Między „blaskiem duchowej prawdy” a „sprawami państwa współczesnego”. Spór o „czystą poezję” (1938/1939)

Abstract

In 1938 two literary manifests appeared in the columns of the press – one by Ludwik Fryde titled: Dwa pokolenia (Two Generations) and the other by Czesław Miłosz: Kłamstwo dzisiejszej „poezji” (The Lie of Today’s ‘Poetry’). The former proposes the thesis that poetry has the right to be autonomous and be free from responsibilities such as presenting reality beyond the text itself, propagating ideas, expressing emotions and thoughts of the artist. The latter, on the contrary, opined that poetry should not look inwards towards its own self; rather it has the task to formulate points of view and demonstrate the author’s personality. Shortly thereafter, either by way of polemic or agreement, more than a dozen literary critics responded to both, mainly of the younger generation. Thus a constellation of critical texts was created, one focused around the motto of ‘unsullied poetry’. This publication therefore presents the above-mentioned discussion by means of a study and an accompanying essay on literary history.