

  • Issue Year: 2011
  • Issue No: 09
  • Page Range: 51-58
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: Polish