„Doznawałam przebłysków szczęścia” O Hiszpańskich oczach Marii Nurowskiej
“I Felt Glimmers of Happinessˮ On Spanish Eyes by Maria Nurowska

Author(s): Natalia Żórawska-Janik
Subject(s): Polish Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Summary/Abstract: Published in 1990, the novel Hiszpańskie oczy (Spanish Eyes) is an attempt to depict the difficult relationship between mother and daughter against the backdrop of the political events during World War II and People’s Poland. Maria Nurowska abandons the topos of a nurturing mother in favor of the creation of an unhappy, tormented woman struggling through everyday life, whose daughter is battling depression and bulimia. The author of this article focuses on the analysis of female characters and their psychological portraits. Women in Spanish Eyes display a wide range of character traits. They are guided by different values and have differing priorities. Each of them pursues happiness and pleasure in something else – Anna in encounters with successive men, whereas her daughter derives a special kind of satisfaction from focusing on her appearance and weight control. The topic of this paper is also the theme of the trauma transmitted from generation to generation, related to experiences of war, failed family relationships, and unrequited love. The author of this article interprets the characters’ behavior from the perspective of past experiences, which become present-day agonies. Therefore, the objective is to analyze Spanish Eyes through the prism of three main categories – the workings of memory, the influence of history on the life of an individual, and the image of a woman breaking with the stereotypes of a lover, grandmother, mother, and daughter.

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