Z zagadnień metapoetyki lżejszej muzy. O dolimeryczeniach, odRzeczypospolitkach, onomastikonach i innych przyokazyjkach, czyli jak nawiedzają nas stare i nowe gatunki parakabaretowe

Abstract

On December 16, 2022, at the invitation of the authorities of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Białystok, Professor Marek Piechota (the University of Silesia in Katowice) delivered a lecture in the series „Lectures of Masters.” The topic of the lecture was The Problems of Metapoetics of the Lighter Muse: On Dolimeryczenia [Delimerickizations], Odrzeczypospolitki [Respublicanisms], Onomastikony [Onomasticons] and Other Przyokazyjki [Bee-tee-dubs], or How We Are Haunted by Old and New Paracabaret Genres. The recipients of the lecture delivered in an online format were students of Polish studies. Professor Piechota is an eminent literary historian and theorist, lexicographer, editor, essayist, and satirist. He is interested in the works of major Polish Romantics (Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Krasiński) and Pre-modernists (Norwid). He publishes interpretations of works and poems of poets ranging from Jan Kochanowski to Wisława Szymborska. He also researches comparative studies, the theory of the masterpiece, and the twilight of polyglotism. He has published more than a dozen books, including On the Titles of Literary Works in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century (1992), The Epic Element in the Works of Juliusz Słowacki (1993), “Pan Tadeusz” and “The Ghost King” – Two Concepts of Romantic Epic (1995), From Title to Epilogue. Studies and Sketches on “Pan Tadeusz” (2000), “You want, as I see it, to be an old Pole...”. Studies and Sketches on the Works of Słowacki (2005), (Un)forgotten Charm of Masterpieces. Anonym, Barańczak, Camus... (2019). The extensive study is preceded by a motto in which, following Stanisław Balbus, the author expresses his conviction that literary genres are not in danger of extinction, as exemplified by the new paracabaret genres invented by him, mentioned in the title, even though at the turn of the millennium we noted something of a crisis in genology. In Part 1, he makes a declaration about the relationship between cabaret genres and music: these poems are sometimes written as song lyrics. Usually, authors do not publish „mistakes”, they do not „brag” about unsuccessful poems, and after all, how much can be learned from their own and others’ mistakes. Hence, in the subsection False Start, he presents his own fribble called przyokazyjka [bee-tee-dub], composed on the occasion of Wisława Szymborska receiving the Nobel Prize, although his intention was to write a classic limerick. He presents his arrival at satisfactory forms, finally approaching artistry in this genre in the subsections Toward Maturity and Culmination, which consist of limerick triptychs and the Shiraz Song: First Time, Second Time, Third Time composed of stanza-limericks. The whole is crowned with a climax compiled from enumerations – as in Baroque poems. Part 2, From “dolimeryczenia” [delimerickizations] to “odRzeczypospolitki” [respublicanisms], is a discussion of the poetics of two genres that are intertextual to varying degrees but equally deliberate creations, in which the thoughts of great predecessors are recalled with a supposition – bordering on exaggeration – that they did not take the trouble to bring their thought into full harmony with the poetics of the limerick and did not go beyond a mere distich. OdRzeczypospolitka is proof that even in literary cabaret it is impossible to avoid patriotic issues. The following subgenres: bajdełejka [prating], ad-hoc, przyokazyjka [bee-tee-dub], and analphabetic onomasticon are eminently contextual forms. For example, Professor Henryk Markiewicz claimed that without commentaries they are incomprehensible to a wider circle of readers. Finally, in the subsection In Conclusion (Let’s Suppose Definitive), Piechota expresses his conviction that writing poems and commenting on them can sometimes be an intriguing game between the author and the reader enchanted by the lightness of the lighter muse.