Dzieci nędzy – from a narrative poem to a novel. A preliminary study towards a reconstruction of Stanisław Przybyszewski’s creative process

Katarzyna Badowska

doi:10.18778/1505-9057.64.05

Authors

Katarzyna Badowska University of Lodz, Institute of Polish Studies, Department of Literature of Positivism and Young Poland, ul. Pomorska 171/173, 91-404 Łódź https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6149-5612

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9057.64.05

Keywords:

Przybyszewski Stanisław, "Dzieci nędzy", editing, text origins, genetic criticism

Abstract

The origins of Dzieci nędzy (1913) and the story of its writing offer interesting insights into the creative work of Stanisław Przybyszewski, the most prominent writer of the Young Poland period. The study has revealed, e.g., his aversion (or inability rather) to introduce radical modifications to already finished texts and that his literary efficiency increased the further he was from big cities. A collation of the novel and a reading of private documents have enabled me to ascertain that the final shape of Dzieci nędzy was to a large extent influenced by Przybyszewski’s personal complications and trying circumstances, which severely determined (or rather undermined) his writing process, as well as the interventions by his editor who demanded additions to the work, with which the writer always agreed and added several chapters. Those diligently developed corrections proved how important the editorial remarks of the need to improve the text were to the writer.

However, the most important discovery resulting from the textual study is that of the author’s decision to abandon his initial intention to author an epic poem in prose and shift to the novelistic form. That resolution, a kind of a surrender in the struggle with matter, proves Przybyszewski’s innovative approach to the novel and as a result of it Dzieci nędzy are an artistically interesting modern record of psychological states. In terms of structural and narrative solutions, it is clearly one of the most interesting novels by Przybyszewski.

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Author Biography

Katarzyna Badowska, University of Lodz, Institute of Polish Studies, Department of Literature of Positivism and Young Poland, ul. Pomorska 171/173, 91-404 Łódź

Katarzyna Badowska – she studies the literature of Young Poland period, with particular emphasis on the works of Stanisław Przybyszewski. She is the author of The Hour of Miracle. Love and Eroticism in the Works of Stanisław Przybyszewski (2011). Currently, she is finalizing work on the edition of his novel Dzieci nędzy and Adam Drzazga. She is also interested in the matter of modern subjectivity as a theme of literature at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. She is an editor and co-editor of five books: Liryka Młodej Polski. Interpretacje [The poetry of Young Poland. Interpretations], Ulica – zaułek – bruk. Z problematyki miasta w literaturze drugiej połowy XIX i początku XX wieku [Street – alley – pavement. On the problems of the city in the literature of the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century] and others.

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