Warkocz. Transgresje Leśmiana
The plait. Leśmian’s transgressions

Summary/Abstract: The interpretations included in the paper refer to the motif of the plait which appeared in different genre forms of Bolesław Leśmian’s writing. Part one offers an introduction to its most important symbolic meanings: extraordinary value which corresponds to verse, poetic art and, at the same time, transgression and fusion of the appearance with the truth. These threads are developed in the following sub-chapter which justifies the assumption that through depicting the plait Leśmian ironically shows the paradoxality of existence as a tangle of fantasy and reality. The poet’s thought is explained in this part by the concept of Jacques Derrida’s pharmakon. The subsequent part of the article presents Leśmian’s transgressive creatures: women with plaits and plaits alone illustrating that poetry symbolized by them represents a value which is a transformation, “song with no words”, violation of boundaries and fusion of contradictions. Juxtaposing these motifs with gnostic ideas continued in the following isolated fragment overlaps with showing connections between Leśmian’s works with the formula of romantic irony, particularly as understood by Friedrich Schlegel. The parabasis, auto-ironic traces and the concept of “wordless melody” are analyzed in final interpretations which lead to the conclusion that the plait in Leśmian’s works is a figure of the unthinkable mystery of existence, and at the same time it symbolizes poetry, irony and fantasy.

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