Stanisław Brzozowski w kręgu „Kultury” paryskiej
Stanislaw Brzozowski and the Parisian „Kultura” circle

Author(s): Monika Anna Noga
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Stanisław Brzozowski; the Parisian „Kultura”; Czesław Miłosz; Jerzy Giedroyc; Gustaw Herling-Grudziński; Józef Czapski; brzozowskism; brzozowski-ites
Summary/Abstract: For more than one hundred years Polish intellectuals (writers, critics, philosophers, historians, literary and cultural theorists) have been referring to a central figure of Young Poland, the literary critic, philosopher of culture, and writer Stanisław Brzozowski (1878-1911). Following World War II many émigrés Polish intellectuals chose Brzozowski as a model for how to perceive and assess the world, Poland in particular. Brzozowski’s name appeared on the pages of „Kultura” in its very first issue, as it did in issue 637, the last issue of the journal. This is of considerable symbolic importance. It suggests that that the period between the beginning and end of the journal is also the period during which Brzozowski was present, and intensely so, in its history. In 1948, in the fifth issue of „Kultura”, the journal carried fragments from Brzozowski’s Diary; thereafter, in virtually every subsequent issue, apart from 1955, 1957, and 1990, Brzozowski was either cited or at the very least mentioned. Considering the regular presence of Brzozowski in the more than half-century history of „Kultura”, it is impossible to assess the activity of those gathered round the journal, the so-called ‘„Kultura” circle’, the main object of interest in this study, without investigating the influence Brzozowski exerted on them. What specifically made Brzozowski the person and his ideas so attractive to the „Kultura circle”? The number of studies devoted to „Kultura” continues to rise. However, to date no study has been devoted to Brzozowski’s reception within the ‘„Kultura” circle’. The present investigation seeks to fill that gap by examining the specific interests of the key figures of the „Kultura circle” in the person and work of Stanislaw Brzozowski, viz., Jerzy Giedroyc (1906-2000), Józef Czapski (1896-1993), Gustaw Herling-Grudziński (1919-2000) and Czesław Miłosz (1911-2004).

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