Karpowicz's Individuality or the Drama of the Thought Entangled in the World

Abstract

This paper focuses on Karprowicz – the inventor of a certain kind of subjective theatre, his “mental” theatre in which he sought to find a new form of his poetic quests. The concept of personal theatre refers here to the situation in which there is no correspondence between the basic indicators of kind and genre in the drama, when the rules and principles of writing are no longer recognised through the prism of convention. Rather they are defined by other points of reference, especially the overall literary accomplishment of the writer, the singularity of his conclusions. According to Karpowicz, the essence of innovation does not reside in the formal shape, but in the new and revealing understanding of man, in being open to the whole dynamic complexity of human nature. This paper is therefore also an attempt to show the image of man written in the construction of heroes who function in Karpowicz's “mental” world. It is the only world that according to Karpowicz bears the chance to come closer to the truth about the essence of humankind. It is the world in statu nascendi, the world of constant movement, development and change, the world governed by the logic of paradox. This logic sanctions the existence of oppositions constituted by the heroes or else deformed by them. They become bearers of contents inscribed in the basic categories of human existence. They are exemplifications of the dynamic co-existence of contrary ideas, models stigmatised by their own carnality and history, which still face a chance to discover the essence of humankind that enlivens the incessant movement of thoughts.