Reflexivity of Tadeusz Rózewicz's "Białe małżeństwo" ("White Marriage")

Abstract

The article is an analysis of a drama Białe małżeństwo ("White Marriage") by Tadeusz Różewicz in the context of (and using) instruments developed by cultural anthropology. The text uses concepts such as cultural spectacle, liminality, or reflexivity referenced in the title. These categories both describe the internal, dynamic structure of Różewicz's text, and provide a means of interpretation.

Białe małżeństwo has been read as a text on ritual (and liminal) creation of subjectivity and artistic establishment of the objective world. The struggle of the protagonist with her own limitations, as well as her position (imposed by others) in the world, that is in the family, are shown by Różewicz as a ritual, and therefore somewhat painful development of the awareness of one's on own being in the world.

At the same time, Białe małżeństwo turns out to be a text with a complex and never quite "consummated" relationship between the artist and the world. If we assume that Bianka is the figure of the author, the relationship between him and reality is based not so much on the proliferation (of words or images), but on getting rid of what is regarded as limiting. At the same time, the relationship between the artist and reality, but also the artist and art will always be incomplete – a white marriage.