KRYMINAŁ DLA ERUDYTÓW. ŁACIŃSKIE CYTATY W POWIEŚCIACH MARKA KRAJEWSKIEGO
CRIME STORIES FOR The ERUDITEs: LATIN QUOTATIONS IN MAREK KRAJEWSKI’S NOVELS

Summary/Abstract: The article is dedicated to discussing Latin insertions in Marek Krajewski’s novels. The introduction presents a rundown of the importance of Latin as a medium for the cultures of antiquity and a language of elites. Then the position of crime stories as a topic for academic research is outlined, and finally the abundance of single- and multi-word Latin quotations (featuring in the eight novels) is presented, as they serve to depict the vernacular of the interwar period, the realities of time and places chosen for the plots, the profiles of characters, evaluation, a feeling of ambivalence, intensified as the main characters are portrayed, and other aims. At the end, the researcher tries to answer the question why Latin ranks so highly in Krajewski’s novels. The reasons include: the author’s aspiration to fit in the genre and culture tendencies (postmodernism), to widen his audience with erudite recipients, to raise the stature of crime as a genre, to reproduce the realities and language of the period faithfully, to pursue an educational and didactic mission, and to create a salient trait of his idiostyle, underpinned by the author’s classical education.

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