Improvised identity. The case of Kazimierz Brandys’ and Zofia Mitosek’s prose

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the act of re-writing genological structures in postmodern autobiography and in quasi-autobiographical forms. I consider that phenomenon as a part of an ingressive rather than transgressive tactic which aims at pastiching well-known traditional conventions of describing one’s own life. The strategy of pastiche is presented neither as (simply) using nor (parodistically) unmasking narratives but as a method of re-thinking literary paradigms by tuning them up to one’s own experience. The examples of Mała księga (The Little Book) by Kazimierz Brandys and Pelargonie (Geraniums) by Zofia Mitosek show precisely the consequences of this approach: these books create not a vision but an illusion of subjectivity. I suggest calling them – travesting Roland Barthes – autobiographies au second degré. Analysing them should be a part of a larger antropological project aiming at describing the identity of postmodern writers.