"Że życie a sztuka to co innego - z szacunkiem" : o "Wspólnym pokoju" Zbigniewa Uniłowskiego

The state of research concerning the novel Wspólny pokój by Zbigniew Uniłowski mostly relates to readings of the novel by means of autobiographical, generational or social environment keys. The present analysis is an attempt at demonstrating that it is also possible to read this work as a novel in which autobiographical authenticity and naturalist credibility figure in inverted commas of a generalizing metaphor. For according to Uniłowski the task of literature is the empirical description of life and its basic function is to try to explain the sense of human existence. This thesis is supported by the analysis of the frame construction of the novel carried out here, the description of methods of narration, and the presentation of motifs: dullness, ennui, youth, old age, figure of artist, sickness, death, nature, city, neurasthenia which attain metaphorizing dimension. Thanks to these artistic devices it is possible to discern in the model of the world and man presented b Uniłowski the deceitful praise of vitalism and faith in therapeutic might of literature