Conradian inspirations in Zygmunt Haupt’s prose

Abstract

Although Conrad-inspired motifs are not frequent in Zygmunt Haupt’s prose, they do play and important role. Thanks to discovering similarities and differences they serve the author of Pierścień z papieru to describe his own writing method. As a reader of Conrad he is interested in the poetics of concealment and revelation as well as the relationship between memory and denial. He discovers the poeticism and symbolism of this creation and its personal character, related to the experiences of childhood and dark memories of the fatherland. By recognizing the ways in which Haupt utilizes Conrad’s plots and ideas, it is possible to understand better his principle of shorthand, concentration of meanings, combining the usual with the exotic, the lyrical with the tragic, the personal with the universal, the serious with the pathetic.