Jerzy Ficowski on Schulz – Between Reconstruction and Rhetoric (Reflections on Regions of the Great Heresy)

Abstrakt

According to the title, the author makes an attempt to reconstruct and analyze the rhetoric of Jerzy Ficowski’s works on Schulz. Since rhetoric is understood here as a way of articulating the text, in many cases it overlaps with poetics. The author’s intention is to approach Regions of Great Heresy as a careful reader of both Schulz and Ficowski to show ideological and stylistic affinities between them. An important part of the essay are many statements by Ficowski himself, drawn from his private correspondence (including letters sent to Schulz) and poetry (particularly his first book of poems, Lead Soldiers of 1948, very significant in the context of his Schulz studies). Supplemented by Kandziora’s commentary, Ficowski’s statements shed new light on the methods of critical research on an author whose biography is incomplete, while his manuscripts, letters, and works of art. have been either destroyed or scattered. Thus, Ficowski alternates biography and interpretation, trying to reintegrate the entire output of Schulz. The essay belongs to a research project supported by Narodowe Centrum Nauki.