Books by Paweł Kaczmarski
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Wyd. Fundacji na Rzecz Kultury i Edukacji im. Tymoteusza Karpowicza, 2018
Innych mocnych tez w przedmowie postawić nie mogę. Jak wspomniałem, "Wysoka łączliwość" to książk... more Innych mocnych tez w przedmowie postawić nie mogę. Jak wspomniałem, "Wysoka łączliwość" to książka złożona z tekstów opublikowanych już w czasopismach, na portalach kulturalno-literackich etc. -tekstów powstałych relatywnie niedawno, dotyczących tematów ciągle niedomkniętych i dyskutowanych. Nie jestem w stanie tych recenzji, szkiców i polemik spleść w jedną liniową narrację; próba ich uspójnienia, dokonana z mojego niezdystansowanego, głęboko osobistego punktu widzenia, z konieczności byłaby wysilona i ostatecznie jałowa. Nie znaczy to, że z poniższej książki nie można wyczytać autorskiej opowieści o możliwościach, funkcjach, a nawet zobowiązaniach współczesnej poezji; przeciwnie, mam nadzieję, że właśnie to uda się z nią zrobić życzliwym czytelniczkom i czytelnikom. Nie mogę po prostu zaoferować takiej narracji sam, w charakterze zwięzłego podsumowania (chociaż nieco dalej podsuwam kilka luźnych lekturowych tropów).
Wyd. Fundacja na Rzecz Kultury i Edukacji im. Tymoteusza Karpowicza, 2018
Wysoka łączliwość („High Connectivity”) is a selection of book reviews and critical essays on con... more Wysoka łączliwość („High Connectivity”) is a selection of book reviews and critical essays on contemporary Polish poetry and criticism, published between 2011 and 2018. They are presented here in their original form, with minimal editorial changes, thus offering a narrative on the last decade of developments, shifts and changes in Polish poetry, with emphasis on the younger generation of poets.
The focus of the book is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to describe the relationship between poetry and progressive/radical politics in the context of contemporary Polish culture. Among its returning themes is the politics of form - the idea that the formal aspects of a poem constitute a valid, semi-autonomous means of conveying a political message.
On the other hand, the book attempts to show that criticism of contemporary poetry can be successfully reconciled with a strongly „intentionalist” approach to the issues of meaning and interpretation - that is, a belief that a poem’s meaning is synonymous with its author’s intention.
The title of the book, High Connectivity, is a reference to both the contemporary poem’s desire to capture life in its totality (including its material, political and socioeconomic conditions), and to one of the fundamental goals of criticism (that is, to reveal the hidden links and connections between ostensibly distant texts and voices).
The first part of the book contains reviews and essays on the work of select contemporary Polish poets, while the second, shorter one, consists of four essays on the role and condition of contemporary literary criticism. While the majority of the book remains focused on the work of the younger authors (Konrad Góra, Szczepan Kopyt, Klara Nowakowska, Julia Szychowiak, Ilona Witkowska and others), it also touches on certain themes and subjects central to the poems of Mariusz Grzebalski, Jerzy Jarniewicz and Joanna Oparek.
Papers by Paweł Kaczmarski
Nowa Dekada Serwis Krytyczny, 2021
Forum Poetyki, 2022
Celem artykułu jest wskazanie (wybranych) przyczyn i strategii usuwania pojęcia klasy z polskiego... more Celem artykułu jest wskazanie (wybranych) przyczyn i strategii usuwania pojęcia klasy z polskiego dyskursu krytycznoliterackiego po roku 1989. Przedmiotem analizy jest przede wszystkim pewna tradycja niemarksistowskiej krytyki lewicowej, określona nazwiskami Marii Janion, Kingi Dunin i Igora Stokfiszewskiego. Artykuł wskazuje, w jaki sposób ogólna wizja świata i polityki implicytnie szkicowana w pracach wymienionych krytyków wyklucza możliwość znaczącego wykorzystania pojęcia klasy.
