Series:Studia literackie

The polyglotism of the great Polish Romantics (Mickiewicz, Słowacki and Krasiński)

Poliglotyzm wielkich romantyków polskich (Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Krasiński)

Author(s): Marek Piechota / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: polyglotism; Adam Mickiewicz; Juliusz Słowacki; Zygmunt Krasiński; languages

The discussion of the polyglotism of the great Polish Romantics is preceded by a Foreword, which introduces the problem of their rich poetic language drawing upon the multitude of languages in which they studied, read and admired various poetic achievements originating in other cultures and traditions than their own. In the nineteenth century, the socio-political situation of a nation without a state, the long-term occupation and partition of Poland, the threat it posed for the Polish language, and the distressing practice of more or less directly forced assimilation of the people meant that the concern for the mother tongue was of a much different import than it is in the times of modern globalisation. The introductory chapter – sketchy but at the same time the longest in this volume – focuses on the etymological ‘fantasies’ of the Romantics. It draws attention to the ease with which both Mickiewicz and Słowacki (but not only these writers) succumbed to the belief that even most fantastic etymological intuitions in any of the languages they were familiar with could be treated on a par with strictly scholarly, disciplined and rational investigations and thus used as tools for studying the reality and whatever lay beyond. Having graduated from the Gymnasium, Mickiewicz spoke the following languages with varying fluency: Polish, Latin, French, Russian, Italian, German and Belarusian. With regard to Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Hebrew and Yiddish – cultures he had come in contact with in his early years – little is known beyond the fact that he knew some words, as he never studied these languages or in these languages. When he studied in Vilnius, he learnt also Greek and English. In Berlin, he listened to Hegel’s lectures in German; he lectured himself in Latin and French when he taught classical philology in Lausanne and Slavic literature in Paris. He also claimed to speak Czech when he applied for a chair at the Collège de France. He might have had some basic knowledge of Serbian, was an expert at Church Slavonic, and learnt to speak and write in Turkish in his late years, which altogether amounts to more than eleven languages. There is no doubt that he was a polyglot, a translator, and a linguist. As a polyglot, Słowacki was not far behind, speaking nine foreign languages with varying degrees of fluency. He spoke French with the same ease as he did Polish and he had a school knowledge of Greek, Latin, Russian and German: he was very good at translating from Latin, he was a fluent speaker of Russian (most of the lectures he attended in Vilnius were in Russian), he studied German-language Romantics in German (especially Goethe and Schiller) and he persisted in his efforts to improve his English. He studied Spanish (although he mostly read in this language rather than spoke it) and he developed some basic knowledge of spoken Arabic. Works that he read in foreign languages proved an important source of inspiration in his own writing (e.g., Shakespeare and Calderón de la Barca). Compared to his two great predecessors, Krasiński appears perhaps less impressive, hence the ‘limited polyglotism’ in the title, followed by the tentative question-mark. Parisian-born aristocrat, he spoke French from his earliest days even more fluently than Polish, and his mastery in the French language surpassed that of the other two great poets. He started learning other languages at home, later to work on them at school and during individual tuition; these included Latin, Greek, German, Arabic, and English. He is certain to have spoken Italian; he also read in this language, although it is not clear whether he was a fluent writer. He liked to demonstrate his knowledge of “The Divine Comedy”, which he often quoted in his correspondence in the original language. Although he made no mention of having any knowledge of Russian, he passed his childhood in the pre-November Congress Poland, which was a half-independent state. The polyglotism of the great Polish Romantics is presented in the modern context of the upsetting tendency of many natural languages becoming extinct. Scholars alarm that for the past century they have been dying out at the rate of one every two weeks. According to the most pessimistic scenarios, 90% of the languages spoken today will have disappeared by the end of this century, replaced by the most common and widespread national or global languages. Polyglots are expected to become extinct too, replaced by ever more effective software. The humanities will die out a few hours later.

Polish Prose of the 20th Century. Reviews and interpretations. Vol. 3: Center and borders of literature

Proza polska XX wieku. Przeglądy i interpretacje. T. 3: Centrum i pogranicza literatury

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Polish prose of the 20th century; centre; borderlines; canon; Grabowski; Konwicki; Tulli; Wańkowicz; Brzozowski; Toeplitz-Mrozowska; Kowalska; Wuttke; Kofta; Uniłowski; Wojaczek; Białoszewski; Huelle; Szewc; Malinowski; Hartwig; Darowski

Slovak drama in Poland. Translation in the dialogue of proximate cultures

Dramat słowacki w Polsce. Przekład w dialogu kultur bliskich

Author(s): Lucyna Spyrka / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: dialogue of cultures; translation; cultural proximity; Polish culture; Slovak culture; drama

The book is devoted to the Polish translations of Slovak dramatic works in the context of the dialogue between both cultures. In the first part of the work an attempt is made at formulating a definition and arranging concepts, beginning from the concept of the dialogue between cultures, translation, the competence of the recipients and the translator proceeding through a discussion of the determinants of cultural proximity and the factors which specify the contribution of translation in the intercultural dialogue, including its functions and value. There is an outline of the contacts between Polish and Slovak cultures, with reference to the contribution of translations of Slovak literature into Polish. // The second part of the book contain a discussion of the particular translations of Slovak dramatic works and their reception, which is preceded by an outline of the development of Slovak drama as well as the discussion of the theoretical concepts of translating dramatic works and their possible participation in the dialogue between cultures. An attempt was made at determining the contribution of these works in the Polish-Slovak dialogue of cultures in reference to each work that was discussed and to indicate the reasons of the particular state of affairs in the case of a given translation. Reference has also been made to the information about the authors of the particular translations. // We may distinguish three periods in the history of the presence of Slovak playwriting output in Polish culture: the pre-war years, the post-war years and the period after the Velvet Revolution. Each of these periods has a peculiar nature of its own, determined above all by the historical context in which the cultural contacts between both peoples developed. // In the inter-war period Slovak dramatic works were not staged in Polish theatres, and only one work was published in print — a one-act play by Jozef Gregor Tajovský entitled “Matka” [“Mother”]. // Another phase of the Polish-Slovak dialogue of cultures begins in the years that followed the Second World War. Both the Polish literature as well as the Slovak literature was subordinated to the standards determined by the third, Soviet culture. The intercultural contacts were ideologised and politicised. Therefore the notion of a dialogue of cultures hardly applies here. In this context we may mention the translations of the following dramatic works: “Experiment Damokles” [“The Damocles Experiment”] by Peter Karvaš and “Kráľovná noci v kamennom mori” [“The Queen of the Night in the Stone Desert”] by Ján Solovič. // The text of the translation may assume various positions in the new cultural context: it may be domesticated, being subject to acculturation or on the contrary — it may become a rejected or even alienated translation. The last chapter of the book is devoted to problems of this kind. Among the Polish translations of Slovak dramatic works there were none that would be domesticated in our culture. Slovak drama participates in the Polish-Slovak intercultural communication but it struggles to participate in the dialogue between both cultures.

Defenceless thoughts. Essays and other writings on Upper Silesia

Bezbronne myśli. Eseje i inne pisma o Górnym Śląsku

Author(s): Zbigniew Kadłubek / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Upper Silesia; ethnic minorities; open regionalism

The present book contains essays, studies, memoires, a speech, as well as poetic attempts whose theme is Upper Silesia. These are texts which in different versions, usually under different titles were published in the monthly “Śląsk”, in the quarterlies “Przegląd Polityczny” and “Fabryka Silesia”, as well as in “Borussia”. All the texts — as literary texts — are devoted to various aspects of Upper Silesian identity. They are attempts at diagnosing what the contemporary regionalism is, what Upper Silesia is at the beginning of the XXI century, what the so-called Upper-Silesian awakening is, what the perspectives of the Silesian dialect as a regional language are, etc. Some texts constitute attempts at portraying outstanding, already deceased persons of cultural life in Upper Silesia (Stefan Szymutko, Michał Smolorz, Jan F. Lewandowski, Feliks Netz). Some essays are theoretical in nature — they focus on seeking a research method that would include both the contemporary existence of people who identify themselves with Upper Silesia, as well as a historical perspective free from propaganda and distortions. The book is finished with a genuine speech delivered in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland at 9th October 2014. The content of the speech exposes the true defencelessness of Silesian thoughts and simultaneously motivates the title of the entire compilation.

Figures of Lack. On Stanisław Dygat’s Prose

Figury braku. O prozie Stanisława Dygata

Author(s): Ewa Bartos / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Stanisław Dygat; lack; Literature economics; desire; love; war

This dissertation attempts to interpret Stanisław Dygat’s novels with regard to the manner in which he inscribes the category of l a c k in his oeuvre. Lack – understood herein as a figure of mind, and not merely a rhetoric one – manifests itself on the pages of Dygat’s writings as a capacitor of desires.This thesis is divided into three chapters: Economics and Lack, Desire and Lack, Time, War and Lack.The first one reads Dygat’s subsequent novels, with an emphasis placed on lack as a framework of thinking of love. Precisely, it turns out that the romantic decisions made by the protagonists depicted are governed by the principles of economics. Rational calculations, as well as assessments of incomes and expenditures of engaging in relationships, happen to be the most common reasons for sacrificing love.The second chapter – Desire and Lack – endeavours to provide an answer on why lack remains vital in the structure of a novel. In Dygat’s prose, the heroes construct their subjectivities through desire, which is inevitably founded on lack. The constant oscillation around fulfilment and non-fulfilment constitutes a subjectivity rooted in shortfall. Lack stimulates it in order to discover new desires, whereas the subject’s approaching and distancing from the object of its desire establish a convenient position for arousing and depriving Dygat’s protagonists of pleasure.The third chapter – Time, War and Lack – supplements the considerations undertaken in the first two chapters with a new understanding of lack, associating it with nostalgia. This new conceptualization allows one to re-think memory as a burning sense of emptiness induced by loss. In Dygat’s oeuvre, this case redirects us to not only the experience of World War II, but also the social changes that have occurred during it and in its aftermath.In my dissertation, I have not strived for reaching the fixed answers responding to the problems posed. Still, I am convinced that the possibility of embracing Stanisław Dygat’s prose should be embedded in the affirmation of a multiplicity of interpretative decisions.They provide one with an opportunity of including the writer in the particular group of authors, and, simultaneously, they draw him out from it.Figures of Lack, aside of its placement within the contemporary criticism and literary history, endeavours concurrently to read Dygat’s works through the apparatus of the economy of literature. Hitherto, such a confrontation has been either peripheral or not taken.

