Gest śmiechu w literaturze dwudziestolecia międzywojennego (rekonesans)

The article reconstructs „a gesture of laughter” in the literature of the Second Polish Republic. It reminds that in the beginning of 20’s in the 20th century laughter was considered by Polish writers (inspired by Stanisław Brzozowski and some other thinkers of Young Poland) as a gesture of cultural and antropological vitality and modernity. This is the reason why laughter was treated as a necessary element of Polish modern culture. A good example of such a thinking is not only the poetry of Kazimierz Wierzyński and of poets of Skamander group, but also a literature of Polish futurism, or short stories of Eugeniusz Małaczewski. But by the end of 20’s, laughter began to upset Polish writers. Aleksander Wat, Witold Gombrowicz, Bolesław Leśmian and Jerzy Stempowski showed ambivalent, destrucitive, inhuman or even nihilistic power of laughter. This ambivalent attitude of Polish writers to the gesture of laughter is typical by the end of 30’s but also in the afterwar Polish literature.