"Nasze pomniki są dwuznaczne..." O epitafiach Tadeusza Różewicza
“Our monuments are ambiguous …” Tadeusz Różewicz’s epitaphs

Summary/Abstract: This essay attempts at interpreting selected poems and essays by Tadeusz Różewicz, in the context of funereal/commemorative issues. These include both occasional texts devoted to the memory of individual persons as well as pieces considering the problem of Death in a universal perspective. Having assumed that the issue of Death – a death of God, man, and poetry, and reciprocal associations thereof – is one of the major threads in the poet’s oeuvre, I attempt at reconstructing the reply Różewicz gives to the question of how is it possible for poetry – “dead, as it is, … mortal, as it is”, and deprived of a metaphysical foundation – to save or preserve the memory of a dead person. I try to prove that Różewicz’s funereal output polemicises with a consolational model of mournful or memorial poetry and its traditional topics.

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