Sejny. The Pogranicze Foundation presents a book by Jerzy Ficowski Regiony wielkiej herezji i okolice. Bruno Schulz i jego mitologia.
The book published by the Pogranicze Foundation contains almost everything Ficowski* had published to that day about Schulz, as well as several new, unpublished texts. The publication contains revised versions of Regiony wielkiej herezji and Okolice sklepów cynamonowych, as well as forewords to the editions of Schulz works Ficowski edited: A Second Autumn, The Book of Idolatry, Ilustracje do własnych utworów and the texts that were later included in Księga obrazów: Kobieta – idol i władczyni, Autoportrety i portrety. In addition, the book includes essays published in magazines “Czekając na Mesjasza” and “Własnowidz i cudzotwórca”, as well as poems by Ficowski devoted to Schulz: “Mój nieocalony”* and”Drohobycz 1920”*. In the volume there are also unpublished articles: “Alfabet Weingartena” and one devoted to Józefina Szelińska – “J[...] Bezimienna”. The book is complemented by a selection of Schulz letters and “Kalendarium życia i twórczości Brunona Schulza” [A Calendar of life and work of Bruno Schulz].
In his preface entitled “To the Reader”, Ficowski expresses joy at the emergence of new generations of Schulz scholars and hopes that their work on Schulz’s legacy will continue: “Maybe they will also be given the opportunity to read and analyse these works that are still waiting to be found? They may be given a chance for new glamour and admiration”.
Wojciech Lipowski notes that this book is not a mere reprint of a well-known publication, because “Ficowski’s work is in constant motion, and more layers emerge of it, like in a palimpsest, of findings extracted from non-existence”. He adds that “Jerzy Ficowski’s book, supplemented with poems about Schulz and illustrated with reproductions of his art works, is the most complete documentation of the heritage of the author of Sanatorium…, and a chronicle of the artist’s life, but also an attempt to explain and understand the phenomenon of his mythology”.
Aleksander Wójtowicz claims that “talking about this book, you can use the term ‘a life’s work’ without much exaggeration. Ficowski’s book contains texts that form the foundation of Schulz’s research and is a summary of the current state of knowledge about Schulz. In an article devoted to the publication, Wójtowicz discusses at length Ficowski’s recollection of two characters: Stanisław Weingarten and Józefina Szelińska. The reviewer also hopes that “Ficowski’s summa will turn out to be incomplete and that one day it will be possible to supplement it with previously unknown texts, even with the still missing (or perhaps non-existent) novel Messiah”.
Magdalena Cytowska draws attention to the nature of the publication summarising the activity of Ficowski. “Published by Fundacja Pogranicze in December last year on the 60th anniversary of the death of Bruno Schulz [...] – it is a sum of long years of research and discoveries, the tedious but extremely important documentary work of Ficowski”. The author discusses in detail the latest essays devoted to Józefina Szelińska, Stanisław Weingarten and to the “frescoes” in the Landau* villa. (mr) (transl. mw)
See also: 1956*, 10 November 1957*, June 1967*, August 1973*, January 1975*, April 1986*, 1988*, 1992*.
