Literatura jako (auto)kreacja. Widmowy świat prozy Jerzego Pilcha

Abstract

The article is an attempt at presenting the works of Jerzy Pilch in the context of a literature-centric tradition according to which a writer enjoys a privileged position in a culture. This allows him/her to speak about the world and him/herself from the viewpoint of a finder of truth, a depositor of universal values. In the culturally altered reality of the last few decades, a writer affected by the literature-centric tradition needs to look for various forms of compensating for lost status. A case in point is Jerzy Pilch, whose most elaborate style, combined with mythologizing his own biography, are a tool for “coping” with the generally lower standards of culture. The inconsistencies and incoherence of the writer’s auto-creation, their spectral nature, reminiscent of
Derrida’s philosophy, reveal the genuine dimension of the struggle with modernity faced by Pilch the traditionalist.