Od perwersji do wzniosłości – tropem transgresji w młodopolskich utworach literackich

Abstract

Tytuł niniejszej rozprawy: Od perwersji do wzniosłości – tropem transgresji w młodopolskich utworach literackich, odzwierciedla złożone i nieoczywiste napięcie tworzące jeden z najciekawszych wątków zarówno w literaturze, jak i – szerzej – w kulturze, filozofii, sztuce. Ufundowane na tym napięciu korespondencje perwersji i wzniosłości, a co za tym idzie sfery sacrum i profanum, widziane przez pryzmat transgresji – są przedmiotem moich refleksji, które mają charakter rekonesansu i nie wyczerpują podjętego zagadnienia, niemniej jest to rekonesans oświetlający kluczową – w moim przekonaniu – dynamikę wzajemnego przenikania się perwersji i wzniosłości, a także to, w jaki sposób najpełniej się one wyrażają i co stanowi ich istotę. Wspomniane wzajemne przenikanie się dwóch kontrastujących ze sobą obszarów, ich dwubiegunowa rozbieżność i paradoksalna bliskość, namacalne w kulturze, religiach, obyczajowości ślady ich koegzystencji – wszystko to sprawia, że splot perwersji i wzniosłości staje się intrygującym przedmiotem badań. Intuicyjny początkowo gest ich zestawienia otwiera – przy bliższym przyjrzeniu się kwestii – szerokie perspektywy poznawcze.

The proposed topic of my dissertation: „From perversion to the sublime – on the transgression in Young Poland’s literary works” is a reflection of what, in my opinion, forms part of one of the most interesting topics in literature, as well as in art, philosophy, culture. The correspondence of these two qualities and thus of the spheres of the sacred and the profane – the way in which they interpenetrate, the way in which they most fully express themselves, their essence – will be the subject of my reflections. The literature of Young Poland’s period is saturated with images and content, the provenance of which is usually sought in late French Romanticism, or, more precisely – among forerunners of European modernism, especially among such poets as Baudelaire, Rimbaud or Verlain. Works on which Young Poland’s writers were reared, today, to a large extent, faded into oblivion. However, in everyday consciousness there is a firm conviction that this period not only moved the art from the heights of salon to vulgar climates, but primarily was full of incredible excesses, delirious visions, or perversion-dripping orgies. What seemed to be the norm in eccentric, debauched Paris, in the environment of god-fearing Poles had to induce shock – at least aesthetic one... A similar shock is arguably evoked among many people because of the juxtaposition of the two concepts that are the topic of my considerations: perversion and the sublime. At first glance, any attempt to juxtapose them has to seem absurd. So why the idea of conducting a detailed analysis based on the literary and cultural messages? Why does an individual undertake a risky – in every age – behaviour of transgressing oneself and what does this lead to? Is there a gap at the intersection of the sacred and the profane, through which one can touch the impossible? This, what lies both in crime and in holiness, in the executioner and the victim, eroticism and death. The interpenetration of these two figures, their bipolarity and paradoxical proximity, traces of their co-existence visible in culture, religions, customs – all this makes the perverse and the sublime turn out to be a much more interesting area of study than erotic hedonism, so often mentioned by researchers of Young Poland. But before we set off to this dangerous journey – we should add: balancing on the edge always carries the risk of falling... – I have to provide a few clarifications. First of all, definitional ones. They cause – as it seems – most confusion. Especially perversion. Analyzing several definitions (presenting them will take a huge part of the first chapter of my dissertation), I feel certain lack. Most of them obsessively revolve around sexual activities, not exactly specifying what could be regarded as a perversion nowadays. And the issue seems to be a little deeper. Looking at this from the perspective of semiotics, at this point I therefore propose a working (my own) definition of the perversion – as a specific cultural code that allows an atypical individual to communicate with the outside world. And the term „transgression” I understand as a refined motion of transcension, undertaken by the individual, aiming at cognitive, spiritual, or religious development, basing upon conviction that a man, to achieve the highest level of „inner experience” must balance on the border manifesting itself in experiences commonly considered extreme. Entering this boggy terrain, I use first of all Georges Bataille’s ideas, as well as an extensive commentary to his ideas by his most prominent promoter in Poland – Krzysztof Matuszewski – a philosopher and a translator from Łódź, who devoted his habilitation thesis Invocations of perdition to Bataille’s ideas. I will also use a psychological system known as psychotransgressionism, developed by Józef Kozielecki. He stated that the aim of the transgression is that „a passion of continuous crossing borders has a metaphysical dimension; it involves, among others hope of infinity”. The researcher complementing the ideas on transgression will be Karl Jaspers with his theory of „limit situations”.