Wielogłos, 2021
Between Multivocality and Autonomy. Surprising Alliances in the Stokfiszewski Debate The article ... more Between Multivocality and Autonomy. Surprising Alliances in the Stokfiszewski Debate The article offers a re-reading of an influential series of critical essays and commentaries published by Igor Stokfiszewski and various authors in 2007 as part of a debate on the role and importance of zaangażowanie (roughly "political commitment") in contemporary poetry and criticism in Poland. In reconstructing the underlying logic of the debate, it aims to emphasise certain details and complexities that were so far largely ignored by critics in order to point out indirect and often unexpected methodological, philosophical and political implications of some of the views put forward in the course of the exchange.
Replay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies, 2021
The article revisits and examines in detail the so-called Ebert debate: an exchange of polemic vo... more The article revisits and examines in detail the so-called Ebert debate: an exchange of polemic voices between Roger Ebert, his opponents and supporters, on the issue of the relationship – both actual and potential – between games and works of art. Initiated by Ebert’s famous remarks that games can never be art, the debate offers a variety of views on the nature of art, the role of experience in art and games, the possibility of artistic expression in games, and the autonomy of art. The main point of the article is not so much to compare these views as to explain the contradiction at the heart of Ebert’s own argument: the critic seems to be constantly torn between the idea that games cannot be art in principle and the more practical view that it is impossible to know for certain that no games will ever become art. This contradiction seems to stem directly from Ebert’s inconsistent views as to the source of meaning in games, and it allows us to shed new light both on the nature of games as a medium, and on fundamental issues with contemporary games studies/criticism.
Litteraria Copernicana, 2022
Artykuł przedstawia szczegółowe streszczenie różnych rodzajów krytyki, jakiej tak zwane badania a... more Artykuł przedstawia szczegółowe streszczenie różnych rodzajów krytyki, jakiej tak zwane badania afektywne zostały poddane w kręgu autorów związanych z akademickim czasopismem nonsite.org. Punktem wyjścia jest krótkie (skierowane konkretnie do polskiego czytelnika) wprowadzenie do szczególnego rodzaju intencjonalizmu, kojarzonego w badaniach literackich przede wszystkim z Walterem Bennem Michaelsem; następnie staram się wyjaśnić, w jaki sposób rozumienie kategorii znaczenia i interpretacji, współdzielone przez różnych autorów nonsite.org, kładzie fundamenty pod zasadniczą krytykę badań afektywnych, przeprowadzoną z perspektywy zarówno metodologicznej, jak i politycznej. Zestawiam krytykę afektów w pracach Ruth Leys, krytykę "formalizmu afektywnego" Todda Cronana oraz koncepcję "błędu wpływu/błędu efektu" Jennifer Ashton, przywołując jednocześnie refleksję Nicholasa Browna o autonomii dzieła sztuki jako istotny kontekst w dyskusji o afektach. W zakończeniu wskazuję, że zrozumienie fundamentalnych problemów z badaniami afektywnymi wymaga odnowionego zainteresowania rozważaniami G. E. M. Anscombe nad kategorią intencji.
Mały Format, 2021
Spory o to, czym powinna być literatura ludowa w prasie socjalistycznej lat 40.
Polityki/Awangardy, red. Agnieszka Karpowicz, Jakub Kornhauser, Marta Rakoczy, Aleksander Wójtowicz, 2021
Znają Państwo przypowieść o długich łyżkach? Jak poucza Wikipedia, jej dokładne pochodzenie nie j... more Znają Państwo przypowieść o długich łyżkach? Jak poucza Wikipedia, jej dokładne pochodzenie nie jest znane, funkcjonuje ponoć w wielu różnych religiach -niżej podpisany pamięta ją z "lekcji religii", czytaj -katechezy z czasów szkoły podstawowej. W każdym razie rzecz idzie mniej więcej tak: uczeń pyta nauczyciela, jak wyglądają piekło i niebo -co jest tak przerażającego w pierwszym, a tak wspaniałego w drugim. Nauczyciel w odpowiedzi opisuje ucztę: zastawiony stół, mnóstwo różnych potraw i napojów, ale ludzie biorący w niej udział mają łyżki za długie, by trafić nimi do własnych ust; wszyscy głodują, więc i cierpią, mając jedzenie na wyciągnięcie ręki, ale nie mogąc z niego korzystać. Tak miałoby wyglądać piekło. Potem nauczyciel opisuje dokładnie tę samą ucztę -w bród jedzenia, najbardziej wymyślne potrawy i tym podobne -i te same, za długie łyżki; tym razem dodaje jednak: owymi za długimi łyżkami każdy podaje jedzenie osobie po drugiej stronie stołu, dzięki czemu nikt nie chodzi głodny i wszyscy są nasyceni. Tak wygląda niebo. Strasznie kiczowate, prawda? A jednocześnie bardzo chwytliwe -i w swoim przekazie tyleż niekontrowersyjne, ile odwołujące się do fundamentalnych wspólnotowych intuicji. To, czy żyjemy w "piekle" czy w "niebie", zależy od nas samych i od tego, jak wykorzystujemy dostępne
