Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Miłosz and Wat read Brzozowski

  • Published:
Studies in East European Thought Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The paper discusses the impact of the thought of Stanisław Brzozowski (1878–1911) on several Polish emigré writers, including Józef Czapski and Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, but first of all Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) and Aleksander Wat (1900–1967). Miłosz’ approach oscillated between early fascination through an unjust rejection during the war, due to the “appropriation” of Brzozowski’s thought by the right wing publicists, to the new phase of fascination after the war, culminating in the publication of a book on Brzozowski (A Man Among Scorpions, 1962) and prolonged in several important articles till the very end of his life. Wat’s approach shifted from the communist practice of “overcoming” Brzozowski through the affirmation of his criticism and rejection of catholic obscurantism to the process of the internalization of the catholic faith.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Czapski told this story for the first time in his essay, written on the occasion of the publication of Miłosz' book on Brzozowski (Czapski 1963, 202–203).

  2. For a description of this particular copy see: Karpiński (2007), 135

  3. The same letter—“perhaps the most significant among all his letters”—is also quoted by Czapski in his speach, delivered at the Institute of St. Casimir in Paris, where Norwid died in poverty (cf.: Czapski 1958, 131).

  4. Cf. Miłosz (1946), Kotarbiński (1957), 77–78, Miłosz (1996), 132, Miłosz (2006), 80.

  5. First three chapters of the book were translated by Miłosz into English and published in California Slavic Studies (Miłosz 1963), the first and the fourth in his volume Emperor of the Earth (Miłosz 1977).

  6. I follow here the Polish original, because the American edition is abridged and all fragments concerning Brzozowski are absent; the same is true of the German edition, which generally follows the American one (Cf. Wat 1990, 2000).

  7. Miłosz writes here about Czapski siblings. Józef Czapski heard the story during a visit he paid to Brzozowski's sister-in-law, Walentyna Szalit née Kolberg and her husband Edmund Szalit in Cracow in 1920. Cf. Czapski (1963), 211

  8. The same episode is mentioned in Miłosz (1998), 77

  9. Cf. Colerus 1733, 47.

References

  • Colerus, J. (1733). Das Leben des Bened. von Spinoza, Franckfurt und Leipzig (Nachdruck Heidelberg 1952, Richard Weissbach).

  • Czapski, J. (1958). Akademia i Norwid. Kultura, 12, Paris.

  • Czapski, J. (1963). O Brzozowskim. Kultura, 1–2, Paris.

  • Herling-Grudziński, G. (2009). Dzieła zebrane (Vol. 1). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iwaszkiewicz, J. (1958). Spacer po Dnieprze. Twórczość, 9, Warszawa.

  • Iwaszkiewicz, J. (2010). Dzienniki 1958–1963. Warszawa: Czytelnik.

  • Karpiński, W. (2007). Portret Czapskiego. Warszawa: Zeszyty Literackie.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotarbiński, T., & Płomieński, J. E. (Eds.). (1957). Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz—człowiek i twórca. Księga pamiątkowa. Warszawa: PIW.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miłosz, Cz. (1946). Granice sztuki. Nowa Polska, 4–5, London.

  • Miłosz, Cz. (1962). Człowiek wśród skorpionów. Paryż: Instytut Literacki.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miłosz, Cz. (1963). A controversial polish writer: Stanisław Brzozowski (vol. 2). California Slavic Studies, p. 95.

  • Miłosz, Cz. (1977). A one-man army: Stanisław Brzozowski. In: Emperor of the Earth. Modes of eccentric vision (pp. 186–253). Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.

  • Miłosz, Cz. (1982). Człowiek wśród skorpionów. Warszawa: PIW.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miłosz, Cz. (1996). Legendy nowoczesności. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milosz, Cz. (1998). Abecadło Miłosza. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miłosz, Cz. (2000). Człowiek wśród skorpionów. Kraków: SIW “Znak”.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milosz, Cz. (2002). O autonomii polskiej literatury. Tygodnik Powszechny, 18, Kraków.

  • Miłosz, Cz. (2004a). Giava. Tygodnik Powszechny, 11, Kraków.

  • Milosz, Cz. (2004b). O podróżach w czasie. Kraków: SIW Znak.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miłosz, Cz. (2005). Legends of modernity: Essays and letters from occupied Poland, 1942–43 (Madeline G. Levine, Trans.). New York: Farrar, Straus and Giraux.

  • Miłosz, Cz. (2006). Zaczynając od moich ulic. Kraków: SIW Znak (1990).

  • Wat, A. (1990). My century: The odyssey of a polish intellectual. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wat, A. (1998). Mój wiek. Pamiętnik mówiony (vol.1–2). Rozmowy przeprowadził i przedmową opatrzył Czesław Miłosz. Warszawa: Czytelnik (1977).

  • Wat, A. (2000). Jenseits von Wahrheit und Lüge. Mein Jahrhundert. Gesprochene Erinnerungen 1926–1945. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wat, A. (2005). Korespondencja (Vol. 1–2). Warszawa: Czytelnik.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw, Poland

    Jan Zieliński

Authors
  1. Jan Zieliński
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Zieliński.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zieliński, J. Miłosz and Wat read Brzozowski. Stud East Eur Thought 63, 293–302 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-011-9151-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-011-9151-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation