Portret Jako Jednostka Kulturowej Historii Literatury / The Portrait as a Unit of the Cultural History of Literature

Abstract

Summary This article is concerned with the role of the literary and the photographic portrait in the cultural history of literature. It argues that a new appraisal of the history of literature should take into account the prominent role of pictorial representation in contemporary culture. In practice, getting to grips with the multimediality of literary history means not only taking note of the interaction of various modes of communication but also adopting a nonlinear perspective, liberated from the ordering hegemony of language and narration, and based on the rhythm of Warburg’s formulas of pathos. The new approach should draw freely on inspirations from the history of art and anchor its discourse in the conceptual frameworks of anthropological aesthetics, Visual Culture Studies and case studies. One can expect that it would show its exceptional worth when applied to the study of multimedia artists like Stanisław Witkiewicz and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz.