![The Gang of Structuralists](/api/image/getissuecoverimage?id=picture_2005_304.jpg)
Keywords: Philosophy; Romanticism; literary criticism
A review of: A. Bielik-Robson, 2004, Duch powierzchni. Rewizja romantyczna i filozofia. Kraków: Universitas.
More...Keywords: Polish Poetry
A review of: A.Kluba, Autoteliczność-Referencjalność-Niewyrażalność. O nowoczesnej poezji polskiej (1918-1939), FNP, Wrocław 2004.
More...Keywords: Edward Balcerzan; Bronisława Latawiec; Poetry
Author explores the connection between the private life and the professional occupation of literary scholars.
More...Keywords: Axiology; Literature
A review of: Wartość i sens. Aksjologiczne aspekty teorii interpretacji, red. A. Tyszczyk, E. Fiata, R. Zajączkowski, Wydawnictwo KUL, Lublin 2003.
More...Keywords: Roland Barthes; "Barthes par Barthes"; graphics; autobiography
This article outlines the visual aspects of Roland Barthes' autobiography and the consequences of this phenomenon.
More...Keywords: Modernism; Polish literature
Book review: Andrzej Skrendo, Modernizm polski. Interpretacje [‘The Polish Modernism. Interpretations’], Cracow 2005. The book under review is a methodologically and cognitionally genuine attempt at presenting selected aspects of ‘Polish modernist poetry’, using a series of literature-specialist interpretations referring to a ‘modern experience’ – as a peculiar concept, defined under categories of a deep epistemological and existential crisis.
More...Keywords: Biography; theory; prison; history
Review of Jakub Madejski’s book Deformacje biografii [‘Biographies deformed’], (Szczecin 2004). In subsequent sections of his book, the author, as emphasised by the reviewer, juxtaposes the autobiography against certain not-so-obvious contexts: ‘theory’, ‘prison’, and ‘history’, constituting not so much a universal model but rather, three overlapping circles of issues. Consequently, this is not a new theory of biography but a presentation of historical-literary options of biography.
More...Keywords: Adolescence; Positivism; Modernism; Literature.
Review of Ewa Paczoska’s book 'Dojrzewanie, dojrzałość, niedojrzałość. Od Bolesława Prusa do Olgi Tokarczuk' [‘Maturation, Maturity, Immaturity. From Bolesław Prus to Olga Tokarczuk], sic! publishers, Warsaw 2004. The book approaches the theme of maturation, or adolescence, as a very broad concept, not only conceptually or thematically, but also chronologically. She is keen on literature of the Positivist and Modernist ages, as a space where two generations have met, sharing much of their biographical, cultural, social, and, especially, existential experiences. The publication sets forth new directions of research, interpretation, search and discussion. Most importantly, however, does it bring Positivism, that lost sequential element of modernity, back to a broad cultural awareness and a specialist literary afterthought.
More...Keywords: Paweł Dybel; Psychoanalysis; Sexual Difference; Feminism; Philosophy.
Book review: Paweł Dybel, Zagadka „drugiej płci”. Spory wokół różnicy seksualnej w psychoanalizie i feminizmie [‘The secret of the “other gender”. Disputes around the sexual difference in psychoanalysis and feminism’], UNIVERSITAS, Cracow, 2006. The book presents the history of afterthought regarding the sexual difference that was built as part of psychoanalysis and feminism alike. The book is not on the category of femininity but on the difference in sex/gender. Mr. Dybel has placed the gender studies’ issues in a broader philosophical context. On the other hand, he has found in psychoanalysis several threads fundamental to thinking on sexuality and the ensuing identity. On the other hand, he found those inspirations in our contemporary philosophy of difference, the philosophy of dialogue with the Alien, or, in philosophical anthropology. The author has also presented his own concept of sexual difference.
More...Keywords: Jerzy Smulski; Polish Literary Studies (20c.); History of Science; Stalinism.
Book review: Jerzy Smulski, “Przewietrzyć zatęchłą atmosferę uniwersytetów”. Wokół literaturoznawczej polonistyki doby stalinizmu [‘”Ventilate the stale ambience of universities.” Around Polish literary studies of the Stalinist era’], Toruń 2009. Smulski’s book can be read as an essay on selected socialist-realist ceremonies or rituals and their peculiar products (conventions, papers/reports, handbooks, anthologies and ritual discussions thereupon). Mr. Smulski makes us acquainted with the history of six annual conventions of Polish-studies youth, showing in what ways accounts on such events and resulting publications (papers) populated the period’s press, contributing to a hierarchical and ritual communication system. The book in question also offers studies devoted to events of the 1950s which show, for a change, how various ‘cracks’ or ‘chinks’ were appearing and thus, what course was taken by certain events not classifiable under the general model. Some discussions from the so-called ‘thaw’ period (e.g. the famous debates on handbooks or reprints) are mentioned in this context.
