Nowocześni z zapałkami. Problematyka Baśni Hansa Christiana Andersena
The Modern with Matches. Main issues in Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the role matches played in the history of transformations of the nineteenth century (the era of steam, railway and telegraph) as a result of the ‘economic bomb’ (E. Hobsbawm) which blew up traditional social and economic structures of the world, and drew human life into “speed revolution”. The story of matches illustrates the essence of these transformations: as every modern invention, they undergo the process of continuous modernisation (‘creative destruction’). The author analyses and interprets the short story The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen, trying to trace all the meanings evoked by matches. Their features (abruptness of ignition and going out, shortness of the burning phase, one off use) are in fact features of many inventions of the nineteenth century, and this allows us, following Walter Benjamin’s suggestion, to perceive a match as a figure illustrating the experience of “shock”.

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