Przepaść Pana Cogito (Mr Cogito's Abyss) − Between the Antipodes of Life

Abstract

The erudite article is to a large extent a reconstruction of Mr Cogito's various biographical, psychological and textual entanglements. The author sees in the protagonist the poet's „masks” and she interprets them as the „I” outside the text: she describes the mechanism of transforming life into a morality parable and the „suspension” between the poles of genuine and poetic existence. The reader's attention is drawn to the significant self-correction made after twenty years, which the author of the article interprets as a transition from the plane of the protagonist's experiences to the sphere of the experiences of the poet who hides his emotions connected with direct touching the „abyss” in a seemingly impersonal commentary. The author also presents in detail Herbert's semantics of the „abyss”.