An essay which should not have an end

Abstract

Józef Szajna: artist, thinker, art theoretician. The concentration camp experience is one part of his life; the other is what happened to artist and man in camp conditions. His works are not only art, they are first of all a cry. Szajna’s cry is not merely theatre, it is a specific attitude to world literature from which he would draw his themes throughout his artistic life; it is visual arts in theatre and theatre in visual arts. In Józef Szajna’s plays visual arts played a major role, being a basis, a literary vector of director’s work. This paper is an attempt to present, at least to some extent, a look at the sources and secrets of Szajna’s avant-garde.