Poziomy rzeczywistości w powieści Anny Janko Dziewczyna z zapałkami
Levels of reality in Anna Janko’s “Dziewczyna z zapałkami” (A matchgirl)

Summary/Abstract: Anna Janko’s “Dziewczyna z zapałkami” is an example of a popular antinomy: the expressible – the inexpressible. It also matches the dialectics of trace and presence. The division into two levels of reality reflects the shape and character of the presented world, the composition and the semantic structure of the novel, which deals with reality transformed by literature and their mutual presence in the limits of “the other” sphere. Two levels of reality, in which the main character functions, are drawn: the biographical level, which registers her existence (or autobiographical, if we intend to confront the events of the plot with the facts of the author’s life; Anna Janko is a pseudonym, used by the writer since her debut in the 1970s, thus she plays with her biography, suggesting autobiography) and the auto-thematic level, of the prose on producing prose, on the need of reinforcing the reality and oneself. The status of the narrator changes, it is forged and forging at the same time, and literature functions not only as a novel created inside a novel, or notes that form it, but also as (described) traces of reading (also multiple reading of one’s own notes), contacts with writers, and knowledge of the history of literature. The main character incessantly believes in the power of words, and uses it to describe the reality, expecting the consequences of her action, a “real destruction”, and some kind of “finality”, just like Andersen’s matchgirl, the title reference. Polarization of the levels forms the antinomy of spheres: the everyday existence and creation are as action and reflection, dynamics and statics, noise and silence. Their dialectics may lead to observations on the evasive character of creative work and the invasive character of the existence: in comparison with everyday existence, creation is evasive and, on the contrary, literary creation is invaded by everyday existence. The poetics of negative worlds, revealed in the novel, determines the strategy of reading it.

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