Osterwa Skamandrytów
Osterwa of the Skamandryci

Summary/Abstract: A register and description of the image of Juliusz Osterwa and the Reduta Theatre in the lyrics, publicistics and discursive as well as artistic prose by the Great Four of the Skamander group: Tuwim, Lechoń, Wierzyński, and Iwaszkiewicz. The author encloses a chronological presentation of the cooperation and animosities between the Skamandryci (members of the group) and the Reduta. The text attaches great attention to the evidence provided by poetry, and proposes a reinterpretation of the assumption that the Skamandryci had created the “black legend” of the Reduta. The author also stresses the mutual fascination of the poets and the avantgarde theatre, which, naturally, did not exclude polemics and even hostility. This enchantment via negation is explained by the Skamandryci’s attachment to the model of the theatre of their childhood and youth, based on the myth of the actor. One of the authors of this myth’s allure was Osterwa – a star specialising in the parts of lovers, who later tried to become a theatrical artist and even to transcend the theatre via the theatre by entering the category of existence. The case of Osterwa and the Skamandryci appears to be an exception confirming the rule that memory about historical facts is ”created by the poets”.

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