Theater in the Poetry of Kazimierz Braun

Joanna MICHALCZUK

Abstract

The article offers a new perspective on the work of Kazimierz Braun, a mature artist and theater scholar, well known for his theatrical and directing works, but also his dramas and novels. The paper shows Braun as a poet fascinated with theater, no longer just following the poetic theater of Cyprian Norwid and Tadeusz Różewicz, but reckoning in his own poetry with theater and life seen from the perspective of theater. The reflections presented in the article focus on the texts that become a lyrical form of expression of theatrical experience. The analysis reveals the main problem in Braun’s work, i.e., the problem of artistic creativity, its form, and tasks it fulfills, but also of the duties of an artist. In the poetic works of Braun, the theatrical experience acquires a very personal, intimate quality, and is closely connected to the form of a prayer and to the attitude of the praying lyrical subject. The lyrical reckoning with the theater reveals an autobiographical attitude and becomes an important complement, but also a recapitulation, of Braun’s artistic work, by clearly revealing its spiritual and axiological foundations. The paper is also an invitation to further, more extensive research on Braun’s poetry and its relationship to the whole artistic achievement of the artist.