Chińska porcelana

The article uses the example of The Card Index by Tadeusz Różewicz to pose some questions concerning the identity of a literary text that exists in several authorial versions, which in turn forces one to pause and think which of these versions should be a basis for a critical edition or interpretation of the work. The case of The Card Index is particularly complicated because as many as three different texts in which the recurring Card Index is the key element exist; there are two manuscript versions published as autograph reproductions, and a video footage, published on DVD, of open rehearsals to the unfinished production of Kartoteka rozrzucona (‘The Scattered Card Index’). Interpretation of the drama must take the interrelatedness and complementariness of these versions into account.