Masculinity multiplied. ‘Checking yourself’ as a manin Leopold Tyrmand’s Diary 1954

Abstract

The article concerns Leopold Tyrmand’s Diary 1954. The starting point for the interpretation is the initial fragment of the work, in which the writer declares his desire to ‘test himself’. In the proposed reading, it is assumed that this intention concerns, at a basic level, being a man, and the efforts to achieve and demonstrate masculinity to the reader significantly animate the narrative of the diary. Tyrmand models in a postmodern way, being a man in it, mixing various male patterns, and identifying with them within three scenarios that define masculinity in his eyes (courtly, military, and Jewish). Their ‘testing’ in the work results in a peculiar effect – they do not lead to the creation of the writer's self-portrait which is to be announced, ‘testimony’, but a palimpsest in which he soon does not recognize himself.