„Modnej nagości brzydkie niedostatki”. Performowanie ciała w „Theatrum życia ludzkiego” Piotra Kwiatkowskiego
“Modnej nagości brzydkie niedostatki [Ugly privations of fashionable nudity]”. Performing the Body in Piotr Kwiatkowski’s “Theatrum życia ludzkiego” (“Theatre of Human Life”)

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt at interpreting "Theatrum życia ludzkiego" ("Theatre of Human Life"), an 18th century collection of exempla, didactic moral book of poems, written by a Polish Jesuit Piotr Kwiatkowski. He offers a radical vision of life, both as a theatre and as a trap. The presented world is constantly transforming and the people who inhabit it are subordinated to the inescapable drive for eternal damnation. Though Kwiatkowski eagerly employs poetic images referring to the dangers of nature and its elements, he is particularly disquieted by culture. The most dangerous trap, however, is the human body, perceived as a prison for the soul. Hence, nudity consistently evokes in the author associations with death. In "Theatre of Human Life" the boundary between life and death is fragile and penetrable, and man finds himself in a state of constant danger which lies in that which is the foundation of earthly identity—in his own body.

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