Zatoka Coruñi i Bańki mydlane – Lutosławski czyta Przybyszewskiego

Abstract

The article Coruña Bay and “Soap Bubbles” – Lutosławski Reads Przybyszewski raises the topic of Wincenty Lutosławski’s relationship with Stanisław Przybyszewski – exploring both a biographical episode (Przybyszewski’s stay at the Lutosławski’s house in Playa de Mera in Spain in 1898) and the publication of the pamphlet Soap Bubbles (1899), a critical interpretation of the early works of Przybyszewski that had been published in Polish after the writer’s move from Berlin to Kraków. Lutosławski’s style of reading Przybyszewski is mimetic, based on a desire for a clear plot with lucid meaning. Therefore, Lutosławski’s complaints focus usually on the deflation of the represented world, “sick” characters, or “the cult of passion,” and they reflect the philosopher’s purely social and Neo-Messianic point of view. Lutosławski’s pamphlet did a lot of harm to Przybyszewski and to Polish culture, since it constructed the author of Confiteor as “the inspector from St. Petersburg”, who arrived in the Kraków of the Young Poland era in the nimbus of false European fame. This unfair opinion concerning Przybyszewski continued to function in Polish society for decades.