56 (1/2020), pp. 101–117 The Polish Journal DOI: 10.19205/56.20.6 of Aesthetics Maciej Michalski * Literature of Absence and the Experience of Evil (Container by Marek Bieńczyk, Is Not by Mariusz Szczygieł, and Things I Didn’t Throw Out by Marcin Wicha) Abstract The article discusses the way in which literature can address evil, understood as the expe- rience of absence and loss. The problem concerns artistic writing in general, as was stressed by Maurice Blanchot; but it also appears particularly in a collection of texts about absence, such as Container by Marek Bieńczyk, Is Not by Mariusz Szczygieł, and Things I Didn’t Throw Out by Marcin Wicha. At the same time, they are an attempt to fill the void through literary restitution of that which is lost. Keywords Literature, Evil, Loss, Absence, Marek Bieńczyk, Mariusz Szczygieł, Marcin Wicha The relationship of literature and evil (and perhaps even their strong con- nection—as will be discussed later) raises a number of questions and doubts. It may seem that by juxtaposing these two areas and notions, we arrive at a somewhat inadequate, vividly asymmetrical juxtaposition in which evil—an ethically important category—is juxtaposed with an area of sssss * University of Gdańsk Department of Theory of Literature and Art Criticism Institute of Polish Studies Email: maciej.michalski@ug.edu.pl