O niewyrażalności w Sonetach krymskich Adama Mickiewicza

Author(s): Piotr Pochel / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article engages the heretofore unexplored problem of inexpressibility in theSonety krymskie on the basis of the methodological remarks of Edward Balcerzan. Inthe Crimean cycle of poems the author seeks signals of inexpressibility which he attemptsto functionalise. Moreover, the author discusses the mysteries (inter alia the“lampa Akermanu,” the interjection “Aa!”), which heretofore have not been solved bythe researchers. He also reflects upon the subject of Romanticist cognition in the sonnetcycle.

„już ostygł w poezji” – „Nienawidzę go” – „podałem mu rękę – i teraz jesteśmy razem” Mickiewicz w listach Słowackiego

Author(s): Albert Walczak / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article presents the image of Adam Mickiewicz which is contained in thecorrespondence of Juliusz Słowacki. The publication demonstrates that Słowacki’s attitude toward Mickiewicz underwent a constant evolution. At the beginning the young poet sought understanding with the “first bard” exclusively in the field of literature; he wanted to learn Mickiewicz’s opinion about his work and to meet him. However, in the subsequent years Słowacki indulged in more and more daring comments (also in ones which went beyond the sphere of literature) in reference to the creator of Pan Tadeusz and at the same time he desired to level the literary distance between them. What is important is that in Słowacki’s epistolography there is reflected a dramatic change which the poet underwent in reference to the acquaintance with the ideological programme of the Koło Sprawy Bożej, which also influenced the relation of the “second bard” with Mickiewicz. Moreover, the article also directs the reader’s attention to the ways in which Słowacki’s statements about Mickiewicz are constructed, inter alia about the careful choice of vocabulary and the peculiar arrangements of passages concerning the adversary against the background of a given letter.

Godzina myśli wymarzona w duszy Słowackiego w kontekście jego fascynacji światem Calderóna

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

The article is an attempt at an analysis of Godzina myśli (The Hour of Thought) as a text which is a point of departure in the discussion of a creative parallel between the work of Pedro Calderón and Juliusz Słowacki – a theme which was frequently engaged.The hour of thought i.e. “the most beautiful dream of the imagination” of the poet reveals the fundamental role of the imagination in the images created by this poet. It is the imagination which imposes on him specific – ideal – spaces as well as details. It presents Słowacki as a visionary and the great master of the word who saw through the eyes of his own fantasy the images of the author of El príncipe constante. Moreover, he felt those images as if he created them himself.Słowacki is the “visualiser” type who paints with words, similarly as Calderón who idealises images. The Spaniard’s point is – above all – to present reality “as he dreamt it in his soul.” It seems that it is exactly idealisation, imagination and sympathy that constitute the fundamental point of departure in the discussion about the creative analogy between the Pole and the Spaniard.

Cyganeria warszawska a proces kształtowania się nowoczesnego rynku czytelniczego

Author(s): Agnieszka Ścieszka-Bajura / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article engages the problems of the role of the Cyganeria warszawska in theprocess of the formation of the modern readership market. It presents the influence of the members of this group upon the mentality‑related changes and upon the developmentof literature toward democratisation and modernisation of the readership market.It proves that the activity of the group was not merely a gaudy spot on the map of the 19th‑century society but that it effectively challenged the existing relations. Forthe cyganie (Bohemians) managed to stir the ossified society not only with their way oflife but also with their literature. By deriding the lack of authenticity and the hypocrisy of inter‑human relations they contributed to the decline of the many‑year tradition of lordly patronage. This form of supporting poets never involved disinterested aid – the cyganie demonstrated that accepting such aid was tantamount to selling oneself and giving up oneself, and they could not bear such a thing.The article also engages the problems of the influence of the members of the Cyganeriawarszawska upon the change in the way the poet was perceived – they managed to combine courage in facing poverty with the solidification of the image of men of letters who rose above the multitude. The question of the way in which the audience – the pillar of the democratic marked – perceived them is also discussed.

