Fantastyka i realizm

Author(s): Krzysztof Uniłowski / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

In contemporary Polish terminology, the term “ fantastyka naukowa” [“the scientificfantasy”], which is considered the equivalent of “science fiction”, associates thistype of prose with the broadly understood genre of literary fantasy. The author emphasizesthe fact that the roots of science fiction are different, with its origins intraditions of realism (and its idea of a writer studying and describing social life).In its entertainment variant, science fiction refers to the tradition of the “adventureromance,” and in this sense it can be linked with the “romance” category, in oppositionto the category of “the novel.” It is, however, the only area where SF works maydeviate from the probability principle, understood as a rule allowing for the rapportwith readers, and for the authentication of the world represented in a novel – alsowhen writers only feign references to science or scientific theories. Such feigning,however, is a key element of the convention and it serves to reinforce the vraisemblance[“likelihood”] of the work.

Fantastyczne strategie? O tym, w jaki sposób zostać twórcą prozy fantastycznej

Author(s): Hanna Sieja-Skrzypulec / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The production of sizeable print runs of books classified as speculative fictionhas already become a trend – one related to the fact that most of their readers areyoung people.The most devout fans of speculative fiction – who have already createda unique subculture – treat it not only as entertainment, but also as a reservoir oftales and stories whose narratives give raise to numerous activities – such as cycli-cally organized festivals or tournaments – and underlie the creation of social, videoor board games. These activities also include the so-called “fanfic” writing, i.e. thewriting of texts referencing, alluding to, or continuing prominent literary series, andit is with popular fiction that aspiring writers often start their literary adventure.American creative writing programs offer separate specialized seminars dedicated tofantasy and science fiction; textbooks and writing guides on the subject abound in themarket and columns dedicated to prospective writers frequently appear in renownedperiodicals. For instance, the famous Polish magazine “Nowa Fantastyka” featuresa special section offering “Advice for writers.” Are writing strategies proposed byrenowned authors within the genre and suggested in textbooks for beginner authorsseparate – or different – from those offered within general courses of creative writ-ing? Can speculative fiction defend its distinctiveness in terms of the uniqueness ofits creative process? Is it possible, in light of the practice of deconstructions whichteach to undermine widely accepted oppositions, to waive the difference betweencreating that which is realistic and that which is fantastic? Or, in this case, shouldone rather talk about the shift from “the era of the form to the era of imagination”?

Wątki fantastyczne w staropolskiej twórczości sowizdrzałów i babińczyków

Author(s): Teresa Banaś-Korniak / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The goal of this sketch is to emphasize the uniqueness of fantastic motifs manifestin old Polish texts by humorists representing the European Till Eulenspiegel tradition,which gave rise to the phenomena of the Polish sowizdrzał (Eulenspiegel) andBabinian literature. While the author points to the similarity of dominant themes,she simultaneously emphasizes vital differences in the immanent poetics characterizingthe works by the sowizdrzałs and that typical of the writings by authors representingthe oeuvre of the late 16th-century humorist society called The Republicof Babin. In her article, the author argues that the differences observed may derivefrom the essential dissimilarities separating the two cultural milieus which producedthe texts under study.

Inwazja zaświatów w polskiej historical fantasy. Rekonesans

Author(s): Mirosław Gołuński / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article is an attempt at determining sources and modes of functioning of theeponymous “underworld” in Polish fantasy literature set in the historical realitiesof the Middle Ages. Having indicated Slavic mythology, Christian legends, and theKaballah as source discourses, from which the motif has migrated into contemporaryliterature, the author subsequently emphasizes the more immediate romantic rootsof Polish fantasy literature. On the basis of over a dozen of novels subjected to theanalysis, the author offers a reflection oriented both toward indicating ways in whichthe “underworld” functions (beginning with conventional references to the “GreatBeyond” and finishing with allusions to the actual “underworld,” parallel to the historicalreality), and to the premises underlying the use of the motif. The analysisleads to the conclusion that, in most cases, the sole goal of the historical fantasywriters was to create an exotic mood in novels. The above notwithstanding, in othercases, a deeper awareness of the productivity of the motif of the “underworld” canbe observed: authors such as Jabłoński and Sapkowski tend to use the motif to createideological messages underlying their narratives.

