An Unintended Silva Rerum. Anna Kaszuba-Dębska’s Book Bruno. Epoka genialna

Abstract

The article offers a critical discussion of Anna Kaszuba-Dębska’s book Bruno. Epoka genialna [Bruno. The Age of Genius]. The reviewer argues that the main feature of Kaszuba-Dębska narrative is its heterogeneity; it manifests itself through the renouncement of the authorial voice, which it replaced by a dense tissue of quotations, as well as through the extensive discussion of cultural contexts and the lack of a consistently outlined dominant theme organizing the course of the protagonist’s life. For this reason, the reviewer regards Kaszuba-Dębska’s publication as a text reminiscent of a silva rerum (cf. commonplace book), whose heterogeneity, however, seems to stem from the author’s lack of control over her material, rather than from an attempt to cross the borders of the biographical genre.