Summary

The cultural phenomenon of Tolkien has long since transcended the boundaries of literary fiction. In a poll taken in the 1990s in the aim of finding which literary work most deserved the title "book of the century", The Lord of the Rings emerged unrivaled, with novels by Tolstoy, Orwell, Mann, and Joyce lagging far behind. How is it that millions of readers have flipped for that pretty classical, after all, 20th-century piece? What makes for the magic of Tolkien's fantastic creation, something which has given rise to a movement that includes dozens of Tolkien fan-clubs and has been further stoked by the Jackson super-production? Where does the secret lie, what has spurred researchers in various fields to engage in an occupation that is ostensibly anything but scientific: exploring and describing a fictitious world? For answers to these questions Znak turned to several experts on Tolkien, as well as to philosophers, literary critics, art historians, and theologians.

Andrzej Szyjewski, professor of religious studies, traces the relationship between truth and myth in the writer's work. The Dominican F. Joachim Badeni talks to Dobrosław Kot about the wonders of Tolkien's world, one that can serve as an excellent introduction to Christianity. In responding to our questionnaire, Andrzej Franaszek, Tadeusz Jagodziński, Wiesław Juszczak, Jakub Z. Lichański, Tadeusz A. Olszański, and Elżbieta Wolicka write about their encounters with the English novelist's works and about the sources of their enthrallment with the realm his stories are set in. Michał Bardel in his article I Was a Hobbit Once remembers how "playing Middle-Earth" became a kind of secular rite for him.

Znak's September issue also showcases Maria Deskur's gloss on the dramatic letter written by Józef Czapski to Maritain and Mauriac, which we publish to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising; an essay by Ewa Bieńkowska on America as present in Czesław Miłosz's literary output; and the regular columns of Halina Bortnowska and Piotr Kłodkowski. Maria Krzysztof Byrski's contribution to the "Diagnoses" section ponders the problem of the wrongs mutually inflicted by Europeans upon one another, taking for a starting point the dispute surrounding the Berlin Expulsion Center. Last but not least, the late Jacek Kuroń presents the University of Teremiski, an unformal college devoted to educate young needy country people.

POCZĄTEK STRONY