Ricerc@Sapienza

The year 1918 and Polish Literature: End, Beginning and
Continuation, or Julian Tuwim from Spring to You All, Go
Kiss My Ass.

This essay addresses issues of periodization,
with a specific focus on the importance (or overvaluation)
of the reconstruction of the Polish State and its effects and
consequences on contemporary Polish culture and literature:
in fact, 1918 was perceived as a turning point and as an ideal
boundary between an old and a new era. At the same time,
different opinions about the “limits of modernity” in Polish culture
and literature were discussed, emphasizing the longue durée
of such cultural macrophenomena as the “romantic paradigm”
or “Sarmatian” mentality and their significant impacts on the
processes of continuity and discontinuity of culture. Searching
for a merely literary explanation for the periodization of this
first troubled period of the “short century”, the author stresses
the importance of two texts by Julian Tuwim, Spring (1918) and
You All, Go Kiss My Ass (1938), which feature all the euphoria
of the beginning and the drama of the end of the period. The
article also offers an initial attempt at an Italian translation of
the Tuwimian Poem in which the author politely but firmly
implores the vast hosts of his brethren to kiss his ass.