Fort Legnica - Port Wrocław - Stacja Literatura. 25-lecie Biura Literackiego, red. Z. Sala, Instytut Literatury, 2020
The article is an attempt to describe and explain the origin or principle of basic interpersonal ... more The article is an attempt to describe and explain the origin or principle of basic interpersonal (and human-animal) relations governing the po- etry of Konrad Góra.The author of the sketch uses as the starting point the poet’s attitude to Poland/Polishness and points out that the duties the narrator acknowledges seem to be at the same time accidental and strongly binding. Thus, the author tries to present Góra as a writer inten- sively involved in the network of everyday commitments, unpredictable and not clearly possible to articulate, that constitute the basis of commu- nity life. Through the category of “reciprocity”, he combines this aspect of Góra’s work with David Graeber’s reflections on baseline communism.
Fort Legnica - Port Wrocław - Stacja Literatura. 25-lecie Biura Literackiego, red. Z. Sala, Instytut Literatury, 2020
The starting point of the sketch are the motifs of days and nights (as well as sleep, insomnia an... more The starting point of the sketch are the motifs of days and nights (as well as sleep, insomnia and light) in the works of Andrzej Sosnowski. These are presented to indicate essential observations for his texts about work, productivity, consumption and the possibility of “real” life in late capitalism. The author refers to the interpretation of Marta Koronkie- wicz, selected tools of ideological criticism of Fredric Jameson and the central figure in Sosnowski’s writing, “the Little Match Girl”. This is done in order to reconstruct the ambiguous vision of the world which is torn between moderate optimism and extreme pessimism, devoid of both real days and real nights. The aim of the paper is to show the intentional inconsistency and critical potential of the quasi-utopian themes present in Sosnowski’s writing.
Nowa Dekada Krakowska, 2017
Marcel Duchamp, odmowa pracy, gust
Wielogłos, 2020
The article examines the idea of year 2008 – the beginning of the so-called Great Recession – as ... more The article examines the idea of year 2008 – the beginning of the so-called Great Recession – as a potential turning point in contemporary Polish poetry. Most of the authors commonly associated with the so-called “new Polish political poetry” have published their first books around 2008, and it was also around that year that the work of certain important young authors seems to have shifted from a relatively traditional form to a more experimental one, allowing them to accurately grasp the anxiety and precariousness inherently tied to the social experience of the young generation. I link these shifts to the issue of reference and dereferentialisation of sign/language under fi- nancial capitalism. Whereas pre-2008, the dereferentialisation of language might have seemed like an ongoing and somewhat ambivalent process, for the young generation it constitutes the very foundation of their everyday existence.
Śląskie Studia Polonistyczne , 2019
The article is focused on the theme of anger in Kamila Janiak’s poetry – its forms, types, and u... more The article is focused on the theme of anger in Kamila Janiak’s poetry – its forms, types, and understanding that transpire as she develops her poetry. A paradigm of reception assumed herein as a departure point is the category of a “piss-off” (Polish vulgar noun wkurw, a strong sensation of anger), which is synonymous with intense and politically motivated indignation. The author of the article, however, attempts to show that Janiak’s poetry has been for a long time defined by other affective registers; emotions and moods in a way supressed – restricted, unfulfilled, most of all: incapable of climaxing and of “exploding.” The said state of affairs should be connected with the structure of individual and collective subjectivity appearing in Janiak’s poetry, namely, a subject that is shattered and (also politically) dispersed, lacking any devices to develop a coherent narrative, with hardly any access to political forms of anger which frequently cannot exist without consistent narrative. Instead of being expressed by one’s indignation, the said subject resorts to “little fits of pique” (a diminutive złostki is used here by Janiak), a series of minor, yet rapidly accumulating irritations, which do not find their outlet. This state of being affectively shattered may be seen in existential categories, but also political and generational ones.
