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The subject of the article is the problem of laughter and the related phenomena in the work of Tadeusz Różewicz. The problem is considered in a broad theoretical context. The aim of the article is to develop a concept in which two pictures of Różewicz will be reconciled: the poet of trauma as well as the satirist and the comedy writer.
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An overview of motifs appearing in Tadeusz Różewicz’s poetry such as these of “jester” and “clownery,” “smile,” “laughter” and “mockery” serves as a background for the title reflection, in which the questions of affirmation of someone else’s joy of life; acceptance for ludic laughter; therapeutic role of laughter in face of war trauma; and satirical distance from the observed events come to the forefront. In Różewicz’s oeuvre, a meta-poetic reflexion on the role of laughter in poetry appears from the very beginning as well. The laughter means here the critique or the negation of poetry and the poet; irony and self-mockery – of different type and of different reach that go to the extremes of negative self-topicality. Ridicule of a poem becomes a leitmotif in the late oeuvre of Różewicz as its loudest manifestations are contained in the volume Płaskorzeźba [Bas-relief].
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The article discusses the possibility of employing the definition of humour as “a conscientious watching”(proposed by Bolesław Prus) to encompass the “serious”lyric and the poetic “smiles”of Tadeusz Różewicz. The relation between the ridiculousness and the recognition in his oeuvre is analysed, whereas the “recognition”in literature is to be understood – according to Rita Felski – as a type of affected engagement, perceptive impressions and aesthetically mediated ties. In this context and in accordance with Felski’s suggestion, the methods of “reenacting”the struggles for recognition in Różewicz’s prose as well as poetry were discussed.
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The authors analyse the poem by Tadeusz Różewicz, nożyk profesora [professor’s knife] (2001). They deal with the exponents of non-seriousness in this work due to the space of the poem (complicated by the reproduction of the rough draft), the elements of the language of the text, and the resulting gesture of the speaking subject. The non-seriousness becomes a figure of distance that saves from the categorical phraseology, breaks out of the rhythm, as well as of disregard, and is a form of counteracting the destructive power of time shown by the figure of rust. By placing the final text and the draft next to each other, the poet constantly breaks down the arrangements made both by himself and by the characters of the work and by its recipients. Among the verse exponents of the non-seriousness, one can see first of all verse syntagmas with their internal dynamics of additions, which are ultimately not more accurate, and sometimes are funny. With all its internal contradiction, nożyk profesora serves to document the admiration for the described figure of the Professor (Porębski), and also to keep the image of the past, the cruel 20th century, in the memory with the use of the title tool.
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The article Poetics of the Negatives poses a question about the position of photography in creation of the writers’images. Exemplified in the most substantial part by the pictures of Tadeusz Różewicz, taken by a prominent artist photographer Adam Hawałej of Wrocław, published in his two books (Różewicz, Śmietnik [Garbage]), the article aims to reconstruct Różewicz’s attitudes towards the photographic medium. The author of Niepokój [Faces of Anxiety] initially appears as an artist protecting his privacy, at the same time negating the creative measure of photography (in favor of its documentary role). However, as time passed and possibly because of his friendship with several outstanding photographers (A. Hawałej, J. Olek and J. Stankiewicz), his view on photography tended to evolve while the artist himself became not only the subject of numerous exquisite works, but eventually the author of many. The article concludes with an interpretation of the photographic happening captured by Adam Hawałej and published in the book Śmietnik.
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The paper focuses on the interpretation mode of the literature, which includes both textual notation as well as its voice realization, and consequently allows to reveal the phenomenon of the double literature archive (writing and voicing). This well-known problem of writing and the voice (e.g. voice in literature, acousmatic voice, voice in the text) is considered in terms of scriptorality. The author’s attention is drawn to the volume of poetry by Tadeusz Różewicz, Wiersze przeczytane [Poems Read] (Wrocław 2014), and especially to the poem “Nowe porównania” [“New comparisons”], which is discussed from the perspective of the modern auditory experience and the consequences of being in the sound in the current reality are shown. The remarks on the presence/absence of the voice (sound) in the literary reading practice, in the situation of understanding literature as a phenomenon of writing and at the same time as a phenomenon of voice, ultimately lead to an attempt of revising traditional literary studies under the conditions of the media society.
