Miłosz i Lévinas – modernistyczny dwugłos o zadaniach literatury

Abstract

Summary The article examines a parallel between Emmanuel Lévinas’s and Czesław Miłosz’s philosophical reflection about the duties of literature. The common ground can be found in Lévinas’s well-known idea of encountering the Other through the Face. This form of communication, which is by no means easy, is given extra depth by liminal experiences of transience and death. As the examples from the second part of this article show these experiences seem to mark the greatest achievements of twentieth-century literature. Finally, the question is asked about the two writers’ views on the place of philosophy and reflection on transcendence. Even though they do not see eye to eye on these points, the plurality of values and judgments expressed by them should not compel us to classify their work as completely disparate and incomparable.