Conversion Techniques in Contemporary Polish Prose. An Attempt to Use an Anthropotechnical Model of Interpretation

Abstract

Referring to the concept of Michel Foucault’s technologies of self and Peter Sloterdijk’s anthropotechnics, the article presents a proposal for an interpretative model of literary conversion phenomena. The “anthropotechnical” perspective does not exclude placing the experience of the subject’s conversion in metaphysical contexts, but in many cases it allows to transcend the religious horizon of reading. Adopting such a perspective allows us to perceive conversion processes in a wider literary spectrum than in the case of postsecular interpretations. Using the aforementioned model, the conversion processes were presented on the example of several contemporary (published after 2009) Polish prose works, particularly in an extended interpretation of the novel Pióropusz (War Bonnet) by Marian Pilot. In these narratives, the conversion of the characters is based on experiences of limitedness and loss.