![How Perceptive is the ‘beobachter’? The Problematics of Meta-Theoretical Literary Studies...](/api/image/getissuecoverimage?id=picture_2010_1608.jpg)
How Perceptive is the ‘beobachter’? The Problematics of Meta-Theoretical Literary Studies...
Jak spostrzegawczy jest 'beobachter'? Metateoretyczne problemy literaturoznawcze...
Keywords: Constructivism; 'beobachter'; Literary studies in Poland; literary theory
This review of three publications edited by the Obserwator/Beobachter Cross-Institutional Literary Theorists’ Research Circle, based at University of Wrocław, considers in how far these publications resulted from a coherent constructivist milieu’s activity (constructivism in Poland has so far been represented by incidental publications) and in how far they represent constructivism as a more general concept. This differentiation, though apparently insignificant, enables the author to describe how Polish constructivism functions among other trends in literary research. Moreover, he explains the Wrocław constructivists’ ambiguous attitude toward structuralism, which is described in the Circle’s publication as an undisguised opponent of constructivism. And yet, the author shows that it is hard not to think of structuralism as a genetic forerunner of constructivism (which carried on a systemic conception of literature).
More...