Postschulzowskie przestrzenie (re)konstruowane. Dolny Śląsk w Manekinach Karola Maliszewskiego i Bestiarium Tomasza Różyckiego

Abstract

Inspired by the prose of Bruno Schulz, Tomasz Różycki’s Bestarium (2012) and Karol Maliszewski’s Mannequins (2012) are similar in how they create the space of the world represented. The authors present Opole (in the case of Różycki) and Nowa Ruda (in the case of Maliszewski) not only as areas which the main characters penetrate and in which they are active, but also as places that reveal the characters’ cognitive horizon, as the center of their worlds. Maliszewski tells the story of a sensitive boy, who is coming of age and dealing, on the one hand, with the quotidian of a communist-era school, and – on the other – escaping into the world of his imagination. In Mannequins, the topography of the city created by Maliszewski has an island-like structure, one that is not homogenous. The city is both a concrete space of childhood, as well as its metaphorical representation. In contrast, Bestarium is an oneiric tale about a hero, who takes a walk thro ugh the city, a space that is both his own and foreign, limited and oppressive. The journey through space also becomes a jo urney into memory and premonitions. Różycki’s Opole connects three eras and spaces: medieval, German, and contemporary. It is simultaneously a real and an imagined place, an imaginarium of the heroe’s emotions and inner experiences.