@ARTICLE{Brenskott_Krzysztof_The_2022,
 author={Brenskott, Krzysztof},
 number={No 3 (372)},
 journal={Ruch Literacki},
 pages={429-438},
 howpublished={online},
 year={2022},
 publisher={Polska Akademia Nauk Oddział w Krakowie Komisja Historycznoliteracka},
 publisher={Uniwersytet Jagielloński Wydział Polonistyki},
 abstract={The article examines Olga Tokarczuk's view of weakness and the weak – with regard to her characters, identities, ontologies, and various notions of spirituality – and tries to make out the ways in which her approach to this problem is shaped by the philosophical idea of 'traces'. Tokarczuk's thought, as we find it embodied in her work, shows a remarkable similarity to the idea of 'weak thought' ( pensiero debole) and the teachings of Zen Buddhism. Instead of striving for generalizations and unification, it pursues individual uniqueness; it prefers to concentrate on the exception rather than the rule. It focuses on the ontological underdog – a weak, flawed, vulnerable human being. It is precisely because of these deficiencies, and not despite them, that the individual is more interesting than everlasting matter or the God's eternity. Moreover, transcendence, when it does manifest itself in her work, usually takes the form of a trace, faint and feeble (as, for example, in Lurianic Kabbalah). The aim of this article is to draw attention to an important dimension of Tokarczuk's fiction and to identify a handful of clues for further study.},
 type={Artykuł},
 title={The ontological underdog: Weakness and traces of transcendence in Olga Tokarczuk's work A preliminary reading},
 URL={http://journals.pan.pl/Content/125630/PDF/2022-03-RL-05.pdf},
 doi={10.24425/rl.2022.140977},
 keywords={Polish contemporary literature, vulnerability, traces of transcendence, Zen Buddhism, Gianni Vattimo (b. 1936), Olga Tokarczuk (b. 1962)},
}