Podwójny świat. Uwagi o narracji i tożsamości w tekstach homoseksualnych Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza
A double world. Remarks on narrative and identity in Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s homosexual texts

Summary/Abstract: Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s homosexual texts – specific as they are, owing to the specificity of the discourse, the psychosexual, social and cultural construction of the author within the text – are disturbing with their peculiar aura. The stories told are usually discontinuous, unclear and inexplicable. The topic of a ‘different love’ is masked, shown indirectly, or even if it seems open or neutral, it gets entangled in a net of embroiled, if not contradictory, addresser’s intentions ('Przyjaciele' [‘Friends’], Mefisto – Walc [‘Mephisto Waltz’]), or becomes the subject of an elaborate literary game, be it stylisation (Czwarta symfonia [‘The Fourth Symphony’]), suspense, or ‘self-thematism’ (Nauczyciel [‘The Teacher’], Martwa pasieka [‘A dead apiary’]). Such signals enable a double reading, which is accessible to ‘initiate’ readers. But they are also a sign of a double nature of the world, which – according to German Ritz – is part of any homosexual experience. In Iwaszkiewicz, the homosexual identity is never expressed out loud and never gets integrated. It is generated by confirmation concurrent with negation, camouflage and allusiveness or provocative openness, is interrelated with a voyeuristic attitude ('Tatarak' [‘The sweet rush’]) and liberates through sublimation.

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