More...Keywords: Polish socialist-realist Literature; 3rd World Rally of Young Peace Fighters; Berlin; Polish History (20 c.).
The author analyses the image of Berlin in Polish socialist-realist literature (primarily, reportages published in association with 3rd World Rally of Young Peace Fighters). He shows that the borderline set between the two Sectors, Eastern and Western, was also the frontier between two worlds: ‘our’ (young, beautiful, undergoing intense development) and ‘alien’ (old, ugly, condemned to slow decline).
More...Keywords: Łukasz Musiał; Franz Kafka; Review
Review: Łukasz Musiał, Franz Kafka. W poszukiwaniu utraconej rzeczywistości, Oficyna Wydawnicza ATUT, Wrocław 2011.
More...Keywords: Beata Śniecikowska; Polish futurist poetry; Futurism; Sound in Literature
Review of the book by Beata Śniecikowska, “Nuż w uhu”? Koncepcje dźwięku w poezji polskiego futuryzmu [‘A knive in the ear? The concepts of sound in Polish futurist poetry’], Wrocław 2008. Having embarked on a far-flung analysis and evaluation of this book, the reviewer emphasises its revealing character, against the background of the existing studies focusing on Polish futurist poetry.
More...Keywords: Arkadiusz Morawiec; Concentration Camps; Literature (20 c.).
Review of the book by Arkadiusz Morawiec Literatura w lagrze, lager w literaturze. Fakt – temat – metafora [Literature in Concentration Camps, Concentration Camps in Literature. Fact - Theme – Metaphor], Łódź 2009. Arkadiusz Morawiec’s book is the first Polish-language monograph of writings concerning lagers (extermination camps). Discussed are texts being personal documents as well as strictly literary texts – along with distinguished features of lager-related literature. The author proposes his own definition of the phenomenon in question.
More...Review: P. Czapliński, Resztki nowoczesności. Dwa studia o literaturze i życiu, Kraków 2011.
More...Keywords: Review; "Pamięć Shoah. Kulturowe reprezentacje i praktyki upamiętniania"; Holocaust studies; Methodology; Humanities
Review: Pamięć Shoah. Kulturowe reprezentacje i praktyki upamiętniania, ed. by Tomasz Majewski, Anna Zeidler-Janiszewska, Officyna, Łódź 2009. A selection of texts in English has been published in a separate volume as Memory of Shoah: Cultural Representations and Commemorative Practices [editors & publishing house: ditto]. The publication is discussed in terms of its being unprecedented in the Polish afterthought on the Holocaust. The unique quality of this editorial project has been determined by its unusual scale, reflected in the number of authors involved and the multiplicity of their standpoints. Viewed in this way, Memory of Shoah cannot be approached as merely an academic description of ‘cultural representations and practices of commemoration’ of the Annihilation. It ought rather to be seen as a peculiar attempt at evidencing the variety of forms assumed by the humanistic reflection upon the Shoah – expressed, commented upon, and commenting itself in the innumerable, ever-resumed discourses, narrations, and artistic acts.
More...Keywords: feminism; transformation; women’s writing; contemporary Polish literature; Agnieszka Mrozik
Review: Agnieszka Mrozik, Akuszerki transformacji. Kobiety, literatura i władza w Polsce po 1989 roku [Midwives of the Transformation: Women, Literature and Power in Poland after 1989], Wydawnictwo IBL, Stowarzyszenie Pro Cultura Litteraria, Warsaw 2012.
More...Keywords: game studies; video games; review;
Review: K. Marak and M. Markocki Aspekty funkcjonowania gier cyfrowych we współczesnej kulturze: Studia przypadków [Aspects of the Functioning of Digital Games in Contemporary Culture: Case Studies] by Katarzyna Marak and Miłosz Markocki, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń 2016.
More...Keywords: biography; autobiography; popularisation; memory
Bartosz Janiszewski’s Grzesiuk: Król życia [Grzesiuk: King of Life, 2017] is the first book-length biography of Stanisław Grzesiuk (1918-1963), a Polish writer and singer who became famous for reviving the singing style and dialect of prewar Warsaw. An uncensored edition of Grzesiuk’s three autobiographical novels was published in 2018. Darska explores in what ways Janiszewski draws on Grzesiuk’s own writing. She focuses on the counter-intuitive hierarchy of genres and discusses the significance of reading Grzesiuk’s story today, when he is much less widely known than one or two generations back. The recent publication of his trilogy and the biography might reinstall the life and work of “the bard of the Polish capital” in collective memory and, besides the popularising aspect, return Grzesiuk to his rightful place in the literary canon.
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