Czuły fantasta. Wokół biografii i twórczości Michaela Endego

Abstract

The article consists of three parts, each focusing on a different aspect of Michael Ende’s biography and works. The first part of the paper analyzes the reception of Michael Ende’s children’s literature in Poland. In the second part, Angela Bajorek and Małgorzata Chrobak present a profile of the author of The Neverending Story, which they base on his biographies (including Boccarius, Hocke, Dankert), research from the fields of history and literary criticism (by Hans-Heino Ewers, Roman Hocke, Thomas Kraft, and others), and interviews from the German and Polish press. The authors focus mainly on Ende’s childhood experiences. Using a psycho-critical approach, they analyze the influence his father, the painter Edgar Ende, and Ende’s school education during the Nazi regime in Germany had on the writer’s personality. The third thematic module of the article discusses the notion of “tenderness” (mentioned in the title), which was introduced in the field of literary studies by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk. The authors suggest that in addition to his excellent writer’s skills, such as the ability to mix different genres (a novel with a fairy tale and a parable), to create moving, artistic visions of fantasy worlds, the great advantage of Ende’s work is his anthropological tenderness. In his most important works, Momo and The Neverending Story, the German writer shows his appreciation for the simplest forms of social contact, which play an important role in the cultural education of a child, such as storytelling and verbal skills, motor skills, direct contact with another person, and intimate gestures and words expressing respect and responsibility for oneself and others.