Tryptyk trochę autobiograficzny

Abstract

Tadeusz Konwicki’s Kalendarz i klepsydra (1976), Wschody i zachody księżyca (1982) and Nowy Świat i okolice (1986) were categorised as “memoirs”, “novels” or autobiographical sketches although, owing to their formal properties, they belong to the same set. The fundamental feature is transforming autobiographical elements into bigger or smaller plot structures, which cannot be judged as true or false. Truthfulness may suggest constant identification of the narrator with the author and also with the protagonist in the stories told. And yet, simultaneously in the author’s commentary there appear permanent warnings that those are “made-up-diaries”, memories somewhat true and somewhat false. Genre characteristics of those works can be defined not by checking authenticity and reliability of autobiographical detail and not by the author’s form of narration, but thanks to overt and covert reference to the addressee: that is narration addressed to Warsaw literary and film circles - ironic, mocking, and anecdotal. Autobiographical elements combined with the author’s narration and “addressee” creates the form of a contemporary folk tale, which is the continuation of an old Polish literary genre.