Szafa z kochankami. Praktyki przesłaniania, odsłaniania i zasłaniania historii Obór w twórczości Mirona Białoszewskiego
Lovers in the Closet: The Practices of Covering, Uncovering and Recovering the History of Obory in Miron Białoszewski’s Works

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to capture one of the unveilings of the history of the manor house in Obory, near Warsaw, and to analyse the principle structuring the essence of transformation of this place in Miron Białoszewski’s work. Using the geocritical method, the author examines the relationship between characters and things related to this place selected by Białoszewski and the poetics he used. The frequently recurring motif of the wardrobe was juxtaposed with the analysis of inventories and wills belonging to the owner of the manor at the turn of the 17th and18th centuries, which are preserved in The Central Archivesof Historical Records in Warsaw. The main part of the article is devoted to the aesthetics and functions of 18th-century furniture in relation to the context of the court culture of that time, which Białoszewski explored poetically. In his works he played out the tension between the covering and uncovering of the secrets hidden in the complicated security systems of baroque furniture.This tension accumulates in the spatial nature of Obory: it is a remote and hidden place. Its location allowed Białoszewski to practice covering,uncovering and recovering the history of the manor. These practices not only constituted the structuring principle of the writer’s poetics, but they also open up the possibility of following the transformations of places of such semantic complexity as Obory. They allow us to capture the dynamics of changes that often involve inverting their previous meanings, e.g. in the context of agricultural reform, and also help to expose the related conflicts.

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