Nuda, czyli dekonstrukcja podmiotu. Sartre – Cioran – Pessoa
Boredom, or the Deconstruction of the Subject: Sartre, Cioran, and Pessoa

Summary/Abstract: Using the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre, Emil Cioran, and Ferdinand Pessoa as examples, the author proves that boredom is one of the most important signs of modernism. It duplicates a feature ascribed to modern¬ist movements or groups of movements, and to the era itself – indetermi¬nacy. The author presents a kind of “phenomenology of boredom” that can be derived from the works of these three writers and points out its “bordering” status: It is an experience that takes place at the meeting point of physiology and will, causing a feeling of the excess of existence, the senselessness of being, or the absurdity of the world. Boredom acts on the subject destructively, fragmenting its identity, undermining its substantial¬ity, and bringing to light its internal otherness. As a phenomenon specific to modernism, it can be compared with anomy and nihilism, with which it produces a “modern triad” – a set of unavoidable modern experiences. The last part of the article proves that boredom is also a kind of deconstruc¬tion of the subject: a visceral “foundation” of existence that both initiates the construction of identity and prevents the successful completion of this process.

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