Substance of the city – concerning Julian Tuwim’s "Three Poems on a Barber"

Abstract

The article is a lyrical interpretation of Tuwim’s triptych entitled Three Poems on a Barber. A careful reading of the texts draws attention to the vision of the city that is not so much a background for the actions of the lyrical hero, as a space clarified through the acts of learning it – superficial, yet based on a small set of popular culture clichés. For the title barber, efforts to tame and appropriate the space are transformed into inventing ways to override their own mundane everyday life. Vegetative, monotonous existence is both the cause and effect of the hero’s passivity. The passivity in turn leads to the ultimate loss of the ability of settling in the world.