Spór jako „okazja do samookreśleń”. Julian Przyboś wobec Karola Irzykowskiego w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym
A Dispute as an ‘Opportunity for Self-Determination’: Julian Przyboś Versus Karol Irzykowski in the Interwar Period

Summary/Abstract: The article shows how the attitude of Julian Przyboś to Karol Irzykowski developed and evolved. As a young poet of the Kraków avant-garde, Przyboś perceived Irzykowski as a recognized critic and a writer of great authority. In his views, he particularly valued the critical attitude towards the Young Poland movement, the rejection of derivativeness, and respect for the originality of literary achievements. When Irzykowski, at the end of the 1920s in his "Walka o treść" [The Battle for Content], accused the avant-gardists of abusing metaphors, Tadeusz Peiper was the first to respond. Przyboś then published the article “Terminus a quo.” He discussed Irzykowski’s book and engaged in a polemic with the premises lying at the foundations of the study. He developed his argument in a sketch ‘W walce z "Walką o treść"’ [Fighting Against The Battle for Content] accusing Irzykowski of erroneous reasoning and deliberate misunderstanding of the poetic concepts of the avant-garde. Another exchange of views between the two great opponents was a part of the discussion around the series of articles of Irzykowski’s ‘Wycieczki w lirykę’ [Lyrical Excursions]. Przyboś answered to them with ‘Uwagi o nowej liryce’ [Comments on the New Lyric] – an essay in which not only does he argue with Irzykowski but also formulates his own concept of poetry. The dispute with the outstanding critic, who pointed accurately to the weaknesses of avant-garde aesthetic ideas, was an opportunity for Przyboś to clarify and summarise his own views, different from Irzykowski and Peiper’s. The disputes and what is more, constituted an essential element of a literary life.

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