A Voice from the World: Szczepan Kopyt’s Wersy o koniecznym oporze

Abstract

Patryk Szaj attempts to inscribe Szczepan Kopyt’s Wersy o koniecznym oporze [Verses about the Necessary Resistance] into the theoretical framework of the Capitalocene. The starting point is the reconstruction of the condition of criticism in the Anthropocene. He opposes the beliefs expressed by some representatives of the Anthropocene discourse that criticism is ineffective in the face of the planetary challenges of this epoch. He argues that we criticism is till needed, as is also emphasized by the concept of the Capitalocene as an alternative to the Anthropocene. Next, Szaj moves on to a dialogue with Kopyt’s work. Using both the findings of critical theory and (new)materialistic concepts, Szaj points to Kopyt’s debt to both these traditions. He shows that Kopyt has managed to avoid the “speaking out of nowhere” that is associated with criticism. Kopyt speaks “from the world,” and his voice is that of a participant. This perspective, reconstructed in the article on the basis of Kopyt’s Wersy o koniecznym oporze, allows the poet to diagnose the anachronism of some Marxist heterodox practices (autonomism), as well as to note and creatively develop the positive and negative entanglements of human and inhuman actors in the era of Capitalocene.