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Title variants
Water balls. Writers’ diaries in the culture of narcissism
Languages of publication
Abstracts
This article discusses a relatively new phenomenon in literature: a writer’s diary published in his or her lifetime, presenting it is an important manifestation of the culture of narcissism. Referring to the works of Christopher Lasch, Magdalena Szpunar, Carl Cederström and André Spicer, the author focuses on one of its variants – a diary written ‘for show’. Analysing excerpts from Rozmemuary by Wojciech Kuczok, Wieloryby i ćmy by Szczepan Twardoch and Rzeczy utracone by Łukasz Orbitowski, she observes that the narcissism of these productions has a lot in common with the phenomenon of information bubble, or so-called water ball, perceived here as a metaphor for a culture that carries a number of negative properties, such as an illusion of easy communication while the reader-author relationship is disrupted, self-promotion of the author as a public figure instead of focusing on ethical, ideological, social or political observations, etc. Tempted by the promise of resolving common problems, the audience ends up following the pastime of the writer who lives in his or her own bubble (‘water ball’) filled with – rather vain – desires. The article points out some narcissistic gestures of the authors of diaries written ‘for show’, offering a literary criticism of this newly emerged cultural phenomenon – as of yet not fully studied by critics of fiction.
Publisher
Year
Volume
Issue
Pages
82-95
Physical description
Contributors
References
Document Type
Publication order reference
Identifiers
Biblioteka Nauki
1856988
YADDA identifier
bwmeta1.element.ojs-doi-10_26112_kw_2020_108_07
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