http://hdl.handle.net/11089/24583 Narrations about Freedom Sun, 05 Apr 2026 20:44:38 GMT 2026-04-05T20:44:38Z https://dspace.uni.lodz.pl:443/bitstream/id/bf99ed0d-f6aa-4bac-8c8e-cab1b6f4ce4d/ http://hdl.handle.net/11089/24583 http://hdl.handle.net/11089/24811 Freedom and possession in the letters of Andrzej Bobkowski Ruszar, Józef Maria For Bobkowski, to maintain personal freedom based on material independence achieved through his own work was a fundamental existential issue. Freedom and financial independence were: a declaration, a life’s motto and an economic programme. The writer’s concept was, eventually, reduced to a change of his status as a political exile to the situation of an economic migrant who also supported Poland’s freedom. Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/24811 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/24812 Parables of Un-freedom: Novels about the Spanish Inquisition in post-1956 People’s Poland Bates, John The article examines three post-1956 novels ostensibly about the Spanish Inquisition’s activities in Spain at the end of the fifteenth century: Jerzy Andrzejewski’s Ciemności kryją ziemię (The Inquisitors, 1957), Julian Stryjkowski’s Przybysz z Narbony (1978), and Jozef Cepik’s Torquemada (1986). These works are placed in a number of broader contexts: the uses of the historical novel in Poland; post-war Polish censorship discourse about the use of historical analogy to address current social and political problems, a practice which the political authorities sought to restrict; the contemporary critical reception where reviews of each novel are seen as articulating the novels’ fundamental concerns albeit subject to the same censorship restrictions; and ultimately the longestablished tradition of Aesopian writing within Polish literature. The analysis demonstrates the expansion of the space for critical public expression particularly in the Thaw years of 1956-57, and its contraction over time up to the mid-1970s. The rise of an independent publishing network at that point paradoxically both facilitates a more open discussion of the potential meanings of literary texts but equally has to observe censorship proprieties to avoid exposing officially published authors to political sanctions. With the growth of underground publishing, the Spanish Inquisition theme gradually declines in relevance, reflected by the critical marginalisation of Cepik’s novel. Ultimately, the article positions the trend within Macherey’s theory of significant silences within literary works, which permits a refinement of the historically contingent screen and marker that have typically defined Aesopian works. The article presents, with their English translations, hitherto unpublished documents from the Polish Party and Censorship archives, including examples of work confiscated by the censors. Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/24812 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/24810 The multi-faceted nature of freedom in the life and works of Czesław Miłosz Głuszak, Michał The article discusses the issue of freedom in the work of Czesław Milosz. This problem is analyzed in relation to prose, poetry, essay writing, journalism, as well as numerous interviews that Milosz gave throughout his whole life. The author of the article is particularly interested in Milosz’s attitude to the sexual revolution of 1968, which he observed as a professor at Berkley. The poet was not an indifferent witness to this event. He often referred to it, often returned to it, as the author shows, not without ambivalence. Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/24810 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/11089/24807 Freedom of self-discreditation. On Witkacy’s letters to his wife Kurowska, Sara „If these letters are to be found by someone after my death, I will be brought into disrepute (…)” – wrote Witkacy to Jadwiga and he reminded his wife of destroying all the letters she receives from him. The question what and why could put the artist in disgrace seems fundamental and not so simple as one could assume. In order to find answer to this question I analyze letters in reference to Witkacy’s theory of Pure Form. According to Marshall Berman, the elements of antimodernity in modernism, i.e. an art which strived for originality and innovation, were of utmost importance because due to them the artist keeps his identity. Witkacy, an artist from the provinces, who wished to become an artist fitting modern West European art, and who tailored his theory of Pure Form to that, did not express his anti-modernist resistance directly. His resistance is visible in creating low, carnal, trivial and autobiographic forms – brought into disrepute from the point of view of modernist art and Witkacy’s own theory. Thus in his letters to his wife, Witkacy found a peculiar area of freedom – freedom of self-discreditation. Although he constantly blamed Jadwiga for lack of interest in philosophy, he was glad to communicate with her via the low art and low carnality. Sun, 01 Jan 2017 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/11089/24807 2017-01-01T00:00:00Z