Blessings of Avant-Garde. “The Scribe of (Un)Holy Scriptures” Miron Białoszewski Cover Image

Błogosławieństwa awangardy. „Pisarz pism nie św.” Miron Białoszewski
Blessings of Avant-Garde. “The Scribe of (Un)Holy Scriptures” Miron Białoszewski

Author(s): Piotr Bogalecki
Subject(s): Poetry, Metaphysics, Polish Literature, Philosophy of Religion, Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Miron Białoszewski; postsecularism; postsecular poetry; avant-garde; neoavant-garde; epiphany; literature and religion;

Summary/Abstract: It can be observed that the hitherto prevailing tendencies of reading Miron Białoszewski’s works – saturated with religious references used in an idiomatic or profane way – have been either metaphysical (A. and T. Sobolewski, M. Stala, A. Zagajewski) or linguistic (J. Sławiński, E. Balcerzan, S. Barańczak). These two extremities produce a gap that can be bridged by a reading which combines the postsecular perspective, understood in an institutional way, with neo-avant-garde (in H. Foster’s interpretation). Just as the avant-garde is a critique of the obligatory art institution (P. Bürger), so can postsecularism be understood as a critique of the current institution of religion. The article presents readings of Kalejdoskop (Kaleidoscope) and of poems written in the 1950s and 1960s, and shows Białoszewski’s poetry as neo-avant-garde and postsecular at the same time, depicting the writer as the first postwar postsecular Polish poet.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 40
  • Page Range: 85-114
  • Page Count: 30
  • Language: Polish