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The Novel by Karol Irzykowski and the Polish Prose From the Period Between the Wars : An Unconscious Legacy? This thesis undertakes a comparative study of, on the one hand, the henceforth mythical Palubą (1903), a novel by Karol Irzykowski, the eminent literary critic; and on the other hand novels from the period between the wars by four famous polish writers: Nałkowska, Witkiewicz, Schulz and Gombrowicz. Many ideas, that later flourished in literature originate in this allegedly forgotten and inaccessible novel. Both inspiration and similarities testify to the common interest shared by these five writers in the main European thoughts of the first half of the 20th century (Freud, Nietzsche, Mach). Through a study focused on narration, and more specifically the construction of the character of the novel, the work leads to an interesting idea about the role of literature with which all five writers seem to agree, even though each of them retains its own uniqueness. Palubą, considered by the Polish critics as a work that initiated textual autoreflection in that country, originates in the Romantic irony {Beniowski by Słowacki). After his novel was published, Irzykowski hardly came back to works of fiction, whereas for his whole life he kept writing various diaries that constitute an amazing example of autobiographical prose for that time. The novel by Irzykowski appears as amazingly «modern», and as one of the foundation stones of the Polish «modernity» – if not of the European one. A first translation in French of selected parts of the novel is underway; it will be published together with some extracts of this thesis.