Precyzja i milczenie. O twórczości poetyckiej Wojciecha Gniatczyńskiego

The article discusses the poetical writings by Wojciech Gniatczyński, the editor of Polish Radio Free Europe, talented writer and literary critic. The author of the article analyses essential problems and artistic features of this poetry on the basis of two published volumes of poems, biographical information, gathered correspondence, unpublished works and articles concerning issues of literary criticism by Gniatczyński. However, the main focus of the article falls on the links between the writer and the war-time generation, tragic experiences gained in the Nazi extermination camp in Auschwitz and further emigration solitude. The author of the article discusses also the post-war episode in writings by Gniatczyński – first in the context of London groups known as "Merkuriusz" and "Kontynenty", next with reference to the Munich society of writers and radio reporters gathered around the RFE. The analysis of poetical works by Gniatczyński describes a relatively invariable repertory of undertaken problems and a number of references to avant-garde patterns. According to the author of the article, Gniatczyński is currently a forgotten writer who treated poem as an expression of thought rather than a wordplay or imaginative jugglery. Thus, the poet made attempts to bind simplicity with innovation. As a result, the article presents Wojciech Gniatczyński as a writer who cannot be labeled according to the common emigration stereotypes: he is focused on inventing his own poetical form that often uses prose devices, irony and paradoxes.