"Opowieść Pielgrzyma" – Ignacego Loyoli projekt autobiograficzny. Kilka uwag o gatunku, narracji, podmiocie i geście egzystencjalnym

Abstract

The article raises the problem of the genre, narration and subject construction in The Pilgrim’s Story. The author of the article argues that despite the mediational/transitional (from oral to written) character of Loyola’s narrative, the text is spoken autobiography in the third person. In this context, she introduces the concept of “a pre-autobiographical pact” between the author-narratorhero and the recorder. This pact has determined the boundaries of the “confession secrecy”, the scope of the narrative and its constructive mode. Moreover, the article proves that Loyola’s text is the proper autobiography in the modern sense. Essentially the main argument is, firstly, the literary model of the subject’s self-creation and, secondly, the model of the metafictional “game”: the subject recounts his story through the prism of recognition of the Other in himself, reveals the essence of the process of self-identity formation, articulates the emotional dynamics of human existence, finally, through artistic gesture encourages one to take up the existential challenge.

Keywords

• metafiction
• autobiographical identity
• preautobiographical pact
• autobiography in the third person
• spoken autobiography
• Ignatius Loyola