Wincenty Lutosławski i literatura. Studia

Abstract

This volume contains studies, sketches and materials focused on the biography of Wincenty Lutosławski (1863–1954), an outstanding Polish and European philosopher, expert in Plato’s philosophy who was first to establish the chronology of Plato’s writings, an advocate of neo-messianism. Lutosławski was also an important figure in the Polish literary life in the Young Poland modernist period; as the husband of Sofía Casanova (1861–1958), a Spanish writer, he opens an interesting field of study into the Spanish culture, and Polish-Spanish literary relationships at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The plan to organize a scientific conference devoted to Wincenty Lutosławski, a historian of philosophy and a prominent Polish philosopher of the 19th century, and his relationships with the literature and culture of the 19th and 20th centuries, was conceived by the group of researchers of Young Poland at the University of Białystok. Prof. Jarosław Ławski proposed that the session on that subject be included in a series of Białystok conferences aimed to revive and interpret modernistic literary motifs that fell into oblivion: „Young Poland: Revisions, Reinterpretations”. The 3rd National Conference in that series, entitled “Wincenty Lutosławski and Literature. Aesthetic Relationships – Philosophy – Reception” was held in Białystok and Drozdowo near Łomża on 11 and 12 October 2019. The conference was jointly organized by the “East-West” Department of Philological Studies at the University of Białystok, Faculty of Philology, the Department of Positivism and Young Poland Literature History at the Jagiellonian University, Faculty of Polish Studies, Książnica Podlaska im. Łukasza Górnickiego in Białystok (Scientific Division), the Nature Museum – Lutosławskis Mansion in Drozdowo. The following topics were addressed at the conference and are discussed in this monograph: – Wincenty Lutosławski, a writer and an essayist. – Literature in the philosophical work of Lutosławski, philosophy in his essays and pamphlets. – The twists and turns of the philosopher’s biography. – Philosophical thought of Lutosławski in the 19th- and 20th-century context. – Lutosławski’s self-creations. – The domestic environment and the world in the life and work of the philosopher. – The communities created by the philosopher: Eleuteria, Eleusis, Blacksmiths Society. – Lutosławski vs. 19th- and 20th-century modernism. – Positions of woman and man in the imaginarium and thought of Lutosławski. – Lutosławski and 19th- and 20th-century notable figures. – Reception of the Drozdowo philosopher work. The conference was divided into two sessions: the first was held on 11 October 2019 in Białystok, and the second (plenary) – on 12 October in the Lutosławskis Mansion in Drozdowo near Łomża. This monograph also features articles about the Lutosławskis, Sofía Casanova, Drozdowo and Wincenty Lutosławski who had literary ambitions and mentored young writers, greatly influencing such authors as Sofía Casanova, Jerzy Żuławski, Tadeusz Miciński, Stanisław Przybyszewski and others. The studies and sketches form three thematic groups: I. Word, life, literature (e.g. articles about Lutosławski as a writer, the author of ironic “metaphysics of sex”, theatre lover, reader of works by Mickiewicz, Towiański, Miciński, Przybyszewski); II. Ideas, concepts, utopian projects (studies into the discovery of the self by Lutosławski, his idealism, approaches to teaching, his pessimism). III. Fates, biographies (a report on the panel, articles about the Drozdowo mansion, and previously unpublished materials from family archives, such as the memoirs of Halina Meissner, his daughter). Part IV entitled The Lutosławskis in pictures features photographs of the philosopher, of Spanish and Polish editions of his studies, works by Sofía Casanova, and photographic documentation of the conference. The book is edited by Dr. Anna Janicka, Prof. at the University of Białystok, a researcher focused on the literature of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries at the Department of Interdisciplinary Philological Studies (University of Białystok), Hanna Libera MD, the great-grand daughter of the philosopher and writer, living in Essen (Germany), and Prof. Jarosław Ławski, chair of the “East-West” Department of Philological Studies at the University of Białystok. The monograph editing process was supported by Dr. Urszula M. Pilch from the Department of Positivism and Young Poland Literature History at the Jagiellonian University and Dr. Marcin Bajko from the Institute of Source Studies into the Literature of the 19th and 20th Centuries at the University of Białystok. The final section of the volume features a “Young Poland: Revisions, Reinterpretations” series of studies conducted jointly by researchers of modernism from the University of Białystok and Jagiellonian University. The publication of this volume was supported as part of the Ministry of Education and Science programme named “Regional Excellence Initiative” (2018–2022), implemented at the University of Białystok, Faculty of Philology.