Obraz degradacji kultury francuskiej jako przejawu kryzysu cywilizacji europejskiej w Szkicach piórkiem Andrzeja Bobkowskiego
The picture of downfall of French culture as a sign of the crisis of European civilization in Szkice piórkiem by Andrzej Bobkowski

Summary/Abstract: In his Paris journal from the years 1940–1944 Andrzej Bobkowski appears not only as an excellent observer of occupation reality in France, but also as an inquisitive author of an exquisite diagnosis of the clearly degrading state of culture in those days. In Szkice piórkiem he points out the decline of values underlying the European civilization. This crisis was to be particularly acutely felt in France. In common mentality French culture was something of a synecdoche of the European one, being a model culture for the whole continent. Bobkowski ruthlessly contests the myth of France. He admits that its cultural heritage is still a source of wonder, but he also claims the power of this country to be a delusion, and the proclamations of the ideal of freedom or French national pride to be nothing but a cliché. In his relations from daily life of a Polish emigrant in Paris under occupation we will not encounter any evidence of heroic attitude of its citizens, whereas descriptions of the black market or whole cunning strategies for providing food take up a lot of place. From Szkice piórkiem a conclusion might be drawn that material well-being and high standard of living have become a synonym for European civilization.

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