„Ręką artysty podwojone, uzupełnione, uprzytomnione obrazy poety”* – Konrad Wallenrod i Grażyna w ozdobnym wydaniu Jana Tysiewicza

Author(s): Dąbrówka Mirońska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The object of analyses contained in the article is the decorative edition of KonradWallenrod and Grażyna of 1851; the author of the editorial concept of this book, the designer of its illustrations and its editor was Jan Tysiewicz. The aim of the argument is to consider how the graphic arts visualise the literary word and also how it interprets, modifies it and how it generates unexpected meanings, which enables the emergence of a common space of reception in which the literary imagination meets the graphical imagination. The problems to which I devote my work are located at the boundary of two main disciplines: the history of literature and the history of art. The question about the primary differences between a text and an illustration as well as the question of introducing an ideological aspect to the visualisations which are put forward by Tysiewicz enabled me to see the general cultural problems and to understand the interpretation of aesthetic values.

Fado po polsku. O portugalskim motywie w tytułach polskich dzieł (nie tylko) literackich (Danilewicz-Zielińska, Stasiuk, Kadłubek, Słabuszewska-Krauze)

Author(s): Magdalena Bąk / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The aim of the text is to examine the way in which the word fado, one of the mostrecognisable keywords of Portuguese culture, was used in the titles of contemporaryPolish texts representing various genres and types of literature. The selection of thetitles as a material for the analysis was determined by the belief (justified by researchworks) that the title constitutes an exceptionally important element of the work, enteringin complex interactions of various kinds with the text of the work.

Obrazki z miasteczka w świetle problemu (z) mimesis O Pelargoniach Zofii Mitosek

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

The subject of analysis in the present study constitutes an autobiographical bookPelargonie by Zofia Mitosek, a literary theorist dealing with, inter alia, the problem of mimesis. In this novel, memories of childhood in a small town were portrayed by presenting the events in the present tense from the point of view of a young child. Yet the relationship between the author and the narrator turns out to be complex, while the simplicity of verbal expressions only feigns the transparency of language in which the reality is to reflect. The understanding of the functions of the narrative strategies employed in Pelargonie is rendered by their investigation in the context of research conceptions of Mitosek. The aim of the article is to demonstrate what constitutes the gist of the book as concerns the subject of the identity of an individual, the specificity of the home town of the author, the post‑warsocio‑political situation, as well as the (re)construction potentiality of literature. The latter may represent the past exclusively by means of fragments, traces, or the configuration of“pictures”, being as much the shards of the mirror of reality as the signs of culturaland narrational codes and the innumerable earlier stories.

„Aż tu dostałem się w potrzask na równej drodze”. Ateologia polityczna Witolda Gombrowicza

Author(s): Piotr Sadzik / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The present article undertakes the reading of the works by Witold Gombrowicz,primarily of Ślub (The Marriage) in the context of the attempts at the critical evaluation of “political theology”, considered as a hidden structure of modernity. Attributing to the notion of “state of emergency” the role of the basic axis around which the writing of the author of Kosmos (Cosmos) continually evolves, the author of the present article thereby attempts to demonstrate that the most important feature of Gombrowicz’s world is the radical obliteration of the clear‑cut boundaries between law and lawlessness, norm and exception, etc. The work by Gombrowicz, making use, among others, of the Baroque drama matrix, in a perfect, although unconscious way, fictionalizes the theoretical remarks of Walter Benjamin fromhis The Origin of German Tragic Drama, and other polemics with the work by Carl Schmitt. Considered from this point of view, the work of the author of Ślub (The Marriage) turns out to be an endeavour to develop different modernity, i.e. such that neither seeks transcendent legitimizations, nor trusts immanent, radical disenchantment.On this basis one could also discern the trace of “postsecular” ethical moment, which seems to constantly haunt the writings of Gombrowicz. Taking into account the fact that the task of disarming the political‑theological doctrine constitutes one of the most important elements of philosophical projects of such thinkers as Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Derrida, or Roberto Esposito, the writing of Gombrowicz appears to be still a remarkably valid, fascinating, and insufficiently recognized philosophical project.