Sophie Tieck-Bernhardi. Fantasies and dreams

Sophie Tieck-Bernhardi. Fantazje i marzenia

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: German women’s literature; Sophie Tieck-Bernhardi; fable; the literary works of German women of the classical and Romantic period

The first anthology of fables by a German woman writer of the Romanticism period to appear in the Polish language, Sophie Tieck-Bernhardi (also known as Knorring) inaugurates the book series “Niemiecka literatura kobiet” [German women’s literature], which will feature literary works by German woman writers starting from 1800 until the present which heretofore were unfamiliar to Polish readers. Apart from a translation of the selected prose and poetical works, the volumes will contain a monographical treatment of the writer, her object and subject bibliographies and a note about the edition of source texts. It is not a coincidence that the series is inaugurated by the collection entitled Sophie Tieck-Bernhardi. Fantazje i marzenia, which contains translations of selected tables from the volume Wunderbilder und Träume in elf Märchen, because the path of the literary development of this writer is a part of the experiences of the subsequent generations of woman writers, who find an opportunity for self-realisation in the creative act, and above all the opportunity for fulfilling their dreams about love and happiness. By presenting the series “Niemiecka literatura kobiet” to the readers, the authors hope to familiarise the former not only with the works of the German woman writers but also the culture of a given period, indicating the position which was occupied by women and the various forms of participation of women in socio-cultural life.

The Hybridity of the French First-Person Novel (1789–1820)

L’hybridité du roman français à la première personne (1789–1820)

Author(s): Andrzej Rabsztyn / Language(s): French

Keywords: Eighteenth-century French literature; French First-Person Novel; Hybrid form; Novel in letters; French literature at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries

The present study proposes a systematic diachronic analysis of the French novel, with the focus on the relations between diverse narrative forms present in it (such as a letter, a diary, and an intimate journal). The main goal of this work is to investigate the hybridity – i.e., the blurring and transcending of the limits of narrative genres – of the novel form, which emerged in consequence of the profound transformation the novel underwent in the 18th century. Notably, this study discusses hybridity in the context of the first person narration which is distinguished by its sentimental, erotic, ironic, and socio-moral character. The phenomenon is particularly apparent in the French narrative prose at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the period of historical and political turbulence. It is then that the French first-person novel takes its hybrid form, which leads to its fragmentariness. As the genre which addresses the reader in the most direct manner, it also aims to make the reader realize that s/hecan become the center of, and the witness to, the most significant historical events, as well as the subject of self-reflection and auto-analysis characteristic for the literary works of the First Romanticism. Furthermore, the present study attempts to systematize and popularize the research on the French and European first-person novel at the turn of the centuries. The methodological basis for this analysis is the aesthetic literary criticism focused on the novel genre. The detailed examination of the first-person novel requires a chronological presentation of the changes the genre underwent in the 18th and 19th centuries on the level of paratext, as well as the accentuation of the relations between various narrative forms (as the reflection of their common use in the given period) in the light of mimetic formalism. In accordance with the concept of genre syncretism, this analysis investigates a number of genres and literary forms (letters, diaries, journals) in one literary work, which can appearin turns, overlap, and permeate one another. The borderlines between these genres and forms are often blurred. In the rich tradition of the French and European novel (e.g. in the works of Lawrence Sterne) one can see the characteristics of hybridity which consists in absorbing allsocial forms of communication. In the novel of the second half of the 18th century, one can see the changes that prognosticate new aesthetic aspirations of Romanticism.The present monograph extends the research on the French first-person novel at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries which is still referred to as “no man’s land” due to its unexplored, difficult to define, and heterogenous character. In fact, the bibliography of the novel genre in France (A. Martin, V. G. Mylne, R. Frautschi) ends in the year 1800. The global approach to the first-person novel is reflected in research on various types of the novel, such as the epistolary novel, the journal, or the intimate diary. The literary material which is discussed in this work is the result of the social practices in the field of paraliterature (exchange of letters,diary and journal writing), which enriches the project with valuable information on the society and culture of France and Europe. The monograph is then inscribed within the historical, theoretical, and socio-literary research devoted in particular to the 19th century novel, as the hybridity of the French first-person novel between 1789 and 1820 is more than a mere continuation of the tendency from before 1780. The blurring of borderlines between the genres, and the merging of different narrative forms, is, in fact, an indication of new aesthetic aspirations which evolved in Romanticism. The analysis of the hybrid character of the first-person novel is a key to the understanding of the transformations French and European novel underwent after 1820.

