Speculum animae. Metafore catottriche nei racconti di Stefan Grabiński

ABSTRACT. Through an analysis of several short stories by Stefan Grabiński, the article aims to show that his narrative is based on the principle of a metaphorical mirror, which exposes the dual nature of the world: matter and spirit, good and evil, world and afterworld, inner reality and outer reality. The reflected image of the world does not coincide with the real one. That image in the mirror is beyond human reason and appears as a terrifying truth and as the profound chaos of the soul. Grabiński develops the doubling of reality, which is present – with different meanings – not only in philosophical, religious, psychological and psychoanalytic thought, but also in the field of the paranormal and of parapsychology, through the theme of the double.