Kamień odrzucony? Postsekularyzm jako perspektywa interpretacyjna literatury i kultury polskiej

In comparison to other theoretical orientations of recent years, postsecularism does not seem to off er favourable conditions for studying Polish culture. The possibility of transferring postsecular literature studies (J. McClure) to the fi eld of Polish literature may seem disputable; the hitherto taken attempts, briefl y presented in the article, show that as a potential “cornerstone” of new readings in Polish literature, postsecularism has been rejected. Presenting potential benefi ts which could be yielded by adopting postsecularism as a foundation for an alternative history of selected phenomena within modern Polish culture (chiefl y literature, but also cinematography, visual arts and music), the author points at research problems whose complexity and importance can be revealed only by a failure which threatens each attempt at formulating a holistic history of literature and culture. Those research problems include: the intrinsically non-religious uses of religious language in literature; the diversity of poetics of profanity and blasphemy, the role of Communism in literary texts using the language of religion, the performative and political character of literary theologies of the Communist Poland; and secularization of the West as the topic and context of Polish-language literary texts.