Annales Neophilologiarum

The article is a review of the book Próba bólu. O wierszach Joanny Pollakówny by Wojciech Kudyba published in 2016, a profound analysis of the lyrical works of the poet who died in 2002. The author of the book is not only a poet himself but also an art historian, literary scholar and professor at The Contemporary Art Department of the University of Stefan Wyszyński in Warsaw. The poetical work of Pollakówna is read by Kudyba as pain poetry, an intimate record of the experience of pain, and the key to his interpretation is the poetics of experience. Pollakówna’s lyrics are approached in the context of her existential situation, facing pain and suffering as the result of an incurable disease. Kudyba settles this pain in the centre of the poet’s literary work, pointing at the pain of alienation and a sense of exile as the most vivid feature of the persona in Pollakówna’s poems. The author attempts to answer questions about the function of the artistic process of creation and its role in experiencing this illness. In his analysis he uses terms such as autobiographical poetry and trauma.