The Righteousness of the Father. Aleksander Wat’s Struggle with the Will Cover Image

Prawość Ojca. Aleksandra Wata zmagania z testamentem
The Righteousness of the Father. Aleksander Wat’s Struggle with the Will

Author(s): Marta Baron-Milian
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Psychoanalysis, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Aleksander Wat; avant-garde; the Father; the Other; psychoanalysis; crisis; the Lack

Summary/Abstract: The article constitutes an attempt at analysing the role of the image of a real and a symbolic father in Aleksander Wat’s work. The point of the departure is a reflection upon the issue of avant-garde gesture of breaking off with the past and identity through a change of a family name from Chwat to Wat. The problem of misunderstanding resulting from the use of different languages forms the basis of the relationship between Wat and his father and serves as the background for the proposed interpretation, whose figure becomes the Tower of Babel. The image which emerges from the analyses of the poems composed by the author of “Buchalteria”, and especially from the fragments of his journal, is one of the “voice of the Father,” tormenting the writer, which has a close connection with the return of the suppressed Jewish identity.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 2 (7)
  • Page Range: 59-76
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish