Papers by Artur Hellich
Teksty Drugie, 2021
Wpływ marzenia na twórczość artystyczną wszelkich typów, a w niektórych wypadkach także na twórcz... more Wpływ marzenia na twórczość artystyczną wszelkich typów, a w niektórych wypadkach także na twórczość naukową, nie da się zaprzeczyć. (Leon Chwistek, 1921) Po drugiej stronie kontinuum Pomysł na ten artykuł zrodził się po lekturze blurba zamieszczonego na skrzydełku okładki książki Elizy Kąckiej po drugiej stronie siebie (2019). Wydawca napisał, że w utworze tym "po większej części" zapisane zostały autentyczne sny z czasu, gdy jawę autorki -tak się złożyło -okupowała inna, aż nazbyt realnie pisana książka: Lektura jako spotkanie. Brzozowski -tekst -metoda (2017). To przed nią, jak zobaczycie, jej nocne ja daremnie umyka na drugą stronę siebie. Lecz i po drugiej stronie siebie nie sposób uciec od siebie. 1 1 E. Kącka po drugiej stronie siebie, Lokator, Kraków 2019. Od tej pory odwołania do tego utworu będę zaznaczał w tekście głównym przez podanie numeru strony w nawiasie.
"Studia Poetica", 2024
The subject of the article is an attempt to outline the cultural history of Polish versolo-gy, sp... more The subject of the article is an attempt to outline the cultural history of Polish versolo-gy, specifically the history of the Department of Artistic Language headed by Maria Rena-ta Mayenowa since the late 1940s at the Institute of Literary Research in Warsaw. Posing questions suggested by the intimate and the emotional history of knowledge, the author tries to situate the history of versology by presenting the personal perspective of Maye-nowa and her collaborators, using as material for analysis primarily archival correspond-ence and memoirs. Two main theses emerge from the article. The first states that practic-ing versology in the People’s Republic of Poland was not ideologically neutral, moreover, by its very nature, it enabled dropping political hints. The second thesis is that both the spec-ificity of the conducted research and the style of argumentation were in the case of May-enowa and her colleagues coherent with their model of socio-cultural upbringing, their work ethic, values and worldviews. In other words, the fact that Warsaw’s versology was exactly what it was, resulted from a specific combination of biographical, historical-polit-ical and socio-cultural reasons.
"Kultura Współczesna", 2024
The article begins by pointing to the 1960s as the period when young theoreticians of
literature ... more The article begins by pointing to the 1960s as the period when young theoreticians of
literature connected with the Literary Theory Department at the Warsaw University,
students of Stefan Żółkiewski, began leaning towards the anthropological approach.
Drawing on the biographical materialism approach and Florian Znaniecki’s humanistic factor concept, the author presents two variants of biographies of theoreticians
born during the Second World War and belonging to what is called here (due to
their specific social position) the “advancement generation”. Research materials
are comprised of Andrzej Mencwel’s and Edward Kasperski’s (auto)biographies and
scientific works, treated as equally important. The general conclusion is that any
description of the Warsaw proto-cultural studies tradition needs to take account of
its polemic relationship to structuralism, stemming not only from methodological
and ideological reasons, but also from biographical, environmental, historical, political and institutional conditions. This concerns mainly the relationship between
scholars from the “advancement generation” and the slightly older representatives
of the Warsaw structuralist school impacted by the March 1968 events.
Prace Filologiczne. Literaturoznawstwo, 2024
The article is an analysis of the autobiographical, literary, essayistic, and academic works ofAn... more The article is an analysis of the autobiographical, literary, essayistic, and academic works ofAndrzej Zieniewicz that emphasizes the mutual interferences of his writing immersed in differentdiscourses. The author treats the autobiographical book of the Warsaw historian as a gloss on twolater scientific dissertations, which points to the personal background of the theoretical issues he wasengaged in, and also explains the grounds and the functions of typographic and stylistic devicesemployed in the aforementioned academic works. In the wake of unveiling the figure of Zieniewiczhimself, the author identifies his critical attitude to the discourse of the humanities as a featureof his generation relevant to specific biographical experiences of the New Wave generation.
Teksty Drugie, 2024
In the first part, I present the background of the Polish–Dutch cooperation initiated
in the earl... more In the first part, I present the background of the Polish–Dutch cooperation initiated
in the early 1970s by Slavists from the University of Amsterdam. Referring to archival
letters and memoirs of the participants in the events, I reconstructed the history of
research trips to Amsterdam by literary theorists from the Institute of Literary Research
in Warsaw. The second part of the article focuses on a combined analysis of memoir
and literary texts by Michał Głowiński – one of these theorists – that refer to his stay
in the Dutch capital. I put forward a thesis that there are numerous analogies between
the descriptions of Amsterdam and his native Pruszków. In an attempt to interpret this
nonobvious convergence, I focus on the recurring themes of wandering in a foreign space
and “taming” it in Głowiński’s work. These motifs turn out to be crucial for the analysis of
Głowiński’s “Amsterdam texts,” such as the short story “Bar Ganimed.
"Konteksty Kultury", 2024
The aim of the article is to discuss and interpret, from the perspective of sociology of knowledg... more The aim of the article is to discuss and interpret, from the perspective of sociology of knowledge, a few debates on style and terminology of literary studies which took place in the 20 th and 21 st century in the circles of the literary studies scholars in Warsaw. In the first part of the article, the author discusses the debates concerning the terminology of verse theory in the pre-and postwar periods in the context of its societal reach. Next, he summarizes the discussions that took place in the 1950s and 1960s, which criticized the use of scientific language in the humanities. The second part of the article is dedicated to two more recent debates: one centered around the reception of Ilustrowany słownik terminów literackich (Illustrated dictionary of literary terms; here again returns the question of the societal reach of humanities research); and the other one focused on the requirement of schematization of writing in the humanities, related to the influence capitalism on the humanities, and the resultant opportunities and dangers. Using the sociology of P. Bourdieu and its newer interpretations (A. Zysiak), as well as S. Ahmed's approach, the author argues that each standpoint represented in the debates on the language of the humanities (its proper style and preferred terminology) is inevitably political. Starting with this observation, in each case the author points out the political dimension of the argumentation presented by individual scholars: the elitist-conservative one, the liberal identity-based one, and the left egalitarian one.
"Teksty Drugie", nr 5, 2023
A remembrance of Andrzej Zieniewicz (1949-2023), the late historian of twentieth-and twenty-first... more A remembrance of Andrzej Zieniewicz (1949-2023), the late historian of twentieth-and twenty-first-century literature, a long-time employee of the Faculty of Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw. The author focuses on Zieniewicz's autobiographical and essayistic works, separately analyzing the formal layer of the autobiographical work Polak mały w Azji Mniejszej (A Little Pole in Asia Minor). He then juxtaposes the contents of this book-on the one hand-with an outline of Zieniewicz's biography reconstructed from archival search and his wife' s memories, and on the other hand, with Zieniewicz' s concept of the "scene of biography," which he introduced in his last book under the same title.
"Autobiografia. Literatura-Kultura-Media", 2022
The author investigates the sources of thinking which leads to opposing the theoretical and the
a... more The author investigates the sources of thinking which leads to opposing the theoretical and the
autobiographical or literary texts written by the scholars. Citing selected examples of the contemporary autobiographies of Polish academics, he outlines the intimate history of the humanities’
concept, based on the broad utilization of autobiographical texts when considering the whole
work of each scholar. The main goal of this project is to supplement the history of humanities
with the personal perspective of female and male researchers.
"Autobiografia. Literatura-Kultura-Media", 2020
Tekst jest autorską propozycją hasła słownikowego "autentyczność" (definiowanego w kategoriach au... more Tekst jest autorską propozycją hasła słownikowego "autentyczność" (definiowanego w kategoriach autobiograficznych). Wyznaczywszy trzy zasadnicze zakresy znaczeniowe tego pojęcia, autor śledzi historyczny rozwój każdego z nich, a następnie zarysowuje jego dzisiejszy status. W tym celu sięga zarówno do tekstowych praktyk autobiograficznych, jak i tych, które granice tekstu przekraczają (na przykład performance).
"Teksty Drugie", 2021
Hellich examines the scholarly and literary work of Eliza Kącka (b. 1982) in the context of dream... more Hellich examines the scholarly and literary work of Eliza Kącka (b. 1982) in the context of dream studies. Drawing on Ernest Hartmann’s theory of the dream as part of a continuum Hellich tackles Kącka’s output as a whole and points out interferences between two
texts written at the same time, namely a literary historical monograph and a literary dream journal. Hellich suggests that Kącka’s dream journal reveals an implicit or “private: dimension of her scholarly work – a sort of “narrative about herself”. In the second part of the article Hellich reads the dream journal in terms of Kącka playing with the genre
of autobiography, as well as an attempt to describe the subject of Kącka’s writing understood as a multilingual whole.
