Stages of the curiosity - stages of the reflection

Józef Wittlin’s travelling experience has a bipolar form: a sensual joy of discovering new spaces borders with pondering of an intellectualist, a real journey across cities and countries borders with a “metaphysical journey” in which a refl ection on the ultimate matters plays a vital role. Experiencing space and time, but also fl uidity and lasting, in Wittlin’s works is connected with the subject of existential nature. Another important hallmark of this writing is the multiplicity of genres, since in the series Etapy (Stages) and later delineations one can recognize an intellectual essay with references to an autobiography and inner experiences, a poetical reportage or a short story. However, the stylistics of Wittlin’s works stand out with its tale-like digressions, replete with metaphors and linguistic concepts poetry, humour and irony. One should pay attention to Wittlin’s original topos repertoire connected with travelling, since the writer reads the semantics of borders and bridges with great care, refl ects on an encounter of various cultures, mentalities, customs and types of historical memory. Wittlin plays a sophisticated game with a tour guide, doubting in stereotypes and setting a private map of places worth visiting. As much as the descriptions of voyages from 1920s and the beginning of 1930s evoke imaginations of a joyful world, later statements include a bitter diagnosis of the historical failure of Europe. In the emigration period - after many years - Wittlin goes back to travelling essay writing, but the beauty of specifi cs cognized through sense is overshadowed by a melancholic sense of a loss