In my bachelor thesis, I focused on the role and importance of narcotics in the creative work of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (mainly his novels), based on his theoretical background and practical experiments. The artist was active in many differend fields, including a rather extensive body of art theory writing that puts Pure Form at the forefront. The theory purports that the essence of art is form, which awakens, with its purity, a »metaphysical feeling« in a person. That is the basis for Witkacy's hierarchical evaluation of art, in which he ascribes the lowest artistic value to literature. In Pure Art, the content becomes irrelevant and can be completely arbitrary, whereas the form becomes the essential component. When it comes to prose, the content plays too important a role for the work to be liberated from it, therefore novels cannot come close enough to Pure Form, cannot be perceived as Pure Art. Even though the content is irrelevant, it is still necessary, as the artist must be present in the creation with their whole essence - their intellect, psyche and all the circumstances in which they create, including possible intoxication with psychoactive substances. Narcotics play an important role in Witkacy’s oeuvre, both in his visual arts and in literature. Taking into account his theoretical background, I tried to substantiate the relevance of prose in the analyses of his novels Pożegnanie jesieni and Nienasycenie. I also tried to extract the role and significance of narcotics in Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz's creative work on the basis of his experiments with such substances.
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