Things that approach us : 'Anaglify' by Krystyna Miłobędzka

The article is focused on the early poetry of Krystyna Milobedzka viewed from the perspective of the so-called turn towards the things context known from the literary and anthropological studies. The prose poems from Milobedzka’s debut called Anaglify are chosen for analysis and interpretation. The author discusses the most crucial elements of the background of the texts: the circumstances of Milobedzka’s debut, consequences of the events of 1956 and the turn towards ordinary things and daily life in the Polish poetry of 1960s. Milobedzka’s attitude to the material world is presented in the light of the beginnings of modernism (C.K. Norwid) and the postwar poetry concerned with the “life” of objects (M. Bialoszewski, Z. Herbert, T. Rozewicz). The poetic contemplation of the world of things in Anaglify is confronted with the late philosophy of Martin Heidegger, especially his considerations about the Tool-Being and Thing. Milobedzka explores the relations between humans and objects, taking the non-anthropocentric perspective and trying to capture the essence of their and our being-in-the-world. In her poetic vision, the thing seems to be released from the obligation to be ready-to-hand and reveals its individual dimension of “being.”