The Polish Literature of North and South America. Studies and Essays. Second Series

Literatura polska obu Ameryk. Studia i szkice. Seria druga

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Polish literature; literary studies; emigration to America; America; “the world not shown”

The second series of The Polish Literature of North and South America is not only intended to be the completion or continuation of the first series. In this book, that includes almost thirty articles, once again a number of problems concerning Polish literary works written on both American continents has been raised, although the subjects themselves are most often new in the Polish literary studies (for instance, the situation of Polish emigrants to America, American visions of Polish writers, or “the world not shown” in the Polish literature created in exile.

Image of a Little Girl, an Adolescent and a Woman in the Novels of Maria Krüger

Portret dziewczynki, dziewczyny i kobiety w powieściach Marii Krüger

Author(s): Karolina Jędrych / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: novels for children and teenagers; novels for teenage girls; Maria Krüger; gender; phantasm; Bachelard

The subject of my analyses and interpretations is eight novels by Maria Krüger (1904–1999) - Polish journalist, editor and, after World War II, author of books mainly for children and teenagers. The novels I interpret include a novel for children aged 8 to 12 (Klimek i Klementynka, 1962), novels for teenage girls (Szkoła narzeczonych, 1945; Petra, 1957; Godzina pąsowej róży, 1960; Po prostu Lucynka P., 1980; Odpowiednia dziewczyna, 1988) and women (Brygida, 1970; Gorzkie wino, 1975). Krüger’s best known novels are Karolcia and Godzina pąsowej róży. Many studies concerning Polish novels for children and teenagers point to the innovative nature of Krüger’s writing, however, no study of her literary output or her biography have been written thus far. My dissertation is the first attempt to interpret her novels. I have based it on the literary output of feminist criticism and gender studies, mainly the texts of Lissa Paul concerning three strategies of gender reading of literature for young readers: rereading, reclaiming, redirection.My book has been divided into two parts. The first one – entitled Image background. Girlhood novel as a safe place. – deals with what the heroines of Krüger’s books say and think about the genre called “novels for girls”, especially the type called “boarding school novels”. It turns out that the life portrayed in such novels is a dream of one of the heroines, and other ones perceive the world presented in the boarding school novel as safe, as topophilia written about by Gaston Bachelard and – in relation to novels for young readers – by Alicja Baluch. The world of these novels can be perceived in such a way due to the fact that in the real world, when Krüger was writing Szkoła narzeczonych and Petra, it was the time of World War II. Krüger spent that time in occupied Warsaw. Many characters in her books mention the war, the occupation and the Warsaw Uprising, and talk about the cruelty of the world and their wish for peace and happiness after the war.In part one, I also mention the references to films in Krüger’s novels, the filming of Godzina pąsowej róży and the differences between the world portrayed in this novel and in Gorzkie wino – a book for women, the action of which takes place around the same time as in the case of Godzina...The second part of my book has been divided into three chapters – portrayals of heroines. In the first chapter – Dressed – I discuss the function of clothes in Krüger’s novels. Clothes are, among others, a way to express subjectivity and construct identity – also the sexuality (two female heroines dress as boys to do forbidden things) – to take control over another person, but they are also a source of pleasure (buying clothes is entertaining).Another portrayal – Appropriate – is an attempt to retrace the characteristics of heroines which allow them to be perceived as girls appropriate for men they marry or will marry in the future. I look at the model of femininity that the author sets in her novels. On the one hand, it is an exemplary housewife, and on the other hand – a girl, an independent woman, an artist.The final chapter of part two is entitled Mother. It discusses the relations of heroines with their mothers and (despite the title) fathers. I focus on the two novels for women – Gorzkie wino and Brygida. Their protagonists – Adelajda and Brygida – were brought up by domineering mothers. The fate of these heroines confirms the thesis that the relations with parents, especially mothers, greatly influence one’s life. In conclusion I write about autobiographic motives in Krüger’s novels for children, teenagers and adults. However, due to the lack of sources that could confirm my presumptions and conclusions, this part is, unfortunately, not very long and exhaustive.

Poe, Grabiński, Ray, Lovecraft. Visions, Correspondences, Transitions

Poe, Grabiński, Ray, Lovecraft. Visions, Correspondences, Transitions

Author(s): / Language(s): English,French,Polish

Keywords: Poe; Grabiński; Ray; Lovecraft; fantastic; terror; fear

“This publication aims at examining the mysterious parallels shaping the works of the four writers, as well as showing the uniqueness of each author’s personal vision of fantastic literature as a genre, filled with intertextual references to both fantastic and mainstream literature. Some interdisciplinary articles of the monograph concentrate on the issues arising from the translation of their fiction.” (from Preface)

Dial S for Silesia – Silesian-Style Superheroes

S jak Śląsk – Superbohaterowie po śląsku

Author(s): Marek Głowacki / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Superhero; Cieszyn Silesia; art.-book; history of the region

The publication comprises illustrations drawn and texts written by Marek Głowacki, which were created as a part of an artistic project “Dial S for Silesia – Silesian-Style Superheroes.” It includes a series of comic-book illustrations depicting characters bound to the region of Silesia, in particular Cieszyn Silesia being a place to which the author has both personal and professional ties. What can be found in the book are over thirty drawingsexecuted in comic-book fashion, created using digital and traditional methods, and published in a form of an artist’s book. The characters depicted are based on reallife Silesians whose achievements put them on a par with superheroes in a broad sense of the word. Głowacki’s way of engaging us into lives of the figures in question is embedded in a tradition of the black-and-white comic-book imagery. Their attainments are showcased by singular, detail-rich illustrations. In addition to drawings the publication contains the author’s text on comic book as genre and drawings as such, as well as passages concerning the specificity of the region and the superhuman nature of Silesians directly stemming from it.The project was realised within the scope of Young Scholars (Młodzi Naukowcy) subsidy that aims at advancement of young academic staff of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Silesia in Katowice. Marek Głowacki, PhD, is an adjunct professor at the Department of Drawings of the Fine Arts Institute located in Cieszyn, where he is in charge of a drawings workshop.

