The poetry of Stanisław Piętak in a perspective of Gaston Bachelard’s ‘psychoanalysis of material imagination’. A research reconnaissance

Abstract

The study presents the analysis of representative images in Stanisław Piętak’s writing. The methodology is based on Gaston Bachelard’s psychoanalysis of fundamental material elements of poetic imagination. The first part of article reminds main theses of French philosopher’s conception, formed by ancient Greek philosophy and modified ideas of Freud and Jung. The next parts of the text concern three sets of literary motifs and images characteristic of Piętak. The analysis included: a great complex: water – woman – moon – mirror – death; selected descriptions of sky, flight and birds; a few poetic visions of home. The research leads to the conclusion that discussed creations correlate with Bachelard’s theory and proves that Piętak’s poetic imagination was dominated by archetypal material imaginations, connected with three of the four Empedocles’ classical elements: water, air and earth.