The Prophet of the ‘Naked Soul’: Stanisław Przybyszewski

Abstract

Was Przybyszewski a prophet? He compared himself to a meteor that blazed the way for new tendencies in art, and his contemporaries fully recognised that role. In their eyes he brought to Poland revelations which revolutionised the understanding of art and inspired many with new ideas. These ideas, whether well substantiated or not, were always preached with unusual force and self-assurance, with the faith that characterises prophets or charismatic leaders. Therefore a simple term like ‘theoretician of arť neither fits his writing nor his personality. Born in 1868 in Kujawy (western Poland, then in Prussia), he began his literary career in Berlin, writing in German. His ten years in Berlin had brought him recognition inside and outside the German-speaking world. Living there enabled him to become acquainted with modern trends in art and to meet a number of outstanding artists and writers; but later it became a burden that seriously impaired his claim of being a Polish writer, deeply rooted in the national tradition, reaching back to Romanticism (Mickiewicz and Słowacki), or even much more deeply — to Kochanowski (sixteenth century).