On the semiotics of front covers in collections of poems by Rafał Wojaczek

Abstract

The article discusses the front covers of the collections of poems by Rafał Wojaczek (1945–1971), published both during his lifetime and posthumously, until today. The history of the covers of publications in Poland, in the Polish language, is traced in detail: from the poet’s book debut in 1969 to the publication of his entire oeuvre in 2014 and unknown works in 2016. After a predominantly chronological presentation and interpretation of the semiotics of individual covers, the trends are indicated and an attempt is made to classify them. The conclusion that can be drawn from the compilation of the collected empirical material indicates several ways of graphic design of the covers of poetry collections, resulting from the applicable conventions. At the same time, the article proves the seemingly obvious thesis that the dominant convention of such elaboration and editing in the case of a poet who is socially recognizable to such an extent as Rafał Wojaczek is to illustrate the front cover with the image of the author of poetic texts – as opposed to all poetic book debuts and often subsequent book publications by poets from outside the mainstream. Only the publisher of the poet’s work with a well-established position can use his/her image as a kind of trademark, acting in the same way as the name of the author, and even seriously strengthening it in terms of marketing.