"Pamiętnik Literacki" z. 1, 2021
Artykuł omawia spuściznę wybitnego polskiego badacza literatury, strukturalisty, wersologa, eseis... more Artykuł omawia spuściznę wybitnego polskiego badacza literatury, strukturalisty, wersologa, eseisty i poety Franciszka Siedleckiego, zmarłego przedwcześnie w 1942 roku. Autor stawia tezę, że dzieło Siedleckiego – ale wyłącznie postrzegane jako całość, a więc niedzielone na studia naukowe, eseje, wiersze i listy – może być rozpatrywane jako model twórczości nowoczesnego literaturoznawcy teoretycznego. Dzieje się tak z uwagi na Siedleckiego „bycie pomiędzy” – zarówno między literaturą a literaturoznawstwem, jak i nauką i polityką, przy czym jedno jest zależne od drugiego. Charakterystyczna dla nowoczesnego literaturoznawstwa teoretycznego dwuręczność pisarska, jak dowodzi autor, najwyraźniej mogła posiadać (i posiadała) czytelny wymiar polityczny i społeczny.
Analiza opiera się w dużej mierze na tekstach mniej znanych lub w ogóle nieznanych – esejach publikowanych w przedwojennych periodykach, a także listach odnalezionych w archiwach w Warszawie, Wilnie i Nowym Jorku – i traktuje je jako kontrnarracje wywracające na nice powszechne przekonania zarówno na temat samego Siedleckiego, jak i początków polskiego strukturalizmu, podważając rzekomo autonomiczny status tego ostatniego. Widziany z tej perspektywy, Siedlecki staje się interesującym badaczem i pisarzem również dzisiaj.
"Archiwum Emigracji" z. 1-2 (24-25), 2017
The article interprets Kazimierz Brandys’s Mała księga [A Small Book] (1970) as an autobiography ... more The article interprets Kazimierz Brandys’s Mała księga [A Small Book] (1970) as an autobiography written by the Polish writer of Jewish origin after the 1968 political crisis and anti-Semitic campaign in Poland. The author, following Jan Błoński, claims that although
Brandys does not use the term “Jew” even once in this text, the writer’s ethnic origin is central and fundamental to his work. This issue is considered in a political and sociological context (the
assimilation of Polish Jews), as well as from a psychoanalytical perspective (the relation between silence as a symptom of tabooization and sublimation). The author of the article juxtaposes his
interpretation of Mała księga with all of Brandys’s oeuvre, and in particular the assessment of his writing in Polish criticism and history of literature. The author argues that the critique of the
writer’s works results from a failure to decode the subversive quality of the literary technique of pastiche and other games with the autobiography convention played by Brandys.
"Filozofia filologii", 2019
Książka Filozofi a fi lologii jest plonem wyjazdu seminaryjnego do Nowego Miasta nad Pilicą (13-1... more Książka Filozofi a fi lologii jest plonem wyjazdu seminaryjnego do Nowego Miasta nad Pilicą (13-15 października 2017 r.), w którym wzięli udział pracownicy naukowi, doktoranci (w przeważającej mierze) oraz studenci pięciu polskich ośrodków akademickich -Uniwersytetów: im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, Jagiellońskiego, Śląskiego, Warszawskiego i Wrocławskiego. Sam pomysł zorganizowania wyjazdu o zasięgu ogólnopolskim narodził się podczas nieformalnych spotkań dyskusyjnych, które w ciągu dwóch lat (2015-2017) odbywały się w salach Wydziału Polonistyki na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim. Ich uczestnikami byli redaktorzy niniejszej książki.
The article examines the relationship between two types of narration, the autobiographical and th... more The article examines the relationship between two types of narration, the autobiographical and the automythographical, and two concepts of time upon which they depend, the linear and the cyclical respectively. The analysis is focused on the use of the strategy of recurrence, i.e. having the same episode from the author’s life recur in various stylistic variants in the course of a single autobiographical story line. The case in point is Artur Sandauer’s Zapiski z martwego miasta (Notes from a Dead City), where iteration is used not to illumine the author’s experience but rather to establish and fix its irreparable inaccessibility. It seems that the author’s formal games with the conventions of traditional autobiography are connected with problem of Jewish assimilation in Polish society.