Text Matters, Number 8 , 2018
The aim of the paper is to compare and contrast a few select ways in which the poetic use of para... more The aim of the paper is to compare and contrast a few select ways in which the poetic use of parataxis can convey a specific political message. Parataxis is understood here broadly, as a certain organizational principle based on a cycle of denarrativization and renarrativization. The first part of the paper reflects on the role the paratactic technique has played within the language of the reactionary populists, both historically and in the recent years. Then, building on the observation that the denarrativized, seemingly "straightforward" nature of the paratactic speech makes it particularly useful for the purposes of right-wing populism, I ask whether parataxis can be reclaimed as a progressive force. In order to answer this question, I go back to some of the issues discussed by Ron Silliman, Fredric Jameson and Bob Perelman in the context of the Language movement and the so-called New Sentence. Here, the work of de-and renarrativization performed as a consequence of the paratactic loosening of conventional textual links and structures is seen as a direct response to the denarrativized nature of everyday life under late capitalism. In the final part of the paper, I contrast the New Sentence parataxis with a more practical, more spontaneous (albeit more conventional) approach embodied by June Jordan. The paratactic structures of her writing remain focused on denarrativization in all of its disruptive and provocative potential, allowing for a certain kind of immediate political intervention.
Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica, 40(2), 2017
In its first section, the article focuses on certain concepts belonging to Adam Ważyk’s theory of... more In its first section, the article focuses on certain concepts belonging to Adam Ważyk’s theory of poetics. Specifically, I note the role of entropy in Ważyk’s thought on the form of the poem. Ważyk’s thinking of entropy served the poet to regulate his more general conception of the formal constitution of the poem. Although entropy seems to be an unavoidable process, the poet’s role and duty is to partly control it. For Ważyk, such partial containment of entropy is the condition of poetic communication.
The second section of the article places the entropy-related tensions identified by Ważyk in the context of poetic debates of the 90’s between Fredric Jameson, a prominent Marxist critic, and the American poets identified as the LANGUAGE group.
Praktyka Teoretyczna, no. 34, 2019
In this article, I draw on the work of authors associated with New Materialism(s) and the materia... more In this article, I draw on the work of authors associated with New Materialism(s) and the material turn, in order to examine and compare various ways of developing a „new materialist” literary criticism/literary theory. I then set these projects against a more traditional historical materialist perspective, as exemplified for instance by Fredric Jameson, in order to point out some fundamental differences between literary criticism focused on the imagined „true” materiality of the text and one that chooses to emphasise instead the inherent materiality of the work of literature as such (on all its levels).
Here, the oft-discussed Marxist distinction between the base and the superstructure provides a good example of how these two approaches, though ostensibly similar, may in fact represent two very different, even contradictory schools of thought and criticism.
My goal is not to criticise new materialists for not maintaining some imagined Marxist dogma, but rather, to point out how a nominal attachment to the materiality of text, when combined with a desire to invent a new method of reading, may result in a point of view that, even on its own terms, cannot be seen as materialist.
Drawing on Fredric Jameson’s remarks on materialist criticism as a work of „demystification and de-idealisation” rather than a „positive” method, I then refer to the work of Walter Benn Michaels as an example of „negative” materialist criticism that, instead of providing us with a new way of „doing interpretation”, allows us to de-idealize the way we discuss literature.
Book Reviews by Paweł Kaczmarski
Szkic o książkach "Lucyfer zwycięża" Ilony Witkowskiej, "Pawilony" Dominika Bielickiego, "Dziewię... more Szkic o książkach "Lucyfer zwycięża" Ilony Witkowskiej, "Pawilony" Dominika Bielickiego, "Dziewięć dni w ścianie" Jakuba Kornhausera
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Books by Paweł Kaczmarski
The focus of the book is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to describe the relationship between poetry and progressive/radical politics in the context of contemporary Polish culture. Among its returning themes is the politics of form - the idea that the formal aspects of a poem constitute a valid, semi-autonomous means of conveying a political message.
