Metarefleksja artystyczna i zależność między sztukami w polskim modernizmie – prace graficzne i literackie Brunona Schulza
Artistic Reflexivity and Interartistic Contamination in Polish Modernism: The Graphic and Literary Works of Bruno Schulz

Summary/Abstract: This article discusses two forms of reflexive inter-artistic contamination within the literary and graphic output of the Polish artist Bruno Schulz (1892-1942). It claims, first of all, that Schulz’s early portfolio of graphics, The Book of Idolatry (Xięga bałwochwalcza), displays the characteristics of a “visual narrative”, by incorporating images within the narrative sequence of a book. At the same time, Schulz’s two story collections, Cinnamon Shops (Sklepy cynamonowe) and Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass (Sanatorium pod Klepsydry) are treated as the realization of a reverse strategy of inter-artistic contamination (namely the invasion of the visual into the domain of the word). As ensues from our analysis, for Schulz, all boundaries between various forms of art are actually fluid, and thus artificial, as all individual works of art (whether verbal or visual) appear to be nothing but equally defective manifestations of the same reality of “intertwining codes”.

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