The aim of the article is an analysis of formal structure, characteristic of Michał Głowiński’s a... more The aim of the article is an analysis of formal structure, characteristic of Michał Głowiński’s autobiography. Hellich confronts Głowiński’s Kręgi obcości (Circles of Strangeness) with his prose debut (Czarne
sezony "The Black Seasons") in order to prove that the two forms of intimate writings are differentiated first and foremost by their linguistic organization. Kręgi obcości is dominated by diglottic (in Bakhtin’s
view) realist narration, yet in some places broken by (monoglottic) expressive parts, which suspend the subjective “I” vs. objective “I” dialectic, characteristic of autobiography. Hellich proposes the thesis that the expressive parts, though marginal within the limits of the entire “autobiographical story,” are present in the text’s trouble area.
Poszerzona definicja słownikowa pojęcia "pastisz" do "Słownika Rodzajów Literackich"
"Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich" 2/2014, s. 25-32
Pastisz może być – i bywał – pojmowany na trzy rozmaite sposoby: jako gatunek, jako odmiana styli... more Pastisz może być – i bywał – pojmowany na trzy rozmaite sposoby: jako gatunek, jako odmiana stylizacji oraz jako odrębna kategoria estetyczna. Z odmienną definicją tego zjawiska wiąże się odmienna ocena jego walorów artystycznych. Zwracając uwagę na pewne nieścisłości w genologicznych ujęciach pastiszu (reprezentowanych tu głównie przez koncepcję Stanisława Balbusa), opowiadam się za rozpatrywaniem pastiszu na płaszczyźnie estetycznej, nie zaś – stylistycznej. Jednak nie wydaje mi się słuszne definiowanie go w opozycji do parodii, co czynią Linda Hutcheon i Ryszard Nycz. Opierając się na analizach prozy Marcela Prousta i Doroty Masłowskiej, przedstawiam tezę, że pastisz i parodia są nie tyle strategiami opozycyjnymi, co raczej pokrewnymi; nierzadko wręcz trudnymi do odróżnienia.
(So far, pastiche has been criticized as a sign of unoriginality and epigonism of postmodern artists, marginalized as a niche, elite phenomenon and cherished as the most perfect form of contemporary art. Differences in the perception of pastiche are due to the fact that everyone defines it differently: as a genre, as a kind of stylization or as an aesthetic category. I agree that a pastiche – like a parody – should be considered as a distinct aesthetic strategy. I do not think, however, that pastiche and parody make clear and rigid opposition. Analysis of examples of literature – from Marcel Proust to Dorota Masłowska – prove that these strategies are closely related and usually occur in hand.)
Book Reviews by Artur Hellich
doświadczenie. Studia z teorii historiografii, red. i wstęp 1 E. Domańska, Kraków 2004, s. 372. C... more doświadczenie. Studia z teorii historiografii, red. i wstęp 1 E. Domańska, Kraków 2004, s. 372. Cyt. za: G. Marzec, Hermeneuta..., s. 17. Tamże, s. 13. 2 Tamże, s. 16. 3 Tamże, s. 30. 4 JAROSŁAW MAREK RYMKIEWICZ POMIĘDZY KONSTRUKCJĄ A DEKONSTRUKCJĄ* Książka Hermeneuta i historia. Jarosław
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Papers by Artur Hellich
literature connected with the Literary Theory Department at the Warsaw University,
students of Stefan Żółkiewski, began leaning towards the anthropological approach.
Drawing on the biographical materialism approach and Florian Znaniecki’s humanistic factor concept, the author presents two variants of biographies of theoreticians
born during the Second World War and belonging to what is called here (due to
their specific social position) the “advancement generation”. Research materials
are comprised of Andrzej Mencwel’s and Edward Kasperski’s (auto)biographies and
scientific works, treated as equally important. The general conclusion is that any
description of the Warsaw proto-cultural studies tradition needs to take account of
its polemic relationship to structuralism, stemming not only from methodological
and ideological reasons, but also from biographical, environmental, historical, political and institutional conditions. This concerns mainly the relationship between
scholars from the “advancement generation” and the slightly older representatives
of the Warsaw structuralist school impacted by the March 1968 events.
