The book - a legend, one of the most significant books of its time. Krzysztof Biedrzycki. The ethical integrity of literature seems to be most at risk when writers fall into the clutches of history. Soon they must choose between obedience or resistance to the prevailing system. Rarely is there another alternative. In such a climate of danger, the essays from "Ethics and Poetics" were also created. Stanislaw Baranczak wrote them between 1970 and 1978. They were not allowed to be published in Poland, but they were in France. They are a passionate testament to a literary and critical struggle with the totalitarianisms of the 20th century - a struggle for literature and its potential role in restoring an ethical value system. Based on texts by Ossip Mandelstam and others.