Inżyniera dusz autoportret udramatyzowany, czyli pisarz jako bohater sztuki produkcyjnej

Abstract

The topic of the article is the image of a writer against the backdrop of a group of factory workers depicted in three typical production plays: Engineer Saba [Inżynier Sabal by Juliusz Wirski (1949), A Thousand Brave Men [Tysiąc walecznych] by Jan Rojewski (1951) and Times Like That [Takie czasy] by Jerzy Jurandot (1954). Representing different phases of development of socialist realism literature, the dramas refer to the same motif of so called field action, practiced in the 50s as a way of getting writers closer to the working masses. However, the writers "in the field" portrayed in those dramas deviate sharply from the propaganda image of the engineer of souls, exposing its other, far more unpleasant literary facet. Just as in socialist-realist reality, also in the dramas presented in the article the dogmatic glorification of the working masses happens at the cost of the inevitable degradation and self-abasement on the part of the writer who happens to be confronted with those masses.