in the early 1970s by Slavists from the University of Amsterdam. Referring to archival
letters and memoirs of the participants in the events, I reconstructed the history of
research trips to Amsterdam by literary theorists from the Institute of Literary Research
in Warsaw. The second part of the article focuses on a combined analysis of memoir
and literary texts by Michał Głowiński – one of these theorists – that refer to his stay
in the Dutch capital. I put forward a thesis that there are numerous analogies between
the descriptions of Amsterdam and his native Pruszków. In an attempt to interpret this
nonobvious convergence, I focus on the recurring themes of wandering in a foreign space
and “taming” it in Głowiński’s work. These motifs turn out to be crucial for the analysis of
Głowiński’s “Amsterdam texts,” such as the short story “Bar Ganimed.
autobiographical or literary texts written by the scholars. Citing selected examples of the contemporary autobiographies of Polish academics, he outlines the intimate history of the humanities’
concept, based on the broad utilization of autobiographical texts when considering the whole
work of each scholar. The main goal of this project is to supplement the history of humanities
with the personal perspective of female and male researchers.
texts written at the same time, namely a literary historical monograph and a literary dream journal. Hellich suggests that Kącka’s dream journal reveals an implicit or “private: dimension of her scholarly work – a sort of “narrative about herself”. In the second part of the article Hellich reads the dream journal in terms of Kącka playing with the genre
of autobiography, as well as an attempt to describe the subject of Kącka’s writing understood as a multilingual whole.
Analiza opiera się w dużej mierze na tekstach mniej znanych lub w ogóle nieznanych – esejach publikowanych w przedwojennych periodykach, a także listach odnalezionych w archiwach w Warszawie, Wilnie i Nowym Jorku – i traktuje je jako kontrnarracje wywracające na nice powszechne przekonania zarówno na temat samego Siedleckiego, jak i początków polskiego strukturalizmu, podważając rzekomo autonomiczny status tego ostatniego. Widziany z tej perspektywy, Siedlecki staje się interesującym badaczem i pisarzem również dzisiaj.
Brandys does not use the term “Jew” even once in this text, the writer’s ethnic origin is central and fundamental to his work. This issue is considered in a political and sociological context (the
assimilation of Polish Jews), as well as from a psychoanalytical perspective (the relation between silence as a symptom of tabooization and sublimation). The author of the article juxtaposes his
interpretation of Mała księga with all of Brandys’s oeuvre, and in particular the assessment of his writing in Polish criticism and history of literature. The author argues that the critique of the
writer’s works results from a failure to decode the subversive quality of the literary technique of pastiche and other games with the autobiography convention played by Brandys.
sezony "The Black Seasons") in order to prove that the two forms of intimate writings are differentiated first and foremost by their linguistic organization. Kręgi obcości is dominated by diglottic (in Bakhtin’s
view) realist narration, yet in some places broken by (monoglottic) expressive parts, which suspend the subjective “I” vs. objective “I” dialectic, characteristic of autobiography. Hellich proposes the thesis that the expressive parts, though marginal within the limits of the entire “autobiographical story,” are present in the text’s trouble area.
(So far, pastiche has been criticized as a sign of unoriginality and epigonism of postmodern artists, marginalized as a niche, elite phenomenon and cherished as the most perfect form of contemporary art. Differences in the perception of pastiche are due to the fact that everyone defines it differently: as a genre, as a kind of stylization or as an aesthetic category. I agree that a pastiche – like a parody – should be considered as a distinct aesthetic strategy. I do not think, however, that pastiche and parody make clear and rigid opposition. Analysis of examples of literature – from Marcel Proust to Dorota Masłowska – prove that these strategies are closely related and usually occur in hand.)
Book Reviews by Artur Hellich
literature connected with the Literary Theory Department at the Warsaw University,
students of Stefan Żółkiewski, began leaning towards the anthropological approach.
Drawing on the biographical materialism approach and Florian Znaniecki’s humanistic factor concept, the author presents two variants of biographies of theoreticians
born during the Second World War and belonging to what is called here (due to
their specific social position) the “advancement generation”. Research materials
are comprised of Andrzej Mencwel’s and Edward Kasperski’s (auto)biographies and
scientific works, treated as equally important. The general conclusion is that any
description of the Warsaw proto-cultural studies tradition needs to take account of
its polemic relationship to structuralism, stemming not only from methodological
and ideological reasons, but also from biographical, environmental, historical, political and institutional conditions. This concerns mainly the relationship between
scholars from the “advancement generation” and the slightly older representatives
of the Warsaw structuralist school impacted by the March 1968 events.