A literary anthology. Transformations, expansion and the perspectives of a genre. First series

Antologia literacka. Przemiany, ekspansja i perspektywy gatunku. Seria pierwsza

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: anthology; selection; silva

“Our age is the age of anthologies” – Władysław Tatarkiewicz’s thesis, articulated as early as at the turn of the 1980s, continues to be relevant. The anthology seems to be one of the forms of a unit of silva of paramount importance for modern culture – which is indeed condemned to a sort of selection of writing which floods the bookshelves of bookstores. In the volume which we present to the reader we examine above all the modern literary anthologies (of the 20th and the 21st centuries), although we do not fail to take into account the historical context which enables us to perceive and to understand the changes which take place. The articles collected in the book present the form in question in terms of its theoretical, historical-literary and legal aspects; they take into account the extremely important environment-related situation – the social and the geographical situation of the anthology, its association with a certain symbolic community in the country and in emigration; they also present two factors which determine the form of the selection – the subject and the figure of the anthologist. The poetics of anthologistic forms is also considered in a broader context: as a phenomenon which is directly associated with the culture of quotation, as one of the more interesting and heretofore unexplored manifestations of intertextuality.

From the Enlightenment to Romanticism and Beyond. Authors – Works – Readers. Part 6

Od oświecenia ku romantyzmowi i dalej… Autorzy – dzieła – czytelnicy. Cz. 6

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Enlightenment; Romanticism

The next, already the sixth volume of works published under the title Od Oświecenia ku romantyzmowi i dalej. Autorzy – dzieła – czytelnicy (From the Enlightenment to Romanticism and Beyond. Authors – Works – Readers) is – like the previous volumes – directed at the Readers who have a deeper interest in the Polish literature of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially in the issues of the Enlightenment and romanticism, inspirations of authors and reception of their works in later periods. Thus, we dedicate it to researchers, doctoral students, and students of not just strictly philological degree courses. The authors and works analyzed in the following volume include first of all (in historical order) Jan Potocki, Antoni Malczewski, Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Calderón de la Barca, the Warsaw Bohemia, Jan Tysiewicz, and the motif of fado (Danilewicz-Zielińska, Stasiuk...).

The Comic and the Tragic in the Literature of the Romantic Period

Komizm i tragizm w literaturze romantyzmu

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Literature of the Romantic Period; comic; tragic

The collective volume entitled The Comic and the Tragic in the Literature of the Romantic Period constitutes reflection about the functioning of the eponymous aesthetic categories in the Romantic period. Each of the articles contained in the volume engages the problems in question in a different way, which confers a cross-sectional nature to the volume and which enables the problem to be examined from different perspectives. An obvious advantage of the book has to do with the fact that the authors of the texts perform an interpretative analysis of the works and the problems which heretofore were not the subject of a comprehensive research work (as, for example, the literary output of Aleksander Groza or the comic and the tragic aspects of the term auto-da-fé).

Legacy of (non-)Memory. Holocaust Experiences of the Second Generation Women Writers

Dziedzictwo (nie)pamięci. Holocaustowe doświadczenia pisarek drugiego pokolenia

Author(s): Natalia Żórawska / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: trauma; posttrauma; Holocaust; women's prose; autobiographism

The aim of this monograph is to depict the Holocaust motif in women’s autobiographical prose after 2000. As the author of the book shows, for the last few years more and more female writers of the Second Generation after the Holocaust have been writing down their traumatic experiences caused by their – socially stigmatised – Jewish descent. In the first chapter, the author describes in general the notion of women’s Holocaust prose; she stresses that the Shoah is a culturally tabooed issue and, similarly to the prose written by women, is often ignored or negatively valorised. In the subsequent chapters, the author provides the examples of autobiographical books by Ewa Kuryluk, Agata Tuszyńska, Roma Ligocka, and Magdalena Tulli, which testify to the strengthened position of women’s autobiographical prose within the literature of the Shoah. While interpreting literary pieces, the author focuses primarily on the aspects of memory, forgetting, and postmemory, which are the foundations for Tulli’s short stories, Tuszyńska’s saga, and Ligocka’s novels. The reflections presented are grounded upon the motif of trauma of the first generation – represented by the writers’ mothers – and that of wounds of the second generation, which is the generation that has inherited the past tragedies from its relatives. The aim of this work is to show the relations between that which is bygone, and the present and future, as well as to make one sensitive to the individual experience of the writers in reference to the whole Jewish community. The chosen research perspective makes it possible to compare the analysed pieces along with emphasising their similarities and differences, and to stress that which is particularly popular in Holocaust narrations. „Legacy of (non-)Memory. Holocaust Experiences of the Second Generation Women Writers” is a voice in a discussion on the Shoah and adds to constantly extending reflections on trauma studies in Poland. A detailed analysis of the abovementioned pieces of women’s prose is supported with historical, sociological, and psychological contexts, but also fragments of interviews, providing a sui generis commentary on the discussed issues. The monograph is an attempt at outlining women’s Holocaust prose in reference to Polish-Jewish literature and at drawing attention to the characteristics of this issue.

