In this article, the author performs an analysis and interpretation of Jacek Dukaj’s novel Starość aksolotla, in which Dukaj enacts his vision of the poetics of the e-novel, released directly in digital form, enhanced with many graphics and hyperlinks to footnotes that explain the represented world. The author puts forward his thesis on the synergy of elements in a literary event, such as the publication of this novel, resulting in the presentation of a well-argumented thesis on the transfer of literature outside its basic medium, the printed book (and simultaneously coherent with the views of the subject of Dukaj’s novel on the transhumanist evolution of homo sapiens).
PL
W artykule autor dokonuje analizy i interpretacji powieści Jacka Dukaja Starość aksolotla, będącej realizacją poetyki powieści e-bookowej, a więc tworzonej bezpośrednio pod wydanie cyfrowe, wzbogacone licznymi grafikami i hiperłączami do przypisów wyjaśniających świat przedstawiony. Stawia tezę o synergii elementów wydarzenia literackiego, jakim była publikacja powieści, w efekcie której wyczytać da się dobrze uargumentowana teza o przenoszeniu się literatury poza podstawowe dla niej medium, jakim jest drukowana książka (i jednocześnie spójnej z poglądami podmiotu powieści Dukaja na transhumanistyczną ewolucję homo sapiens).
W latach 1959–1995 Teodor Parnicki i jego druga żona – Eleonora, wymienili z Jackiem Łukasiewiczem, literaturoznawcą, poetą, wykładowcą i krytykiem – ponad 60 listów i kartek. Ten obszerny zbiór – zachowany w archiwum adresata – przynosi wiele cennych, z punktu widzenia parnickologii, informacji o życiu prozaika, jego procesie twórczym, a także kilka tropów interpretacyjnych. Pierwsze listy, wysyłane przez Parnickiego z Meksyku, gdzie przebywał na emigracji, odnoszą się przede wszystkim do szkiców krytycznych pisanych przez Łukasiewicza o powieściach autora "Tylko Beatrycze". Następne dotyczą już spraw bieżących, częstych próśb związanych z przeprowadzką Parnickich do Polski, a także problemów zdrowotnych prozaika. Publikacja zbioru – istotnego ze względu na wkład, jaki wnieśli w kulturę obaj korespondenci – wpisuje się w renesans zainteresowania autorem "Tylko Beatrycze" i opracowywania nie publikowanych dotąd materiałów.
EN
Between 1959–1995 Teodor Parnicki and his second wife Eleonora exchanged over 60 letters and postcards with Jacek Łukasiewicz, a literary scholar, poet, lecturer, and critic. The large collection preserved in the addressee’s archive offers, for a Parnicki researcher, numerous valuable pieces of information about the writer’s life, his creative process, and a number of interpretative tropes. The first letters sent by Parnicki from Mexico, where he stayed as an emigrant, refer mainly to Łukasiewicz’s critical sketches on Parnicki’s novels. The following letters speak about the current matters, frequent requests connected with the Parnicki’s removal to Poland, as well as the writer’s health matters. Publication of the collection, crucial due to both correspondents’ contribution to culture, is included into a renaissance of interest in Parnicki’s writing and to processing his so far unpublished materials.
This research paper encompasses a commentary and a transcript of Stefan Szlachtycz interview with Teodor Parnicki (1908–1988) – an outstanding historical novel writer. During this 20-minute-long conversation Stefan Szlachtycz – a director of a movie based on Parnicki’s novel Tylko Beatrycze (1975) – asks the writer about narrative complexities and historical references. Parnicki’s answers are of a great value for literary studies as he presents his train of thought and intellectual horizons; he also unveils some aspects of his literary practices. This interview indicates the reasons why Parnicki’s novels are so complicated, multithreaded and improbable from the historical point of view.
The letters from Teodor Parnicki, first sent during his years as an émigré in Mexico, and then from Poland, are a vocal testimony to the many years of friendship between the said novelist and Tadeusz Banaś and his family. Aside from recollections of Lviv (then Polish Lwów), where the two initiated their relationship while being in-volved in Sygnały magazine during interwar years, another valuable element of the correspondence in question is Parnicki’s translation of Valery Bryusov’s poem Cienie [Shadows], as well as (quoted by Parnicki entirely from his memory) a poem by Tadeusz Hollender Pochwała Parnickiego i filozofii jego (A Praise of Parnicki and His Philosophy). The collection is concluded by two letters written by Eleonora Parnicka, sent to the family Banaś after her husband’s death in 1988.
