“The Genius of Tomorrow Smashed into Atoms”. On Piotr Chmielowski and Antoni Lange Diagnosing their Era

• Main Author: Marcin Jauksz
• Format: Article
• Language: Polish
• Published: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne WFPiK UAM; Wydawnictwo Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk 2012-01-01
• Series: Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne. Seria Literacka
• Subjects: modernism literary, debates of the Young Poland period; literary criticism; Young Poland’s poetry; generation strife in the late 19th century
• Online Access: http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/pspsl/article/view/2239

<p>The article presents an unofficial discussion that took place between one of the most prominent Polish critics of the late 19th century and Antoni Lange, a raising poet of the 90s, whose work had gained little attention from the older colleague. Mentioned briefly in Chmielowski’s <em>Współczesni poeci polscy </em>in 1895, Lange responded to some of the critic’s fterwards. Chmielowski did not respond to that directly, however, his review of Lange’s volume of poetry published at the time and the will to defend his claims using the adversary’s poetry as a pretext shows that the young poet had succeeded in provoking the respected critic to take defensive position. The two writers, discussing an ongoing ‘crisis’ of poetry, present their own perspectives on the roots of the situation. Chmielowski’s claims from the beginning of the 20th century prove that the dispute, unofficial as it was, was won by Antoni Lange.</p>