Czesław Miłosz In The Search for Another Historicity

• Main Author: Jens Herlth
• 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: Czesław Miłosz; Stanisław Brzozowski; historicity; philosophy of history
• Online Access: http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/pspsl/article/view/2186

<p class="Pa21">The article presents an analysis of the concept of “historicity”, which seems to be crucial for the understanding of the philosophical foundations of Miłosz’s work. The poet’s intention is to find a solution for the double dilemma of modern historical imagination: on the one hand, you should not become prey to the “murderous <em>historicité</em>”, but on the other, human life, when totally deprived of the historical dimension, seems to be empty and worthless. Miłosz found a solution of the dilemma in Stanisław Brzozowski’s philosophy, especially in his idea of of indispensability of historical consciousness, that is of “amplification” of historicity. The paradoxical, at first sight, attempt to overcome the disastrous consequences of historical thought through amplification of historicity itself, is seen in a wider contest of 20th-century philsophical investigations (Michaił Bachtin, Martin Heidegger, Barbara Skarga). It turns out that poetic discourse is the right place for its realization.</p>