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Alfonso X of Castile, also known as Alfonso the Wise was one of the most eminent Medieval rulers of the Kingdom of Castile and León. This paper presents selected facts from his life, especially highlighting his achievements as a patron of science and literature, as well as propagator of the vernacular language, i.e. Castilian. A special focus herein will be on the code Siete Partidas. Written under Alfonso’s auspices, this text describes knightly customs and combines the features of fiction and legal documents. The paper consists of two parts: a commentary and a translation of Title XXI of Partida II. The commentary presents the essential information on Alfonso X, including his legislative activities connected to Siete Partidas, and also the significance of the code for Spanish legislation, the contents of the seven books (partidas), as well as its authorship. In order to provide some background of the knightly culture on the Iberian Peninsula in the 13th century, knighthood rights are also presented on the basis of other contemporary texts on related subjects, such as Ramon Llull’s The Book of the Order of Chivalry or the French anonymous treatise L’ordene de chevalerie. The translation presented in the second part of the article is the first and the only Polish version of a fragment of Siete Partidas dealing with duties, privileges and also customs. Prepared on the basis of the critical edition by Jerry R. Craddock and Jesús Rodríguez Velasco, the translation attempts to grasp the nature of the original language and content, providing notes, which facilitate comprehension of particularly challenging problems.
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500 years ago one of the most important Polish medieval works was published: Żywot Pana Jezu Krysta by Baltazar Opec (1522). It is the only complete Medieval apocryphal narrative written in Polish, describing Mary and Christ’s lives from the Annunciation till the Ascension and the Assumption of Mary. The first critical edition of this work was published in 2014, revealing multiple sources that may have been used by Opec. However, the primary sources of the last chapters dealing with the Dormition, Assumption and Coronation of the Mother of God were not identified. This paper presents these chapters together with fragments of a collection of Latin sermons by a Hungarian Franciscan Pelbartus Ladislaus de Temesvar, entitled Stellarium corone benedicte Marie Virginis (1498), which were previously used by the Polish translator and editor. The comparison of both texts makes it possible to observe how Baltazar Opec transformed Pelbartus’ erudite theological and Mariological treatise into the apocryphal narrative on the Dormition and Ascention of the Mother of God, preserving the style of the whole Żywot Pana Jezu Krysta. It is evident that Opec used Stellarium as model sermons but adapted them in a different way than the other sources of Żywot, such as Meditationes vitae Christi or Historia rythmica: he omitted the names and opinions of the Fathers of the Church and medieval theologians cited by the Hungarian Franciscan, as well as most of the references to ex Scriptura arguments.
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In this paper, the author shares some comments on the exhibition Wisła krolowa polskich rzek (The Vistula River: The Queen of the Polish Rivers) organized in the National Museum in Cracow (29.03.2022–4.09.2022). The curator Iwona Długopolska gathered maps, atlases, engravings and literary works from the 16th–mid 19th centuries from the collection of the National Museum. All of them deal with the Vistula River. The author focuses on the cultural dimensions of the representations of the river. At the beginning of the paper, there are remarks about the physiology of viewing. The author stresses the fact that exhibitions can be a way of carrying out historical research. In the next parts, he puts forth a classification of the interpretations of the river as a cultural phenomenon into four major groups, i.e. the economy, the war, the city and the expressions of the Polish national identity. He also links literary works by Polish authors with the visual representations of the Vistula.
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The text presents Jan Kasprowicz’s translation work during the First World War. It discusses theWar’s contribution to the concentration on this form of literary activity and to the selectionof the works by the most distinguished Greek tragic dramatist, Euripides. The author presentsthe view that the fact that Kasprowicz took up the ambitious project of translating all worksby Euripides resulted from the Academy of Learning’s commission on the one hand and fromthe translator’s conscious decision on the other hand. By going back to antiquity, Kasprowiczendeavoured to answer the questions that were fundamental during the War: about its senseand price. Apart from presenting the timeline of Jan Kasprowicz’s translations in detail, theauthor mentions the key facts from his biography during the War. He also quotes the translator’sstatements about the translation techniques and positions them in the context of contemporarytheories of translation.
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Dionizjusz Czubala is one of the most important contemporary Polish folklorists; his research pertains to the occupational folklore of potters and various forms of oral narratives. Among his works of particular value are his field studies concern- ing urban legends conducted in Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Mongolia, reports from which were published in the “FOAFtale News” bulletin, and research on memoirs connected with the Holocaust, published in the book O tym nie wolno mówić... Zagłada Żydów w opowieściach wspomnieniowych ze zbiorów Dionizjusza Czubali, 2019 (We Are Not Allowed to Speak about It... The Extermination of the Jews in Memoirs from the Collection of Dionizjusz Czubala). He is the author of numerous monographs and collections of folklorist texts, including: Folklor garn- carzy polskich, 1978 (The Folklore of Polish Potters); Podania i opowieści z Zagłębia Dąbrowskiego. Sto lat temu i dzisiaj, 1984 (Legends and Stories from the Dąbrowa Basin. A Hundred Years Ago and Today); Opowieści z życia. Z badań nad folklorem współczesnym, 1985 (Stories from Life. From Research on Contemporary Folklore); Nasze mity współczesne, 1996 (Our Contemporary Myths); Polskie legendy miejskie. Studium i materiały, 2014 (Polish Urban Legends. Study and Materials).
