Orthography beyond belief. A case of Stanisław Baczyński

Abstract

The article deals with the use of majuscule in religious terms in the context of editing the unfinished typescript of Stanisław Baczyński’s Propozycje. Nowa kultura – nowa cywilizacja. The author spelled the words such as Kościoł (as an institution, a population of worshippers), Boży, Chrystusowy (as possessive adjectives) inconsistently – once in uppercase, once in lowercase (the latter more frequently). The author of the article (and the editor of Baczyński’s work) analyzes orthographic norms, both present ones and those contemporary with Baczyński, and on this basis decides to leave unchanged the spelling inconsistencies in religion-related words. These inconsistencies are considered a result of the clash between the atheist worldview and the repressive function of orthography, and at the same time a proof of the author’s linguistic struggle, telling a lot not only about the creative process, but also about the idea of the work.