Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reconstruct those views and convictions of Wiesław Myśliwski that concern the language of the individual. Drawing on the terminology proposed by the UKSW-based school of research into the language of writers, I term the knowledge pertaining to this field ‘idiolectology’, while specifying that the focus here is on its literary variant. In specific, such idiolectology is embodied in Myśliwski’s body of work – both in his literary prose (novels and plays) and in his other types of texts: speeches, interviews, essays, sketches, and the like. This knowledge is, of course, different in nature from strictly scientific idiolectology: it is inherently unsystematic, incomplete and subjective, relying largely on intuition rather than on disciplined and verifiable procedures. At the same time, however, it offers insight into problems and diagnoses to which scholarly reflection, for various reason, lacks access, and can thus serve as an inspiration for strictly linguistic inquiries. Such significant diagnoses or insights include, among others, Myśliwski’s stance regarding the presence of the element of speech and rationality (Logos) in every human being, as well as the ways in which it manifests in human utterances.