User:Masacra90/Turpism

Turpism (Latin: turpis 'ugly') - is a Polish literature movement aimed at shocking reader with ugliness. A tendency found in some poetic trends of the 2nd half of the 20th century, characterised by anti-aestheticism and a peculiar cult of ugliness.

Polish Turpism
Turpism appeared in Polish poetry after 1956 and was used by: Stanisław Grochowiak, Ernest Bryll, Andrzej Bursa and others. Programmatically, the representatives of turpism included in their works the motifs of ugliness, disability, illness, death. They described disgusting objects, landscapes and phenomena (destruction, transience, ageing, decay), which was supposed to lend credibility to the presented vision of the world, help in the affirmation of reality with all its aspects.


 * I prefer ugliness
 * It is closer to the bloodstream
 * Of words when I overexpose
 * And torment it

Grochowiak wrote in his poem 'Czyści' (Putrefy), and in his article 'Turpism, Realism, Mysticism', this is how he refuted the accusations of showy effect sent against the Turpists:


 * Turpists - insofar as I understand us turpists correctly - even in the most far-reaching act of rebellion (whether against life or against literary tradition) ultimately express an affirmative attitude. No turpist frightens just to frighten, no turpist screams to be heard, what a strong voice he has. Again, it is not the props that decide, but the attitudes.

The term was introduced by Julian Przyboś in his Ode to the Turpists, in which he criticised Stanislaw Grochowiak, Różewicz and other artists he included in this group.

Turpist poetry represented a generational protest.