To stand before the riddles of the world and human life without ready answers. About writing a biography (not only) of Jan Potocki. Jerzy Borowczyk talks with François Rosset Cover Image

Stać przed zagadkami świata i życia ludzkiego bez gotowych odpowiedzi. O pisaniu biografii (nie tylko) Jana Potockiego. Z François Rossetem rozmawia Jerzy Borowczyk
To stand before the riddles of the world and human life without ready answers. About writing a biography (not only) of Jan Potocki. Jerzy Borowczyk talks with François Rosset

Author(s): Jerzy Borowczyk
Subject(s): Archiving, French Literature, 18th Century, Theory of Literature, Source Material
Published by: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne
Keywords: French novel in the eighteenth century; travel theme; biography of Jan Potocki; autobiographism; contemporary literary biographies; editing; genetics of text;

Summary/Abstract: The conversation concerns the broadly-understood methodological background and substantive knowledge of the co-author of the highly praised biography of Jan Potocki, François Rosset. The researcher talks about the importance and usefulness of knowledge of the French eighteen-century novel, the Enlightenment ideas and artistic trends for the work on the biography of the author of The Manuscript found in Saragossa. Rosset also talks about archive research related to the work on this biography and about how he used his knowledge of editorial meanders of the famous novel while writing. The researcher emphasizes that the authors of biographies should keep a distance from the characters of their stories and that their main goal is to try to present the life cycle of a given person as comprehensively as possible, supporting it with sources.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 35
  • Page Range: 395-406
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Polish