Literary capitalism. The images of economic abstracts in the Polish literature of the second half of the 19th century

Literacki kapitalizm. Obrazy abstrakcji ekonomicznych w literaturze polskiej drugiej połowy XIX wieku

Author(s): Paweł Tomczok / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: literature; capitalism; economy; the Polish literature; literature of the 19th century

The work entitled „Literary capitalism. The images of economic abstracts in the Polish literature of the second half of the 19th century” offers an analysis of capitalism based on literary historical sources. The three initial chapters Focus on theoretical aspects of the entire project. In the first chapter, I have systematized various traditions of the economy of literature developing mainly in the English- and German-speaking countries. Here, I distinguish two ways of talking about economy in literature, which stem from Marxist literaturę studies on the analysis of ideology and class divisions in culture, and the research on the relation between economy and a literary form. Chapter Two discusses the Marxist theory adapted to the studies on the economy of literature. Here, I refer to the transition from traditional Marxism to New Marx Reading (neue Marx-Lektüre). I validate the thesis that economic categories require a discursive legitimization to sustain their being in force and the validity of real abstracts. The discursive legitimization and its criticism may have their place in economy, but also in literature and in journalistic writing. This chapter also deals with the problem of using literary texts as “sources” for historical studies, including the social and economic history, and not merely the history of discourse or mentality. The point of departure is the analysis of the classical formulations of the methodology of historiography with a view to arrive at an extended theory of the source, which can be derived from the works of Walter Benjamin. The third chapter concerns the problems of the history of the second half of the 19th century. How can the tradition of the economy of literaturę be employed for the studies on Polish literary capitalism? Definitely, not by means of using foreign research as ready-made patterns that can be directly transferred to Polish literature. Therefore, I trace the problems of the complex duration of capitalism in various works of the historians of literature, ideas, society, and economy. I analyse the 19th-century field of power and its ideology. Moreover, I refer to the discourse of underdevelopment and marginality. In this chapter, I also justify the choice of chronological frames of the present book. The starting point is constituted by the middle of the century – the events of Galician Slaughter and the Spring of Nations are seen as a common experience which anticipated modern social conflicts. I have demarcated the year 1900 as the end-point, thereby renouncing the analysis of the texts that approximated the revolution of 1905 which redefined the political divisions of the Polish society. Between these dates, many important events and economic processes occurred, including the industrialization supported by customs policy and the global agrarian crisis, both of which deeply changed the economic and social structure of Polish lands. The analysis of various chronological patterns allows for the identification of civilizational, economic, social, and cultural processes that occurred at an uneven pace. The complexity of both local and global chronologies renders it impossible to form a great uniform narration on the extended duration of the Polish underdevelopment or marginality, compelling instead to trace the noncontinuous character of the peripheral location. Chapter Four presents the problems of agrarian, middle-class, and industrial capitalists. The basic interpretational category constitutes “the subject of capitalist desire”. Capitalism requires of individuals to become the personifications of commodity, money, and abstraction. Literature perfectly describes the dialectal adventures of individuals embroiled in capitalist desires, as well as the oppositions between various positions that were available for contemporary capitalists, such as ascetic, merchant, speculator, industrialist, or rentier. In the fifth chapter, I discuss subordinate groups: peasants, workmen, urban mob and proletariat. Here I research the ways of discursive enslaving of individuals, as well as the chances of emancipation and class struggle. The most important process that was taking place in the second half of the 19th century as regards the structure of subordinate groups is connected with the rejection of the feudal forced labour based on physical violence and replacing it with apparent voluntary contracts between the labourer and the capitalist, yet practically based on anonymous economic violence that affects the proletarians devoid not only of capital goods, but also of their livelihood. The final three chapters have been devoted to the interpretation of the problems of economy of the most important novels of the period under investigation: „The Doll” by Bolesław Prus, „The Promised Land” by Władysław Reymont, and „Homeless People” by Stefan Żeromski. These novels present three kinds of psychopathology of capitalist personification which stem from the inability of continuing the parents’ traditions, either due to social advancement, or social degradation. The literature of this epoch frequently portrays spectacular falls of fathers who can no longer impose their rules on their sons – they are too weak, because economic changes deprived them of their high social status. Their place, the place of the father who insists on respecting the rules, is being occupied by the capital, which obliges the sons deprived of their fathers to become the subjects of capitalist desire and to reject the tradition of their ancestry.

