Words, Words, Words

Jan Grzanka's book is a collection of sixteen essays devoted to the works of William Shakespeare, written with passionate and curious theatergoers in mind. The author encourages readers to become directors themselves as they read, discovering their own meanings and co-creating the significance of Shakespeare's plays. It is an invitation to make creative choices and discover aspects of Shakespeare's thinking that remain relevant today. “Jan Grzanka's essay is an excellent account of how Shakespeare's works can resonate in our contemporary reception. The author is neither a literary scholar nor a theatre scholar. He is a philosopher who has found in the great playwright's plays fascinating material for reflection in the context - on the one hand - of his own reading, but also in the juxtaposition of his reading of the plays with their theatrical realisations. To this Grzanka incorporates what can be called experience and observation of his own reality. As a result, he offers the reader interesting and unusual material for reflection and at the same time infects them with his enthusiasm for Shakespeare. He invites the reader to reread, to go to the theatre, to discover their own Shakespeare and, through his dramas, to think more deeply about their own experience of the world.” – Prof. Dr hab. Marta Gibińska-Marzec, Uniwersytet SWPS