Wątki gnostyckie w twórczości Stanisława Lema

Author(s): Jacek Kwosek / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article presents gnostic motifs in selected works by Stanisław Lem. In hisanalysis, the author focuses in particular on literary manifestations of the concept ofthe world as evil-ridden, the idea of being trapped in the world, the idea of a “faultyGod,” studies symptoms of an ironic or negative attitude towards the human body,and finally – reflects upon the marked presence of anthropological pessimism in thetexture of Lem’s prose. These motifs are discussed both in the context of the rudimentsof Lem’s philosophy expounded in his works and in light of his references tocontemporary scientific theories. At the same time, the author points to differencesbetween metaphysical foundations of Gnosticism and the substrate upon which Lem’sconcepts arose arguing that while Gnosticism is usually an extreme form of metaphysicaldualism or a form of spiritualist monism, Lem represents rationalist naturalismcolored with strong scientistic undertones. In the final section of the text, theauthor emphasizes similarities between Lem’s anthropology and the anthropologyimplied by the doctrine of the Original Sin.

Robot. Opowieść fantastyczna i naukowa

Author(s): Ewa Bartos / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article offers a short analysis and an interpretation of Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg’s most famous novel, The Robot. In the first part of her sketch, the authorpresents an insight into the reception of the Wiśniewski-Snerg’s 1973 spectaculardebut, which Robert Klementowski elevated to the rank of “a significant event of theearly 1970s” a few years later. Even though at the time, The Robot would be regardedas a work on par with Lem’s novels, it soon became forgotten. The second part ofthe article aims to re-kindle reflection upon the novel by offering an interpretationof The Robot as an allegory of human fate.

Ciri – dziecko, dziewica, cyborg

Author(s): Kinga Kasperek / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The present sketch is an attempt at an interpretation of Ciri, a character fromThe Witcher Saga by Andrzej Sapkowski. The author points to connections betweenDonna Haraway’s essay A Cyborg Manifesto and the structure of Sapkowski’s cha-racter. Although Ciri is perceived through the prism of a classic representation offemale protagonists in the fantasy genre, the author seeks to prove that she representsa different – new – type of a fantasy heroine. The works by Judith Butler provide animportant context for this interpretation – her concepts, along with the figures ofa cyborg, a virgin and a child are essential in interpreting the character of Ciri – andsystematically lead toward the notion of postgenderism.

Status i kreacyjna funkcja terminologii naukowej w powieści fantastycznonaukowej na przykładzie Perfekcyjnej niedoskonałości Jacka Dukaja

Author(s): Katarzyna Wasilewska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Terminology is considered as ranking very high among the linguistic means usedto create worlds in science fiction. The subject of this article is the status of termino-logy used in a non-scientific context, as well as its function of evoking the domainof science in science fiction novels in order to simultaneously lend credence to, andfictionalize, the presented world. The article also attempts to describe the sourcesand the structure of neologisms of terminological nature on the basis of the Polishoriginal of Jacek Dukaj’s The Perfect Imperfection.

O tym, jak zrobiony jest Lód Jacka Dukaja

Author(s): Piotr Gorliński-Kucik / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article is an attempt to study the structure of one of Jacek Dukaj’s presentedworlds: the world of Ice. In the novel, an alternative history is created by virtue ofa pattern in which an event of major transformative power influences the courseof history, activating a series of modifications. The writer – resorting to extrapola-tion (retropolation) – builds a chain of causality, which yields a concise construct asa result. A meteorite impact causes the appearance of substantial amounts of tunge-tite – a chemical element hitherto unknown to the Earth – which event, eventually,gives rise to dark physics. The stylization strategy Dukaj adopts in his descriptions isinteresting insofar as the technology appears as magical, even sacred, since it foretellsa bright future for humankind.The motif of techno-utopia recurs throughout Dukaj’sprose; it is present in other novels of his authorship as well.

