Sygnatury tekstowe. Wokół niemieckojęzycznych opowiadań Brunona Schulza

Abstract

The author of the article searches for an answer to the question whether the stories might have been written by Bruno Schulz from Drogobych, the one who wrote The Cinnamon Shops. Given that the query has not yet been concluded beyond doubt, she tries to find alternative methods of analyzing these texts. She assumes that young Schulz’s style pattern should not be established by analyzing only his mature texts. Schulz wrote many short stories that could not be found, therefore, the question of his literary identity is still relevant. An account of his literary style can be found in the analysis carried out in the 1970s by Piotr Wróblewski. It allows for finding the most common features that distinguish Schulz from other writers. The distinction is crucial for either confirmation or rejection of authorship. The author conducts an experiment to evaluate the stylistic features in German stories and the result is surprising. In reference to The Cinnamon Shops as well as Schulz’s other well-known other works and his early story “Undula,” his authorship proves certain. However, in the German stories examination yields slightly more than half of the positive responses. The author assumes that in each text there are traces of someone’s individual, unique style, calling them metaphorically “text signatures,” the “fingerprints” of the text. In her research, she also uses methods such as forensic linguistics and stylometry. The author deals with the stereotype of Schulz’s literary debut facilitated by the support of Zofia Nałkowska. In the article, she tries to reconstruct Schulz’s first literary steps and wonders what he might have written between the publication of ”Undula” and “The Birds” (and later The Cinnamon Shops), and whether he included his first literary samples in letters to his friends or during the Kalleia’s meetings in Drogobych. The author lists his lost works and ends the article with the question of Schulz’s identity.