Relatywizacja przesądów
Relativization of superstitions

Johannes Bobrowski’s aesthetics of carnivalization

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the methods and means by which German writer Johannes Bobrowski, in his significant novel "Lewin’s Mill. 34 Sentences About My Grandfather" (Młyn Lewina. 34 zdania o moim dziadku), seeks to deconstruct and relativize national stereotypes and clichés (established superstitions), with a particular focus on the carnivalizing elements present in the work. Analyzing the novel in the framework of, among others, Bakhtin’s theories of carnival, or more precisely, the aesthetics of carnivalization, I try to highlight the author’s specific approach or attitude to national conflicts on the German and other axes, which are the leitmotiv of his entire oeuvre. The presented sketch is closed, including considerations about the measure of its impact on the audience, and reduced to the cognitive categories of immersion and emersion.

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