Obywatel Poeta. Wizja Polski w „Prologu” Czesława Miłosza

The subject of considerations is the vision of Poland contained in the Prologue – the only dramatic work by Czesław Miłosz, written during the occupation and published for the first time in „Pamiętnik Teatralny”only in 1981. The author sees the Prologue as a testimony to the awareness of Polish pre-war elites who counted on the rebirth of post-war Poland. He reads Miłosz’s drama as an example of an intertextual workin which one can hear the reverberation of ancient, Renaissance and romantic pieces. He sees in it a record of the spiritual dilemmas of the future Nobel laureate, who had to choose between the attitude of a humanist and the temptation of totalitarianism, and also as an example of a work with universal, timeless ideological significance, speaking about the dilemmas of an individual colliding with the ruthless forcesof historical or political determinism.