Awangarda we wspomnieniach twórców nowoczesnych
Avant-Garde in the Memories of Modern Authors

Summary/Abstract: This article is devoted to the analysis of the statements by avant-garde writers formulated years later, after 1956, and related to political, social and artistic transformations. It analyses the forms of expression (essays, memories, analyses, interpretative sketches, etc.) employed by for-mer avant-garde authors. The research material consists of the memories of Julian Przyboś, Anatol Stern, Adam Ważyk and Aleksander Wat. What is significant is the analysis of the narrative strate-gy adopted by each of these authors as well as the position they gained after 1945 and, then again, after October 1956. This article focuses mainly on presenting the problematic aesthetic changes and indicates that, in this context, the attitude of avant-garde writers to neo-avant-garde art, to the new literary trends emerging after the Second World War, is particularly important. The central is-sue examined is the formulation of the concept of the avant-garde and its definition on Polish soil. The poets’ statements presented show concern for the image of the Polish avant-garde as well as the importance of the competition for historical narratives. This is connected with the individual per-ception of the notion of the avant-garde. Some of the authors, for instance Julian Przyboś, consid-ered the program and the theoretical nuances specified a hundred years ago very significant, while the others put great emphasis on the synthetic orientation which viewed the avant-garde as a whole set of heterogeneous trends. It should be observed that there seems to be a significant difference of opinion between Adam Ważyk and Aleksander Wat. The former sees the avant-garde in the context of modernism and its changes, whereas the latter shows the degree to which twentieth-century art resulted from the innovativeness of futurists.

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