Myśliwski metafizyczny. Rozważania o „Widnokręgu” i „Traktacie o łuskaniu fasoli”

Abstract

The book is based on the PhD dissertation dedicated to metaphysical threads in Wiesław Myśliwski’s novels, with special attention paid to his two novels: “Widnokrąg” [The Horizon] and “Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli” [A Treatise on Shelling Beans]. Myśliwski remains one of the most prominent living Polish writers. His area of literary activity is prose, and he descends directly from the so-called peasantry movement, which was originally codified by Henryk Bereza, and belongs to the second generation of writers represented (apart from Myśliwski) by Tadeusz Nowak, Edward Stachura, Marian Pilot, Urszula Kozioł, Ernest Bryll and Zygmunt Trziszka. Beginning with “Widnokrąg”, Myśliwski has extended his literary scope by the urban area themes, which he portrays not only on a local small town level, but also on a global one, depicting the everyday life of big western European metropolis. Myśliwski has developed a creative literary formula which both emphasizes and mysteriously brings together two seemingly contradictory areas: the urban and the rural. The thesis consists of five chapters, entitled consecutively: 1. Introduction, 2. Reception. Preliminary Categories, 3. Widnokrąg, 4. Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli, 5. Final remarks. Myśliwski’s novels stand in considerable opposition to literature treating of social and political issues. The majority of his prose presents an ontological overview of the world, being full of remarks on metaphysical relations between the human beings and the surrounding universe. The characters’ interior world is predominantly determined by the “undefinable”. Their thoughts and actions can be interpreted as attempts to face the eternal mystery of the world. The present dissertation thus mainly covers the topics connected with the question of the existence of God; it also contains references to the Bible, the mystery of the human being, the anti-dialectical depiction of the world and extrasensory phenomena such as the non-historical, the symbolic, the allegorical, the euphoric, the oneiric, the static, the subjective, the ambivalent, the irrational, the unavailable to an average human’s experience, the transcendental, the alien, the enigmatic, the extraordinary and the abstract. Moreover, the issues discussed in the dissertation include: over-reality, mysticism, paradoxes, relativity, faith, imagination, perception, psyche, psychoanalysis, self, utopia, cognitivism, antrophomorphism, irony, hatred, skepticism, hope, melancholy, loneliness, contemplation, comism, sarcasm, generational problems, innocence, initial freedom, beauty, endless joy, sensitivity, religiousness, passing, spirituality, death, friendship, eroticism, temptation, and love. The whole image thus built up in the works of Myśliwski is achieved by references to the concepts of epistemology, eschatology, metaphysical narrative, stream of consciousness, hypertext and metaphysical parable. In the first and second chapter the reader will find references to the early critical reception of Myśliwski’s texts, which later on are deepened by analytical analysis and interpretation of metaphysical threads in the author’s works published before “Widnokrąg”. The chapters also refer to some categories of exegesis, embracing issues concerning metaphysics, God, sacrum and nothingness in “Widnokrąg” and “Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli”. The third and fourth chapter concentrate on the following themes in “Widnokrąg” and “Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli”: a metaphysical vision of the human being (including mind, body, spirit, soul, space-time, transgression and God), nature and culture (tradition, customs, art, fashion, literature, word and music), history, archetypes, transcedency, eschatology, and destiny (doom, fate, coincidence and fortune). This part of the book also features some attempts at the titles’ interpretation. Chapter five concerns metaphysical threads in the plot of “Ostatnie rozdanie:. Moreover, the original dissertation has been extended by a discussion on the issues such as: metaphysical spheres in the works of Myśliwski, previously carried research on his texts (by Henryk Bereza, Czesław Dziekanowski, and Zygmunt Ziątek), the criteria of choice in selecting “Widnokrąg” and “Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli” for the present interpretation, metaphysics understood through philosophical terms, metaphysics in the folk’s vision of humanity, metaphysical literary intuitions, deliberations confronting folk culture with the very beginning of metaphysics, and, finally, the author’s literary inspirations (Jan Kochanowski, Franz Kafka, Fiodor Dostoyevski, William Faulkner, Albert Camus, Gabriel García Márquez, Tomasz Mann and Hermann Broch). The study on Myśliwski’s texts without any reference to the “first philosophy” would be similar to interpreting Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s dramas without mentioning the grotesque and modernism. In both cases such a study would not be convincing. The relation is perfectly illustrated by the plots of “Widnokrąg” and “Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli”. In the whole literary output of Myśliwski these two novels are the best examples of what the writer understands as the ontological perception of the world. Moreover, it is important to remember that metaphysics in its broad context determines the life of the characters, who enter the magical land of their own memories and thus revive the picture of people who used to be close to them. The characters are deeply complicated individuals who despite being doomed with fatal destination are doing their best to revert reality and triumph over seemingly inevitable ruthlessness of fate. The characters appearing in Mysliwski’s books are crossing internal boundaries of their own weaknesses in order to fully open the gates to experiencing the glory of the metaphysical nature. The ontological universe of “Widnokrąg” and “Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli” consists also of philosophical discussions carried by the characters around topics of mysterious purpose of life and the true nature of good and evil. In this way Myśliwski’s readers enter the world of unusual events hidden under the cover of everyday reality. The content of “Widnokrąg” and “Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli” also includes the elements relevant to contemporary existential and phenomenological thought or even to post-Newtonian physics. The language these novels is characterized by a cosmo-mythical representation, by the use of flexible and poetic vocabulary, and, finally, by the inclusion of fairy-tale elements. Throughout all the works by Myśliwski (novels and dramas) the reader constantly encounters the themes related to a broadly understood concept of spirituality (both in its religious and social dimensions), the influence of various axiological systems on ethical choices of the contemporary man (the man who is endlessly tormented by doubts and faith crisis) and the mystery of human existence. In brief, “Widnokrąg” and “Traktat o łuskaniu fasoli” can be treated as the metaphysical crème de la crème of Myśliwski’s literary output.