Cyberprzestrzeń i atomizacja. Teoretycznoliterackie glosy na tle nowoczesnej science fiction

Author(s): Piotr Kruszewski / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The aim of the present article is to familiarize the reader with the rich history ofmodern science‑fiction literature written since the 1980s, and to demonstrate how the development and the perception of this kind of writing are intrinsically linked with the literary‑theory work carried out “on the side” by the authors of fantasy fiction. The starting point is the analysis and interpretation of Czarne Oceany (Black Oceans) by Jacek Dukaj, and discussing this work in order to proceed to a wider description of a cultural phenomenon which is cyberpunk. The broadening of research perspective also leads to a conclusion that the work of a science‑fiction writer and the work of a literary theorist (or, as in the case of William Gibson, pop‑culture) are two overlapping areas, still dependent upon each other. Further on, there are considerations concerning the association between the work “on theside” and the strictly literary one based on Polish speculative fiction, accompanied with demonstrating the specificity of Polish science‑fiction writings. The article concludes with an attempt at answering the question about the source of artistic value of cyberpunk and its timelessness, about this which makes this genre so rich and valuable – both a few decades ago and today.

Henryk Sienkiewicz jako teoretyk powieści historycznej

Author(s): Michał Nikodem / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

In my article, in accordance with the idea of looking at metaliterary work of authors done “on the side”, I consider the paper O powieści historycznej (On historical novel) by Henryk Sienkiewicz. I begin my considerations with referring to earlier studies on the problem (Żabski, Bujnicki) and treating them as a point of reference for my own analysis. Reading “seriously” the theoretical assumptions postulated by Sienkiewicz, which can be identified also in his literary practice, I have discovered unobvious connections and ideas of the Polish Noble‑prize winner that are convergent with the findings put forward by contemporary literary theorists, such as Hayden White or Roland Barthes. I also look on the scientistic language used by the Polish writer (references to Cuvier), as well as on the traces of romantic heritage that are visible in his paper (the countries of North and South, quotingShakespeare). Another important aspect for me is creating the ideal reader as projectedby Sienkiewicz and pointing to a diary as an important source for the writers of a historical novel. The reconstruction of Sienkiewicz’s views on human nature that I undertake on the basis of various remarks scattered about the text might also be interesting for the readers of the present article. I also point out to the functions that the Noble‑prize winner attributes to literature and to historical novels. My article, therefore, in a short and concise form, gathers and discusses the postulates of Henryk Sienkiewicz concerning the historical novel, and become a point of departure for further studies on the work of this Polish writer.

The Trojan War from Rome to New Rome: The reception of Dictys of Crete’s Ephemeris Belli Troiani in Ioannes Malalas’ Chronicle

Author(s): Adam J. Goldwyn / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

La réception de l’étymologie dans le commentaire d’Eustathe au chant VI de l’Iliade

Author(s): Georgia E. Kolovou / Language(s): French Publication Year: 0

‘Nationalist’ discourse and the political myth in the Memoranda of Georgios Gemistos Plethon

Author(s): Tomasz Labuk / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Never trust an actor: The spectacle of dying mimes & mock baptisms in late antiquity

Author(s): Andrew Walker White / Language(s): English Publication Year: 0

Φιλολογωτάτη ψυχή – rozprawa gramatyczna przypisywana Teodorowi Prodromosowi i jej adresat

Author(s): Andrzej Wilanowski / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Tragiczne i komiczne konteksty terminu Świętej Inkwizycji w polskim romantyzmie. Jeszcze o Auto‑da‑fé. Komedii w jednym akcie i jednej scenie Cypriana Norwida

Author(s): Marek Piechota / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Had it not been for Romantic poets, the term auto‑da‑fé, which originated from Portuguese and is invariably connected with the institution of Inquisition, would probably be linked in our culture only with Spain. However, Romantic contexts of this term show various associa tions. Mickiewicz refers to it without exception in a serious and tragic mood, fitting patriotic‑martyrological circumstances that heroise his characters. Słowacki enriches it with irony and auto‑irony that may approach the comic, treating auto‑da‑fé as a metaphor for burning his own or – in the textual world – fictional writings. Similarly, Krasiński makes reference to the hypothetical annihilation of his manuscripts. Finally, Norwid turns to parody and proposes its allegorical interpretation to draw attention to the nineteenth century crisis of readership.

