Awangarda krakowska

Abstract

Review of the book Kulturowa teoria literatury. Główne pojęcia i problemy [A cultural literary theory. Main notions and problems], R. Nycz & M. P. Markowski, eds., Universitas publishers, Cracow 2006. The author focuses on the issues of complementation of the anti-positivist turn in the humanities, shown in the work under review on two planes, describable as follows: (i) Neither literature nor literary studies prove to be autonomous domains of the human world, as they constitute a junction or node in a network of interdependencies spanning over other areas of humanities and of science, morality, and politics. (ii) Both the subject of literary studies cognition (i.e. literary texts) and the literary studies themselves are fragments of the culture of a given community, which culture prevailingly influences what is to be deemed literature, literary theory, successful interpretation, valid explanation, and/or a useful method.