Profetyczne (od)czytanie prowincji: Jerzy Stempowski – Esej berdyczowski

The idea of Marek Bernacki’s article is to interpret Berdichev Essay by Jerzy Stempowski, the classic of Polish essay writing in 20th century. The author also dedicates a lot of attention to the town, which becomes ”the main character” of the text. Bernacki reminds that Berdichev used to be an important trade centre in 18th and 19th century Europe, as well as a religious centre for both catholics and Jews. There are also references to Andrzej Bursa’s poetry in the article. The author notices that even though Bursa’s nonconformist poems (The Town, Saturday) were created approximately at the same time as Stempowski’s Berdichev Essay, the attitude of both writers is radically different. Bursa sees only stagnation, slowdown and lack of prospects in the provincial world of real socialism, while Stempowski notices ”the pictures of future” and ”designs of future things” in provincial Berdichev from the beginning of 20th century. These, as an expert essayist, he exposes to work of memory, imagination and mind. Europe being pushed to the sidelines after 1945, new idols (and marxism as a ”new religion”) as well as the growth of social anarchy are the three issues described by Stempowski, which, according to Bernacki, ought to stimulate a reflection in a contemporary reader as well.