Fantastyczne światy Radka Knappa

Author(s): Elżbieta Hurnikowa / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article is devoted to a debut collection of short stories by Radek Knapp,a Polish writer residing in Vienna and writing in German. The collection, entitledFranio (1994), includes five stories and has been translated into Polish in 1995. Thetome is prefaced by a recommendation from Stanisław Lem, who tips the literatureaficionados off to a surprise in stock for them upon reading the book. Yet, contraryto potential expectations, to which an opinion voiced by an eminent science fictionwriter might give rise, Franio is not a collection of science fiction stories: rather, itrepresents a separate form of literature. The stories take place in Anin, a small town,where time seems to have stopped (only a few scattered hints allow one to determinethe time of action as around 1970s and later). The protagonists of these stories – thelocals of Anin – are characters who follow rules that are difficult to understand froma rational point of view: they are capable of experiencing extraordinary states and ofevoking them in others. What makes these stories unique is a combination of humor(sometimes dark humor), wit and irony, with the all-pervading sense of absurdity.Radek Knapp has developed his own, original, methods of presenting people, events,and realities: while reading his texts, one can hardly be rid of the impression that“nothing is the way it seems to be.

Groza w opowiadaniu Talidomid Dawida Kaina

Author(s): Katarzyna Niesporek-Klanowska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Gorefikacje is the first Polish e-anthology of gore, which premiered on March30th, 2013. Extreme horror is new to Polish literature: it is only at the beginning ofits path. Making its first shy steps towards the center of the literary scene, it owes itsevolution to young authors, who first seek inspiration in works by non-Polish authors,and then – in cinematography. Gore oscillates first and foremost around macabreimages of blood, dismemberment, vivisection, abuse, killing, torture, pornography,crime, and perverse provocations. The article focuses on the opening text of theGorefikacje e-anthology – a story written by one of the most renowned contemporaryPolish horror writers, Dawid Kain. Mateusz, the protagonist of Talidomid, is a cripple.Immersed in the “Die of Death” – a mysterious online game – he realizes thatit is life that plays a game with him. Doomed, he becomes a victim of his own fate:his hatred towards others eventually turns against himself.

Światy wyludnione. Nadzieja i oczekiwanie w Wyludniaczu Samuela Becketta

Author(s): Marian Kisiel / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article offers an attempt at a Deleuzian re-reading of The Lost Ones by SamuelBeckett. Interpreting the story through the lens of the trope of “exhaustion,” theauthor offers a reading of The Lost Ones in terms of an unthinkable world. Such aperspective directs one’s attention to the figure of the narrator of the “wonderingbodies” myth, who constantly invalidates the nihilism of the presented reality. Inlight of such a reading, The Lost Ones becomes a story founded on the principle ofabsolute unresolvability, perpetually referring the reader to hope and dooming himor her to constant waiting for an outside intervention which could bring the end tothe tragic suspension of the people inhabiting the presented world.

Cóżeś pan uczynił, panie Stoker? Motywy fantastyczne w literackiej legendzie księcia Drakuli

Author(s): Katarzyna Walc / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The author analyzes supernatural themes appearing in contemporary literaryworks involving a 15th-century Vlach hospodar, Vlad Dracula, also known as theImpaler. Many of the analyzed novels employ the motif of vampirism, thus echoingthe idea of Bram Stoker’s, who gave his character – a vampire – an authentic, personalname. Other motifs discussed in the article are: a) the count as a sorcerers’ apprenticeor as a mage and a telepath; b) the count as chosen by the gods, or a servant of thedevil; c) the power of the count over animals; d) unusual phenomena and propheciesaccompanying the count’s birth; and finally, e) works of art and literature that“change the course of history.”

Kreacje światów i chrześcijańskie reinterpretacje mitów w twórczości Clive’a Staplesa Lewisa

Author(s): Anna Wróblewska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The subject matter of this article is the literary output of C.S. Lewis. The authordescribes the origins of the Chronicles of Narnia cycle, as well as motives behind thechoice made by Lewis and his friend, J.R.R. Tolkien, to write within the fantasy genre.Building her argument, the author references the most significant critical essays byeach of the writers, in which they attempted to define the purpose and goals of fantasyliterature. She emphasizes the vital impact C.S. Lewis’s biography exerts uponhis output by broadening the scope of her study to include his lesser known works:The Space Trilogy and Till We Have Faces. Developing her argument, the author distinguishesthe motifs of central importance to the author’s oeuvre. She also analyzesthe role of film adaptations of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian,and their influence on the reception of the novel among contemporary readers.

