Juliana Stryjkowskiego obrazy dziecka i dzieciństwa

Abstract

The author of the article argues that the pictures of children and childhood in Julian Stryjkowski’s work combine biographical and fictional elements, but with an emphasis put on the former. Sometimes, it is difficult to distinguish clearly one from the other. The writer does not avoid mythicization, and his images of the child and childhood remain extremely multidimensional. We can find a lot of them in the writer’s personal reflections, which are filled with historical and socio-philosophical remarks. They are among main semantic dominants of his prose, and they arise directly from the Stryjkowski’s complicated and often dramatic life, during which he would behave like a child constantly surprised by everything and thus feeling the urge has to describe it, put in literary frames, and explain in his own words. He was truly unmatched at playing such a game. Yet, his works have a universal value and relate to things that are close to us all.