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Professor Barbara Bieńkowska (1934–2022), among others director of the Institute of Library and Information Science at the University of Warsaw (1981–1987), president of the Polish Bibliological Society (1989–2003, since 2003 honorary president of PTB), member and chairwoman of the scientific and program councils of many scientific institutions and editorial boards, left behind more than 170 articles and books. Among them, there is no shortage of publications of fundamental importance to the development of Polish bibliology, to its achievements, theory and methodology. This article focuses on B. Bieńkowska’s studies of the history of Polish books and historical book collections, research on the losses of Polish libraries during World War II, as well as the scientific registration and documentation of Polish and Polonia’s collections and Polish writing collections remaining outside Poland.
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The article discusses Hanna Szumańska-Grossowa’s reminiscences about Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński, their personal contacts, the poet’s musical taste, and his alcohol addiction.
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The article discusses an unpublished short manuscript by Władysław Stanisław Reymont. A note placed by the author of The Peasants on a ball ticket from 1922 constitutes a starting point for the reconstruction of a minor, although particularly interesting, episode from the late period in the artist’s life.
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The prose work of the Polish exile writer Bronisław Świderski, who has been living in Denmark since 1970, explores strangeness – an important topic of modern literature. Świderski addresses strangeness not only as an individual experience, but also as a social problem. In this article, I would like to take a closer look at the analysis of foreignness and the psyche of an immigrant in Świderski’s award-winning novel Słowa obcego (1998). From many problems addressed in the novel, which are directly or indirectly connected with strangeness, I want to take out one aspect. At this point I will be interested in the relationship between language (discourse) and strangeness.
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The article discusses Wnętrze by Stanisław Wyspiański, namely the formal and semantic aspects of the poster. The contexts of its interpretation are modern culture, symbolism, Wnętrze – the drama by Maurice Maeterlinck, and its theatrical production that was directed by Tadeusz Pawlikowski at the Municipal Theatre in Cracow. The formal characteristics of Wyspiański’s poster is shown with its reference to the poster, the playbill and the placard, and in relation to the correspondence of literature, fine arts and the theatre. The article points to the innovativeness of Wnętrze in Wyspiański’s artistic output, in the cultural life of Cracow at the turn of the 20th century, and also in the development of the correspondence of arts.
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Zofia Nałkowska’s drama Dom kobiet (1930) is an ambiguous, multi-threaded and complex work. Dom kobiet can be read in various ways, i.e. as a moral, moral, psychological and even reflective-philosophical drama. It is a testimony of the writer's struggle not only with the patriarchal system and an attempt to settle accounts with male-female relations contained in the “bad love” formula, but it is also a work about the past, which becomes a trap for the protagonists of the drama. However, the most important considerations in this drama concern the relativity of interpersonal relations. The other person will always remain a mystery. Ultimately, Nałkowska's drama presents itself as a story about the impossibility of knowing the truth about another person and the world. Its meaning is deeply pessimistic. In this way Dom kobiet gains a philosophical dimension.
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This article discusses Michał Choromański’s novel Zazdrość i medycyna. I focus on the category of reflective thinking, which is fundamental for a genre of psychological novel. First, I discuss the reception of the novel and recall the most important interpretations. Second, I describe a theory of British Psychoanalyst Wilfred Ruprecht Bion and its elements (alpha function and beta function, reverie). In Bion’s theory, these elements are necessary in the process of thinking to reformulate primitive drives into elements of thinking. Third, I use some categories of Bion’s theory to interpret the novel. The analyses show that the protagonists, Wismar and tamten, are not capable of creative thinking – i.e. reflection – in their lives. In short: they don’t think. In effect, subconscious, unprocessed drives cause their madness.
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The following article is closely connected with the time category explained on the example of contemporary Russian literature. On the one hand, the writers “complete” the past when the censorship prohibited the publication of books inconsistent with the politics of communist party. On the other hand, they show possibilities of art development in the future. The symbols immortalizing time are said to be values dealing with Religion and Art, understood widely as literature, music, painting, photography… It thus appears that pieces of art are often the best documents. Religion and art connect generations who hand down beauty, good and truth to their descendants, using different achievements of culture and civilization. In this way, time becomes one of the most valuable existential values.
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This article aims to present the issues related to the situation of the Polish language in the Vilnius Region, discussed in the "Przegląd Wileński" in the years 1921–1938. The conducted analysis showed that the weekly devoted a lot of space to issues related to the use of Polish as the mother tongue, especially in relation to the national identity of the inhabitants of the Vilnius Region. The issues related to the correctness of the Polish language used in the Vilnius Region were discussed, and articles about the Vilnius dialect and texts imitating this language variety were also published. The topics related to proper names were undertaken, especially surnames and place names.
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