in the early 1970s by Slavists from the University of Amsterdam. Referring to archival
letters and memoirs of the participants in the events, I reconstructed the history of
research trips to Amsterdam by literary theorists from the Institute of Literary Research
in Warsaw. The second part of the article focuses on a combined analysis of memoir
and literary texts by Michał Głowiński – one of these theorists – that refer to his stay
in the Dutch capital. I put forward a thesis that there are numerous analogies between
the descriptions of Amsterdam and his native Pruszków. In an attempt to interpret this
nonobvious convergence, I focus on the recurring themes of wandering in a foreign space
and “taming” it in Głowiński’s work. These motifs turn out to be crucial for the analysis of
Głowiński’s “Amsterdam texts,” such as the short story “Bar Ganimed.
autobiographical or literary texts written by the scholars. Citing selected examples of the contemporary autobiographies of Polish academics, he outlines the intimate history of the humanities’
concept, based on the broad utilization of autobiographical texts when considering the whole
work of each scholar. The main goal of this project is to supplement the history of humanities
with the personal perspective of female and male researchers.
texts written at the same time, namely a literary historical monograph and a literary dream journal. Hellich suggests that Kącka’s dream journal reveals an implicit or “private: dimension of her scholarly work – a sort of “narrative about herself”. In the second part of the article Hellich reads the dream journal in terms of Kącka playing with the genre
of autobiography, as well as an attempt to describe the subject of Kącka’s writing understood as a multilingual whole.
Analiza opiera się w dużej mierze na tekstach mniej znanych lub w ogóle nieznanych – esejach publikowanych w przedwojennych periodykach, a także listach odnalezionych w archiwach w Warszawie, Wilnie i Nowym Jorku – i traktuje je jako kontrnarracje wywracające na nice powszechne przekonania zarówno na temat samego Siedleckiego, jak i początków polskiego strukturalizmu, podważając rzekomo autonomiczny status tego ostatniego. Widziany z tej perspektywy, Siedlecki staje się interesującym badaczem i pisarzem również dzisiaj.
Brandys does not use the term “Jew” even once in this text, the writer’s ethnic origin is central and fundamental to his work. This issue is considered in a political and sociological context (the
assimilation of Polish Jews), as well as from a psychoanalytical perspective (the relation between silence as a symptom of tabooization and sublimation). The author of the article juxtaposes his
interpretation of Mała księga with all of Brandys’s oeuvre, and in particular the assessment of his writing in Polish criticism and history of literature. The author argues that the critique of the
writer’s works results from a failure to decode the subversive quality of the literary technique of pastiche and other games with the autobiography convention played by Brandys.
sezony "The Black Seasons") in order to prove that the two forms of intimate writings are differentiated first and foremost by their linguistic organization. Kręgi obcości is dominated by diglottic (in Bakhtin’s
view) realist narration, yet in some places broken by (monoglottic) expressive parts, which suspend the subjective “I” vs. objective “I” dialectic, characteristic of autobiography. Hellich proposes the thesis that the expressive parts, though marginal within the limits of the entire “autobiographical story,” are present in the text’s trouble area.
(So far, pastiche has been criticized as a sign of unoriginality and epigonism of postmodern artists, marginalized as a niche, elite phenomenon and cherished as the most perfect form of contemporary art. Differences in the perception of pastiche are due to the fact that everyone defines it differently: as a genre, as a kind of stylization or as an aesthetic category. I agree that a pastiche – like a parody – should be considered as a distinct aesthetic strategy. I do not think, however, that pastiche and parody make clear and rigid opposition. Analysis of examples of literature – from Marcel Proust to Dorota Masłowska – prove that these strategies are closely related and usually occur in hand.)
Podstawowym celem tej książki jest scharakteryzowanie rozmaitych przetworzeń tradycyjnego paradygmatu gatunkowego autobiografii. Materiał empiryczny stanowią teksty Kazimierza Brandysa, Stanisława Lema, Romana Zimanda, Artura Sandauera, Philipa Rotha i Paula Karla Feyerabenda. Autor analizuje je w odniesieniu do współczesnych studiów nad intymistyką, stawiając pytania zarówno o metody dystansowania się od utrwalonych schematów narracyjno-kompozycyjnych, jak i pozaestetyczne przyczyny podejmowania gier z autobiografią. Ponieważ większość bohaterów zamieszczonych w książce analiz − pisarzy, krytyków, intelektualistów − to Polacy żydowskiego pochodzenia publikujący w okresie PRL, Artur Hellich przedstawia ich utwory jako świadectwa istnienia oryginalnego zjawiska w powojennej polskiej literaturze dokumentu osobistego.