Autobiografia/Autobiofikcja glosa do autobiografii Andrzeja Stasiuka

Abstrakt

Autobiography/Autobiofiction a footnote to Andrzej Stasiuk’s autobiography

The article is an attempt to describe Jak zostałem pisarzem... [How I Became A Writer...] by Andrzej Stasiuk as a unique example of autobiographical writing. Starting from the critical-literary dispute that began shortly after the publication of the book, the author tries to establish why Stasiuk’s autobiography divided the critics. He points out that reasons for that should be looked for in the transformations of the patterns of autobiographical narrative and in the somewhat provocative gestures of the writer himself. On the one hand, Stasiuk testifies to an autobiographical nature of the book, and on the other — he tries to belittle it. The author uses a method developed by Małgorzata Czermińska, who distinguishes three modalities of the autobiographical discourse testimony — confession — challenge and tries to establish which of these modalities is the closest to Stasiuk’s story. In addition, in his interpretation he remains close to the theories of the French scholar specialising in biographical writings and diaries Philippe Lejeune. He thus concludes that an autobiography is as much a referential narrative as a staged one, while its reception is burdened with a kind of “pact” between the writer and his readers.