Bettina von Arnim: “On Poland”

Bettina von Arnim: "O Polsce"

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish,German

Keywords: Bettina von Arnim; Poland; Ludwik Mierosławski; the Spring of Nations; Prussia; Polish-German relations; translation; essay

The second volume in the series Niemiecka Literatura Kobiet [German Women’s Literature] initiated by the Institute of German Philology of the Silesian University furnishes the Polonohile essay entitled “Polenbroschüre” [“O Polsce”; “An essay on Poland”] by a famous German woman writer of the Romantic period Bettina von Arnim – translated for the first time into Polish. The text which was originally published in 1849 continues to amaze the reader with its topicality, constituting at the same time an example of a German (and woman’s) voice (which was heard relatively rare in the history of German literature) which advocated the pursuit of freedom and the rights of the Polish people in such a passionate, uncompromising and committed way. Moreover, the publication contains essays devoted to the life and the literary output of Bettina von Arnim, the political problems discussed in the “Broszura o Polsce”, selected problems of translation and a comprehensive bibliography. The book “O Polsce” is intended primarily for people who are interested in the history of German literature, especially woman’s literature, the history of Polish-German relations and the problems of literary translation.

Common places, separate places, names in the dispute. Sketches from the borderland of literature and journalism in Upper Silesia

Miejsca wspólne, miejsca osobne, imiona sporu. Szkice z pogranicza literatury i publicystyki na Górnym Śląsku

Author(s): Paweł Sarna / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: social and cultural press; Upper Silesia; rhetoric

“Common places, separate places, names of the dispute” – title of this dissertation points to the major relationships between parts of this collection as well as its individual texts. The authors presented in this book are connected with Upper Silesia in various ways. The author is interested in both, similarities and differences in their worldview, their creative attitudes and writing strategies. The region itself was a borderland, a place of coexistence, but also a place where cultures, truths and forces clashed. It is hard to believe that its literary works were based on anything else but dichotomies. Some of these authors are native Silesians, others came to Upper Silesia and settled here. How much their birthplace determines their perception of this place? – it is one of questions that constantly arise on the pages of this book. The first part includes articles, miniatures and critical sketches on the poetry of authors representing different generations – Wilhelm Szewczyk, Jan Pierzchała, Stanisław Krawczyk, Andrzej Szuba, Tadeusz Sławek and Jerzy Suchanek. It starts with a rhetorical analysis of a poem by Wilhelm Szewczyk „Pogrzeb Korfantego” [„The Funeral of Korfanty”]. The elegy from 1939 is marked by a catastrophic note regarding the future fate of the Silesian. Poetry – written for three decades from the thirties to the fifties – constituted an important part of literary works by Wilhelm Szewczyk. Jan Pierzchała was primarily a prose writer, and as a poet he was the author of only one collection, „Poems” (1948). He observed Silesia with eyes of an outsider. Born in Jaworzno, a place he described as being “on the border of Cracow and Silesia” he depicted a drama of a single man with his life embedded in the collective fate of a community who endures all the hardships affecting this community. Stanisław Krawczyk is a poet suspended between his two homelands – Zaglebie and Upper Silesia. The next three authors are closer to a general rather than a particular idea – Andrzej Szuba, Tadeusz Slawek, and Jerzy Suchanek. All three seem to combine the search for the formula of spirituality in the postmodern world. The next part focus on journalism, and some characters present in the previous section, Wilhelm Szewczyk and Stanisław Krawczyk, appear in different writer roles. In this part I also introduced Alexander Viktor Widery, a journalist, folklorist and poet. It is worth mentioning that his interest in folklore, especially this of Śląsk Cieszyński [Cieszyn Silesia] resulted in numerous radio programs and books. The last part of this work contains articles devoted to press in Upper Silesia. The first paper analyzed interwar press titles: “Polonia” and “Western Poland”. Progovernment «Western Poland» and «Polonia» issued by Wojciech Korfanty became a tribune of political struggle. Press control by the state authorities and repressive activities against the opposition press, violations of social norms and freedom of speech are an important context here. Another magazine presented is called «Odra» – published in Katowice in the period of the People’s Republic of Poland, it resembles 20th – century journals, in particular those of regional character. “Kuźnica” and “Polonia” belonged to the direct tradition of “Odra”. In the last study, a rhetorical strategy adopted by the editorial team of the “Silesian Literary Quarterly” was examined. The script was published in the fifties and it served as an organ of the Katowice branch of the Polish Writer’s Union, but it also promoted authors from Opole. The adoption of a rhetorical perspective, sometimes very pronounced, as it appears in the titles of individual articles and sketches, sometimes less conspicuous, allows one to focus on the aspect of persuasiveness, which in many cases may be unobtrusive but important for reading not only journalistic texts, but also literary works.