Komizm Pamiątek Soplicy Henryka Rzewuskiego

Author(s): Ewelina Giżka / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The purpose of this article is to discuss the comic of Pamiątki Soplicy [The Memoirs of Soplica] by Henryk Rzewuski. The comic effect evoked here is most prominent in the description of particular characters. To create Soplica, the author refers to the comic of a naive person, whose worldview is one‑sided, the comic of the difference between the appearance and the reality and the comic of contrast between temperaments of his protagonists. He also humorously rehabilitates some historically and morally controversial figures, such as Mikołaj Potocki, Karol Radziwiłł and Priest Marek. Rzewuski creates verbal humour through repetition, language mixing and robust comments of the narrator. Situational humour, although limited, is enriched with the context of manners. The article underscores also the comic value of the anecdotes that appear in the text, connected with the war, the law, hunting, and social life, with particular emphasis placed on their role in shaping the characters of magnates (Radziwiłł and Potocki). It also seeks answer to the question of what Rzewuski uses in place of the comic, which in some fragments disappears from the text.

Pan Jowialski w świecie luster. O powtórzeniu jako zasadzie konstrukcyjnej komedii Aleksandra Fredry

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

The article attempts to analyse various forms of repetition and reduplication in Pan Jowialski [Mr. Jovial]. This typical comic device is frequently used by Fredro and in this comedy features particularly often. It takes various forms, including repetition of words, which brings to mind the monomania of the characters, linguistic parodies, characters mirroring other characters, the motive of recreating the extratextual world in a literary world or in a piece of art, and the device mise en abyme, which is evoked in the “play within a play” theme. This dense network of internal reflections contributes to the strongly geometrical composition of the play and, on the level of ideas, to the theoretical reflection on the world as theatre.

Rola symboli w kształtowaniu komizmu i tragizmu w opowiadaniu Aleksandra Grozy Biała róża Pinettiego

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

The article attempts to interpret the symbols used in Aleksander Groza’s short story Biała róża Pinettiego [Pinetti’s White Rose] in terms of the role they play in creating the comic and the tragic effect. Special emphasis is placed on the interpretation of the title, which serves as an introduction to the merging of these aesthetic categories. The author also draws attention to meaningful names, such as Pinetti, Amelia and Daria, and analyses the symbol of cat, whose appearance marks a crucial point in Groza’s story. She refers to a text by another Romantic, The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe, which complements the interpretation of the short story by the Polish writer.The aim is to present in detail the situations depicted in Biała róża Pinettiego [Pinetti’s WhiteRose], which are treated as comic or tragic, but which appear ambiguous after their elements have been interpreted symbolically. This demonstrates that the comic and the tragic blend together.

„Bo na tym świecie Śmierć wszystko zmiecie…”. Tragiczny wymiar maskarad w wybranych utworach literatury romantyzmu

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

According to Mikhail Bakhtin, in Romanticism the ludic element of the mask blurs. The mask gains a number of new meanings, at the same time losing its associations with rebirth, characteristic of folk culture, and acquiring a new, gloomy expression. This article traces this gloomy and tragic aspect of masquerades as presented in Romanic literature. The analysis is based on three texts: Mikhail Lermontov’s Masquerade, Juliusz Słowacki’s Jan Bielecki and Antoni Malczewski’s Maria. The motif of masquerade, present in all three works, is discussed both from the perspective of the theory of literature and with reference to the cultural contexts of the mask.