Powrót do Shire… Baśń uświęcona Ewangelią? O walce dobra ze złem w świecie Tolkiena

Author(s): Dominik Chwolik / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article offers an attempt to find connections between The Lord of the Ringsand the Gospel, especially in the context of the struggle between good and evil. Thepoint of departure for the reflections presented in the text is Tolkien’s own qualificationof his work as “Christian,” which – in his opinion – becomes evident in subsequentre-readings. Such a return to the text is reflected in the metaphor of the returnto the Shire, which proves helpful in analyzing both The Lord of the Rings and otherstories from the Middle-Earth. Importantly, however, Tolkien does not transplant theBible into his text in a literal manner; he does not impose any preferred reading, thusallowing his audience to interpret his work in a variety of ways. In The Lord of theRings, the reader may find many universal truths, also those involving the creationof good and evil. Stories from the Middle-Earth also draw inspiration from sourcesother than the Gospel, which, albeit interesting, exceeds the scope of the presentstudy, which compares selected excerpts from Tolkien’s works with Biblical texts inlight of academic literature of the subject, as well as in the perspective of the author’sown interpretations.

Rola muzyki i pieśni w świecie J.R.R. Tolkiena na podstawie Silmarillionu i Władcy Pierścieni

Author(s): Elżbieta Wojnowska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Music lies at the root of the world created by J.R.R. Tolkien. Both music and songplay an essential role in structuring Tolkien’s narratives, allowing space, time, reality,and all other components of the presented world to come into existence. Thesetwo basic elements provide the loom upon which the fabric of the text is woven:they bind Tolkien’s world together and frame it. Music and songs assume the role ofa metaphorical grammar, providing a set of rules constitutive to Tolkien’s world. Itis possible to observe how the importance and functions music and song in Tolkienchange over time. Once the divine element, which sparked off the world’s existence

Ludzkie i nie-ludzkie w cyklu Świat Dysku Terry’ego Pratchetta

Author(s): Maria Janoszka / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The Human and the Non-Human in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld SeriesThe goal of this article is to describe the varied functions of fantastic beings whoenter into relations with the human characters of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels.The confrontation of the human and the non-human becomes a source of a deeperanthropological reflection. Even though Pratchett uses comical devices to presentthe tension building up on the axis of difference – identity – norm – stereotype, henonetheless treats the issue of the recognition of one’s own identity through the lensof the experience of radical otherness with a large dose of seriousness. The diversity ofproblems evoked by the stories of individual representatives of the different “races” orentire communities inhabiting the Discworld, reveals Pratchett as an astute observerof both absurdities and crucial problems of today, his sensitivity attuned to the labilityof the thresholds between the normative and the non-normative.

Wirtualność urzeczywistniona Sword Art Online Rekiego Kawahary

Author(s): Oskar Kalarus / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The novel Sword Art Online: Aincrad by Reiki Kawahara tells the story of peopletrapped within a virtual reality. The head designer of the game, in which the charactersare imprisoned, binds the players to their avatars permanently. As a result ofsuch a connection, the death of an avatar in the virtual world results in the death ofthe player’s body in the actual world.In the novel, Kawahara offers a vision of what human behaviors and their mutualrelations in the context of such an extreme situation could be like. The transition oftheir entire lives into the virtual space becomes a problem that the players find impossibleto overcome, as a result of which their identities lose integrity and becomesplit: bodies left in the primary world come to be gradually perceived as abject andsoon turn into a taboo subject, ousted from everyday conversations.The main thesis in Kawahara’s novel that the degree of “reality” of virtual worldsis insubstantial, since memories gained, relations created, and feelings felt – are asreal as those experienced in the actual world.

Sylwetki Ślązaków – więźniów obozu w Dachau w Listach spod morwy Gustawa Morcinka

Author(s): Lucyna Sadzikowska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Konwencje tematyczne w socrealistycznej prozie dla dzieci i młodzieży Gustawa Morcinka

Author(s): Katarzyna Bereta / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0