LITERARY CRITICISM ON THE SACRUM IN LITERATURE (Miejsce badan nad sacrum w literaturze w refleksji literaturoznawczej. Rozpoznania i postulaty)

This article brings a review of the main approaches to the problem of sacrum in the Polish critical tradition. The fact that the sacrum is an interdisciplinary area of study has important methodological consequences. It has been regarded as a peculiar, fringe subject and treated accordingly, in a reductionist manner. Against this background, the article outlines a new approach which calls for a reappraisal of the sacrum within literary studies, and, more specifically, for acknowledging its status as one of the basic theoretical categories invoked in critical interpretations of individual works and whole literary epochs. The application of such an approach would no doubt alter in some respects our appreciation of the literature of individual epochs and the inner dynamics of literary history.