The Musings of Myśliwski (essays and studies)

Myśl Myśliwskiego (studia i eseje)

Author(s): / Language(s): Polish

Keywords: Wiesław Myśliwski; World War II; destruction; Sandomierz; peasant culture; feminist criticism

The collective monograph of the works of Wiesław Myśliwski is not the first attempt at a comprehensive conceptualization of the work of the author of „Nagi Sad”. It has been preceded by a series of “anniversary” books published by The Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce as well as monographs by e.g. Bogumiła Kaniewska. The uniqueness and purport of issuing another exhaustive formulation of Myśliwski’s work is justified by, first of all, the importance of this work, and, secondly, the fact that the authors have made an attempt to conceptualize it in a novel way. The book ends with the re-print of the essay by Myśliwski entitled „Kres kultury chłopskiej”, which on the one hand is a text that has been slightly forgotten, and on the other hand many authors of the monograph have made reference to the theses of this very essay. The studies and essays presented in the book attempt at interpreting the complete literary output of the author of „Widnokrąg”, his individual works or motifs from his writing. The most complementary attempt at reading Myśliwski in the volume has been offered by Józef Olejniczak, who in his essay treats the six novels published so far as chapters of an autobiographical project of the writer, and, in conclusion, poses a question about a continuation. It is followed by a study into the presence of WW II in Myśliwski’s work seen as a traumatic experience and at the same time as an attempt of asking definite questions about the role of Polish peasantry in the tragic history of this war. Artur Żywiołek, in turn, analyses „Widnokrąg” from the point of view of “new humanities” and “opens up” the reading of this significant novel for hitherto undescribed philosophical contexts. In a similar way we can characterize the attempt of Tomasz Bocheński – the researcher points out to the interpretative contexts which have not been accounted for so far in the studies on Myśliwski, like, for example, the musicalness of this prose. Wiesław Sedlak describes the authorial subject of Myśliwski as “nomadic”, pointing out to the fact that it is a subject that is in a permanent journey, wandering, walking, which constitutes a reconsideration of the previous convictions about the solely peasant provenance of Myśliwski’s work. Bogumiła Kaniewska and Karolina Wawer reach to Myśliwski’ images of women, assuming various perspectives from the domain of feminist literary criticism and gender studies. Krystian Węgrzynek in his essay is interested in the attitude of Myśliwski towards religion, Karol Maluszczak deals with objects in the worlds represented in the novel as the elements of the material memory of the writer, the “catalysts of his memory”. Piotr Zając writes about the presence of animals in this work, while Antoni Lesiak focuses his interpretation of „A Treatsie on Shelling Beans” on the music motif, on the job of saxophonist performed for many years by the narrator-protagonist, and Paweł Otręba attempts to interpret „Stone Upon Stone” in the light of the Sigmund Freud’s drive theory. Another study, by Wojciech Kuska, is an interpretative attempt at the conceptualization of a dendrologic motif in Myśliwski’s work in the light of the concept of the Linguistc Picture of the World. Jolanta Betkowska, by contrast, demonstrates how a modern media culture devastates the primal peasant culture, in this way commenting on the theses of the essay „Kres kultury chłopskiej” and its consequences present in the novels and dramas of the author of „Ostatnie Rozdanie”. The monograph concludes with three studies on the dramaturgic work of Myśliwski and the theatrical staging of his dramas and novels. Ewa Wąchocka presents an attempt at a comprehensive approach towards the problems, Anna Podstawka focuses on the theatrical adaptation of „Widnokrąg” made by Bogdan Tosza, while Jan Ciechowicz offers a summary of various ways in which Polish theatres have been fascinated by the works of Myśliwski and have adapted them for their own use. The monograph „The Musings of Myśliwski (essays and studies)” aims at presenting the work of Myśliwski in many different contexts, and it also aspires to demonstrate how this work radiates and “influences” on various creative activities of man, such as the theatre, film, music, and the fine arts, therefore the cover features the portrait of the writer painted by Stanisław Baja, and also inside the book there is a drawing of the artist, which is a sketch to the portrait of Wiesław Myśliwski.

Père-versions of the Truth. The Novels of J. M. Coetzee. Expanded Second Edition

Père-versions of the Truth. The Novels of J. M. Coetzee. Expanded Second Edition

Author(s): Sławomir Masłoń / Language(s): English

Keywords: novels; J.M. Coetzee; politics; narration; existence; humanist discourse; psychoanalytic theory

The purpose of the book is to approach J.M. Coetzee’s novelistic output from a different perspective than the one that was usually embraced by the majority of critics. The common practice, which is in any case elicited by this output, is orientation from the “humanist” position, criticising the excesses of colonialism and confronting violence with existential problems of Man on the path to the Truth and self-realisation. Even though in today’s world the authority of universalia such as Man and Truth was severely undermined, for it may be perceived as something which always serves somebody’s interests, it seems that Coetzee created for his own purpose a writer’s method in which the basic features of a humanist novel may be retained and which at the same time attempts to defend itself against accusations of involvement in the interplay of violence and interests. In order to demonstrate the political, narration-related and existential consequences of the attitudes embraced by the protagonists of such a modernised humanist novel, the book analyses seven novels by Coetzee, and the premises of humanist discourse which are contained in these novels were confronted with the selected concepts of the psychoanalytic theory, especially the concepts of Jacques Lacan and their political application conducted by Slavoj Žižek. The second edition of the book was enhanced by a chapter which discusses three pseudo-autobiographical novels by Coetzee and a chapter which analyses “The Lives of Animals” by this author – a sort of metafiction devoted to animal rights.