Różewicz - nihilista
Różewicz, the nihilist

Summary/Abstract: Almost from the very outset of Tadeusz Różewicz’s artistic itinerary, his work has been accompanied with a dispute related to the problem of nihilism. At least up until 1990s, it was assuming the form of an alternative: a nihilist, or, a moralist? In the first part of the present sketch, the author attempts at tracing the dispute’s history, making references to selected convictions formulated as part of it. The second and third parts will embark on attempted transferral of the problem into an entirely different ground. From the thus delineated perspective, the problem of nihilism will be approached in a new context, which, as it may be reasonably believed, will force us not only to significantly revaluate our existing critical views but, in the first place, to assume a new methodological position that would give grounds for such a ‘shift’ or ‘revaluation’. However, the author’s intent is not to announce the dispute’s end, for the dispute will probably go on. What the author refers to instead is the dispute’s being closed, exhausted. Hence, he tries to show that the ‘moralist vs. nihilist’ alternative is not only erroneous and exhausted but it also leads to certain serious misunderstandings related to how we comprehend the notion of ‘nihilism’ today.

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