Alina Świeściak
A b s t r a k t
The paper is a reconstruction of an avant-garde project of a contemporary poet, Marcin Mokry, who can be recognized as a continuator of Tadeusz Peiper’s “prospect” in his program statements and the poetic book żywe linie nowe usta. The author argues that the prospect is entangled in the dialectic of life-death, of sustaining by contesting, typical for present-day avant-garde continuations. This is evidenced by the historical-avant-garde instrumentation on the one hand, and on the other – by the hauntological-nostalgic atmosphere, peculiar for żywe linie… (and Mokry’s whole avant-garde project in general). Nonetheless, a social change conceptualized in terms of the avant-garde is at stake in this project, whose direction can be defined as “new empathy”.