ABSTRACT

The links between Poland and the Beat generation are usually determined by and spoken of in terms of Allen Ginsberg's East European excursions as well as translations of his poetry. When linking Edward Stachura, another of the "stuntmen", with a Beat sensibility, the main focus has to be given to the final years of his poetic activity, the so-called "mystic" period, which blends his existentialist and Buddhist interests—the latter being the dominant force. Koehler observes that after 1918 Polish poetry witnessed the wave of poets who started to ridicule the duties and responsibilities of literature; they were captivated by vitality and freedom of unrestrained expression, the truth that came with living the world. A precursor of gay writing in Poland, Musial was a brother-in-arms against bourgeois morality, yet he believed his literary tactics less chaotic and more well-considered than those of the younger poets.