FROM PURE FORM TO NON-FICTION
Citing the above title of a dissertation by Artur Hutnikiewicz, a literary scholar, when describing the contents of almost every issue of “Studium” magazine published in Kraków would be very adequate. I would omit only some of the issues specializing (however seriously it would sound) in national literatures – say, the recent review of the newest Czech prose. It is difficult, however, to find a characteristic of any specialization for the current issues. Can a circle of people be this kind of a bond? A place – Kraków? A publishing policy? Certainly not. Grzegorz Wysocki also drew our attention to this problem when reviewing the jubilee issue of the magazine (4-5/2005) in one of the issues of “Journals Showcase”. We have in front of us a magazine about new literature. New and young. Without any hierarchy of personalities, subjects, types and genres. 277 pages that mirror the literary culture is a proposal-review of the movements of the literature development that is bewildering in its diversity. What is more – no one is going to organize this diversity for us (apart from a simple division into prose, poetry, interviews, reviews, essays etc.) New literature means simply Jacek Dehnel but also Dariusz Pado, Joanna Wajs, Piotr Siemion, Jakub Winiarski and, still unknown to anyone, Aleksander Suzdalcew – a debutant. Od czystej formy do literatury faktu (From Pure Form to Non-fiction) – the title of a companion to twenty century art trends would be definitely the best subtitle-characteristic for “Studium” published in Kraków.
Problems with Dehnel
It is good that Jacek Dehnel has found a shelter with “Studium”. He is going to run a column Fotoplastikon (Peepshow) that will enable him at last to make an inventory of family mementoes – photographs, postcards, oil painting reproductions and engravings – probably there is loads of them in his drawers. It is even better that the editorial team does not make allowance for the award-winning poet, (presently) permanent (as I think) collaborator of “Studium”. In the same issue Marta Tomczyk asks Dehnel (Dehnel’s poetry) several vital but inconvenient questions: “When reading for the first time [a book “Wiersze” (“Poems”) published by Lampa I Iskra Boża publishing house – AW] I find the choice of vocabulary striking. A tendency to use archaic words that are bizarre and rarely used (…). A taste for language bizarre effects and archaisms introduces a question about originality and his own poetic language. Considering the latter it is not about language borrowings that may obscure his own poetic enunciation (…) but rather about the way in which they build the poetic language, and finally – the most important question – what are they for?” Marta Tomczyk’s text obviously expresses a positive attitude, there is a lot of admiration for the poetry written by the author of Żywoty równoległe (Parallel Existences), however it does not lack a dilemma like the one above. What shall we do with Dehnel, formally a master, who anointed by Czesław Miłosz and Fundacja Kościeliskich at the same time irritates with his artistic imitativeness? It is worth to read Tomczyk’s sketch because of these dilemmas. She honestly describes moments of confusion she experienced while reading some of the poems written by the author of the recently published Lala (Doll): “Dehnel is a receptive apprentice of his masters (…) however, there are poems in which he does not reach beyond his role of an apprentice, although, no doubt, he is a top student.” What poems is Tomczyk writing about – I refer you the her text Vivienne Westwood polskiej sceny poetyckiej (Vivienne Westwood of the Polish Poetry Scene)?
Nuerotism
Agata Bielik-Robson, answering the first question asked by Jakub Winiarski in a splendid interview Przekora, niezgoda, protest (Contrariness, Disagreement, Protest) formulated a succinct definition of neurotism: “As a philosopher, I defend myself from leading a life of concepts and, because of it, I do not have an access to it. As a philosopher I am hopelessly neurotic: I would like to immerse myself in life but I am afraid of it, so I protect myself with intellectual categories.” Neurotism defined in this way is, on the map of artistic trends of this issue of “Studium”, a fundamental term, not in a clinical sense, but strictly literary. Certainly the interview quoted above is the best text of the issue, and paradoxically – a record of protecting oneself against life using categorization. All passionate diarists of the issue are defensive in a similar way: Jakub Winiarski in a subsequent chapter of Dziennik sfingowany (Faked Diary), Błażej Dzikowski in a feature-diary Wabienie rekina (Luring a Shark), part six, and also Dehnel who was mentioned before and his Fotoplastikon (Peepshow). 30-year-olds, 20-year-olds categorize passionately their own life and aesthetic experiences using all case forms of the pronoun “I”. Obviously also poetically, because what can lyric poetry do without the I? Ryszard Chłopek, for example, in his poem Wąż (Snake) consisting of seven parts, regales us with his own lyrical ego exceptionally persistently: “loose I, brittle I / me and my horses / the whole stable me, / a stalk I and stairs I / sticky and tight I / me at the races and me in the prime of life / me here and there …/ me in the room / me cooking beans / me polishing shoes…” To see the whole rest of the subject’s incarnations see pages 12 – 18 of the current issue.
Icelandic Landing
Readers bored with the spectacle of subsequent introspections can take a breath and relax a little bit over the critical I of Jacek Gutorow who writes about Krystyna Miłobędzka, or they can read a short but far from belittling sketch on Jacek Podsiadło written by Joanna Orska, and also many other interesting texts from the section Recenzje, szkice, polemiki (Reviews, Sketches, Polemics). Although “Studium” has not been publishing huge works, almost monographic, for some time, it still maintains its high standard. The anti-academic readers can decide with help of the Noty o książkach (Notes on Books) section on what to spend their hard-earned money. Obviously you cannot expect any final decisions having read a short description. In the end, however, I (my critical I) would like to draw your attention to a short report of Hubert Klimko-Dobrzaniecki written after his visit to Greenland, entitled Kulusuk (in the section Oddźwięki/Responses). This text is fully anti-neurotic, immersed in life and anti-academic, although it was written by an Icelandic philologist (nota bene: in the issue we will also find a poem Lost in Iceland written by Mirosław Gabryś from Reykjavik – so, there was an Icelandic landing made on “Studium”). Kulusuk is a story that is a little dirty, a little bitter and quite funny. There is a shocking story of a polar mongrel that, out of hunger, has eaten an Italian… No, I do not dare to quote. I will not either ask Dobrzaniecki whether this story really happened.
Arkadiusz Wierzba
Translated by Kinga Witowska
Discussed journals: Studium