This presentation delves into Polish literary depictions of trees, exploring narratives that transcend logocentric frameworks (materialist, symbolic, etc.). It examines works that portray trees as autonomous beings, even as cosmogonic forces. A central focus will be on Wiesław Myśliwski’s play Drzewo (The Tree, 1987), where the author—renowned as the leading voice of the rural current (nurt wiejski) in post-WWII Polish literature—presents the tree in a nativist light. This portrayal challenges dominant Western rationalist perspectives, reviving and evolving a rural worldview to critique modern rationalism. Myśliwski’s Drzewo will be further situated alongside other works that emphasize the mythic significance of trees and forests, including literature about the Białowieża Forest on the Polish-Belarusian border.
