The Poetics of the “Silvic” and the Image of the Author in Gustaw Herling-Grudziński’s Journal Written at Night

Abstract

The present article analyzes the structural features of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński’s Journal Written at Night, centered on the complex and contradictory image of the author. The researcher examines the unique composition of the text through the lens of the silva rerum theory developed by Marta Skwarczyńska and Ryszard Nycz. It is shown that the “silvic” poetics of the Journal is closely linked to its fragmentary nature, manifesting not only in the blurring of generic boundaries but also in its metatextuality. Reflecting on the history of the diary genre, Herling-Grudziński seeks to define the essence of his own work. The “integral formula” he derived — a “portrait of an era” containing a “miniature self-portrait of the author and chronicler”— does not fully encompass the silvic diversity of Journal Written at Night. It is argued that the work’s “pre-text” is the Diary 1957–1958, which reveals the genesis of Herling-Grudziński’s generic thinking. The Diary 1957–1958 bears witness to the author’s difficulties while working on the novel Ciemny Staw and the subsequent transformation of his diary’s formula: instead of a “confessional diary” serving as a creative laboratory for a novel, the writer creates a “chronicle-diary” that synthesizes the diary form with his “Italian” stories.

Received: 19.01.2025.
Revised: 15.02.2026.
Accepted: 17.03.2026.

Citation
Maltsev L. A. The Poetics of the “Silvic” and the Image of the Author in Gustaw Herling-Grudziński’s Journal Written at Night // Slavic Almanac. 2026. No 1–2. P. 363–374 (in Russian). DOI: 10.31168/2073-5731.2026.1-2.20