The text is an attempt to compare the Twenty-Second Voyage by Stanisław Lem and In partibus infidelium by Jacek Dukaj. Both stories describe the fate of the Catholic Church after the discovery of sentient races in the space and further stages of interplanetary evangelization. A closer analysis of the texts shows that both writers use a futurological method. Lem projects a return to what already had been, ornamenting his story with medieval setting (martyrdom, crusades). Dukaj references a certain principle governing the history, according to which the future will be governed by the same laws as the past, but not necessarily resulting in exactly the same situation. History is made of successive stages, recurring cyclically with a certain difference. Dukaj’s story also shows elements of Gnostic, evolutionist, as well as techno-Gnostic thinking, according to which the scientific and technical development becomes a determinant of progress
In his latest collection of essays Po piśmie [After writing], Jacek Dukaj conceives of human history as an evolution of forms in which man manifests experiences; its final stage is the direct transfer of experiences. The second most important question is the subjectification of the tool. I review earlier realizations of this concept in Dukaj’s writings and compare his ob-servations with other contemporary narratives which address the history and future of homo sapiens (mainly by Yuval Noah Harari).
PL
Jacek Dukaj w swoim najnowszym tomie esejów Po piśmie ujmuje dzieje człowieka jako ewolucję form uzewnętrzniania przeżyć, których ostatnim stadium jest bezpośredni transfer przeżyć. Drugim z najważniejszych tu zagadnień jest upodmiotowienie narzędzia. Tekst śledzi wcześniejsze realizacje tych koncepcji w utworach literackich autora Lodu, a także porównuje jego dyskurs z innymi współczesnymi narracjami o dziejach i przyszłości homo sapiens (głównie – Yuvala Noah Harariego).
This article is an attempt to interpret the novel Gniazdo światów (Nest of Worlds) by Marek S. Huberath. Contrary to appearances, this novel does not fit into the science fiction convention, nor does it implement dystopian schemes without reservations. Instead, the novel uses a repertoire of postmodern tricks and emphasizes the cryptotheological background. These themes can be read through the reference to transhistoric, gnostic world-feeling, and hermetic speculation. Therefore, Huberath’s novel appears as a meta-dystopia from which self-salvation can be an appropriate interpretation of the world around us.
Teodor Parnicki’s laconic diaries from the 1980s are filled with notes about the progress of his writing and disease, yet conceal much more than would be immediately evident. By considering what the author did not write, a very interesting picture of the final decade of communist Poland emerges. Reflection on the text, its rhythm and the construction of notes, reveals a narrative shaped by malady and senility. With the author’s decline during his final years, the schema of notes and their subject become characterized by a certain arrhythmia. These are the symptoms of the disintegrating narrative of the dying text/body.
PL
Lakoniczne Dzienniki z lat osiemdziesiątych Teodora Parnickiego, wypełnione buchalteryjnymi notkami o postępach pisarskich i chorobach, kryją w sobie znacznie więcej, niż się na pozór wydaje. Jeśli zwrócimy uwagę na to, co przemilcza ich autor, ukaże nam się bardzo ciekawy obraz ostatniej dekady PRL. Z kolei namysł nad tekstem, jego rytmem i budową zapisków odsłoni przed nami narrację maladyczną i senilną. Ostatnie roczniki, w których rozpada się schemat notek, ich tematyka, i pojawia się specyficzna arytmia, to właśnie symptomy rozpadającej się narracji zamierającego podmiotu.
This article offers an interpretation of the novel “Zabij Kleopatręˮ (1968) by Teodor Parnicki. Thanks to post-secular reflection, it is possible to situate the writer as a watchful observer of the so-called “exhaustion of modernity.ˮThis interpretation is based on a detailed analysis –through the disintegration of the generic determinants of the novel, the meta-literary level is gradually constructed to support a post-secular reading. “Zabij Kleopatręˮ can be regarded as a breakthrough novel among Parnicki’s writings.
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