Skamander i awangarda na ubitej ziemi. O sporze Karola Wiktora Zawodzińskiego i Józefa Czechowicza

MARCIN CAŁBECKI University of Gdańsk SKAMANDER AND AVANT-GARDE ON THE FIRM GROUND ON KAROL WIKTOR ZAWODZIŃSKI AND JÓZEF CZECHOWICZ’S ARGUMENT The article is an account of a vigorous polemic between two important representatives of the Inter-war literary life, namely Karol Wiktor Zawodziński and Józef Czechowicz. It took place in the papers in the year 1935. On the surface, it referred to the issues connected with poetic criticism, but in consequence it led to personal accusations and almost ended with a duel. What remains in the background is the revealing of Czechowicz’s homosexuality which in the 1930s meant infamy and became the source of his grave personal problems. The article also allows to reconsider the picture of Polish Inter-War literary life. As it transpires, the representatives of the epoch’s elites were familiar with prejudice, disrelish and simple meanness.