A Republic of Dreams of Literary Studies

Abstract

The paper is a critical discussion of Jerzy Madejski’s book Poetologie postrukturalne. Szkice krytyczne. The author reconstructs the cognitive assumptions adopted by Madejski, who by reviewing academic works simultaneously diagnoses the state and opportunities for the future development of the discipline. The “after-structuralism” formula allows him to highlight the rank and influence of structuralism on the way of conducting academic considerations in Poland. The variety of poetological visions included in the books discussed by Madejski is supposed to be the evidence of the critical insufficiency ofa the “after-structuralism” category in reference to structuralism. The author confronts this way of thinking with the thesis which is characteristic for post-structuralism, i.e. that literary studies have little scientificity. The author reads the critical essays included in the volume as a coherent proposal for a method for academic critique, based on the conviction that it is possible for the discipline to be autonomous, as well as a practical realization of this idea.