On the other hand, the book attempts to show that criticism of contemporary poetry can be successfully reconciled with a strongly „intentionalist” approach to the issues of meaning and interpretation - that is, a belief that a poem’s meaning is synonymous with its author’s intention.
The title of the book, High Connectivity, is a reference to both the contemporary poem’s desire to capture life in its totality (including its material, political and socioeconomic conditions), and to one of the fundamental goals of criticism (that is, to reveal the hidden links and connections between ostensibly distant texts and voices).
The first part of the book contains reviews and essays on the work of select contemporary Polish poets, while the second, shorter one, consists of four essays on the role and condition of contemporary literary criticism. While the majority of the book remains focused on the work of the younger authors (Konrad Góra, Szczepan Kopyt, Klara Nowakowska, Julia Szychowiak, Ilona Witkowska and others), it also touches on certain themes and subjects central to the poems of Mariusz Grzebalski, Jerzy Jarniewicz and Joanna Oparek.
Papers by Paweł Kaczmarski
The second section of the article places the entropy-related tensions identified by Ważyk in the context of poetic debates of the 90’s between Fredric Jameson, a prominent Marxist critic, and the American poets identified as the LANGUAGE group.
Here, the oft-discussed Marxist distinction between the base and the superstructure provides a good example of how these two approaches, though ostensibly similar, may in fact represent two very different, even contradictory schools of thought and criticism.
My goal is not to criticise new materialists for not maintaining some imagined Marxist dogma, but rather, to point out how a nominal attachment to the materiality of text, when combined with a desire to invent a new method of reading, may result in a point of view that, even on its own terms, cannot be seen as materialist.
Drawing on Fredric Jameson’s remarks on materialist criticism as a work of „demystification and de-idealisation” rather than a „positive” method, I then refer to the work of Walter Benn Michaels as an example of „negative” materialist criticism that, instead of providing us with a new way of „doing interpretation”, allows us to de-idealize the way we discuss literature.
Book Reviews by Paweł Kaczmarski
The focus of the book is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to describe the relationship between poetry and progressive/radical politics in the context of contemporary Polish culture. Among its returning themes is the politics of form - the idea that the formal aspects of a poem constitute a valid, semi-autonomous means of conveying a political message.
On the other hand, the book attempts to show that criticism of contemporary poetry can be successfully reconciled with a strongly „intentionalist” approach to the issues of meaning and interpretation - that is, a belief that a poem’s meaning is synonymous with its author’s intention.
The title of the book, High Connectivity, is a reference to both the contemporary poem’s desire to capture life in its totality (including its material, political and socioeconomic conditions), and to one of the fundamental goals of criticism (that is, to reveal the hidden links and connections between ostensibly distant texts and voices).
The first part of the book contains reviews and essays on the work of select contemporary Polish poets, while the second, shorter one, consists of four essays on the role and condition of contemporary literary criticism. While the majority of the book remains focused on the work of the younger authors (Konrad Góra, Szczepan Kopyt, Klara Nowakowska, Julia Szychowiak, Ilona Witkowska and others), it also touches on certain themes and subjects central to the poems of Mariusz Grzebalski, Jerzy Jarniewicz and Joanna Oparek.
The second section of the article places the entropy-related tensions identified by Ważyk in the context of poetic debates of the 90’s between Fredric Jameson, a prominent Marxist critic, and the American poets identified as the LANGUAGE group.
Here, the oft-discussed Marxist distinction between the base and the superstructure provides a good example of how these two approaches, though ostensibly similar, may in fact represent two very different, even contradictory schools of thought and criticism.
My goal is not to criticise new materialists for not maintaining some imagined Marxist dogma, but rather, to point out how a nominal attachment to the materiality of text, when combined with a desire to invent a new method of reading, may result in a point of view that, even on its own terms, cannot be seen as materialist.
Drawing on Fredric Jameson’s remarks on materialist criticism as a work of „demystification and de-idealisation” rather than a „positive” method, I then refer to the work of Walter Benn Michaels as an example of „negative” materialist criticism that, instead of providing us with a new way of „doing interpretation”, allows us to de-idealize the way we discuss literature.