Gry cyfrowe wkraczają do kanonu lektur szkolnych (Recenzja: „This War of Mine”, prod. 11 bit studios, 2014)

Author(s): Eleonora Teresa Imbierowicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

This War of Mine, a critically acclaimed game by 11 bit studios, is the first game to be on the list of supplementary school readings in Poland. The game released in 2014 is an anti-war narrative built around the story of a group of civilians trying to survive the war in Pogoren, city based on wartorn Sarajevo. The game is unique in its mechanics as well as in its serious treatment of death and suffering, but can also be played for pleasure and in that matter is not moralistic, but entertaining. It is an ideal game to offer young people, both as a means of developing their sensitivity and as an encouragement to seek pleasure in experiencing narratives. However, it also fits with other school readings on the cruelty of war, and thus there is a risk it will be used as other texts have been — as a story to make teenagers think about war as a formative experience which makes one a true Pole.

Ucieleśniona percepcja filmowych gier umysłowych (Recenzja: Barbara Szczekała, „Mind-game films. Gry z narracją i widzem”, Narodowe Centrum Kultury Filmowej w Łodzi, Łódź 2018, ss. 319.)

Author(s): Iga Pękala / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The article reviews Barbara Szczekała’s publication The Mind-Game Films: Plating with Narration and the Viewer. It contains an analysis of subsequent parts of the monograph; special emphasis was placed on the perception of the films and special emphasis was places on the perception of the films and concepts of theoreticians dealing with this topic (for example, Thomas Elsaesser).

Акакий Бакрадзе, „Укрощение литературы”, Тбилиси: Государственный музей Грузинской литературы им. Г. Леонидзе, 2019, c. 350.

Author(s): Giorgi Tavadze / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1/2020

Тамара Марценюк, „Чому не варто боятися фемінізму”, red. Оксана Кісь, Комора, Kijów 2018, ss. 328.

Author(s): Aniela Radecka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

De postkoloniale geschiedenis in polyfonie

Author(s): Judyta Kuznik / Language(s): Dutch Issue: 1/2021

This article focuses on the book Het andere postkoloniale oog, edited by Michiel van Kempen and published in 2020 by the publishing house Verloren. This book had the goal to present never before mentioned aspects of the colonial history of the Netherlands and its influence on cultural practices of the colonised cultures within the last four centuries. Because of the numerous contributions amassed there, the article discusses in depth only a few. These contributions distinguished themselves either through an original academic approach to the topic or the positioning with regard to postcolonial theories usage. The first part of this book involves the need for the re-evaluation of the Dutch colonial history in many parts of the world, to name Suriname as an example. This re-evaluation is highly relevant, as is comes in a time when recent social movements push the mostly unknown parts of the Dutch colonial history into the spotlight. In the second part, this is followed by an attempt to answer the question whether postcolonial theories are essential for the writing bound to the colonial history of the Dutch. As is shown by some contributions, postcolonial theories can stimulate new discussions, especially in cases which do not fit the existing theoretical schemes. And yet, it seems that they are not crucial in discussions about the influence between colonised cultures, though their use might prove fruitful. The article closes with an evaluation of the analysed texts.

Op de raaklijn tussen het historische en literaire. Het Vlaamse koloniale proza tot 1960 toegelicht door Luc Renders

Author(s): Bożena Czarnecka / Language(s): Dutch Issue: 1/2021

Publications on Dutch literature about the Belgian Congo that have appeared to date are fragmentary and scattered across scholarly as well as cultural journals, collected volumes, and conference proceedings. There are practically no comprehensive studies on the history of Flemish colonial literature. Koloniseren om te beschaven. Het Nederlandstalige Congoproza van 1596 tot 1960, a recently released book by Luc Renders, aspires to redress this gap in research. Renders’ book can be considered the first as wide-ranging and detailed literary-historical exploration of pre-1960 colonial literature, which is presented against an extensive historical background. Crucially, Renders not only compiles the existing research on colonial writings in Dutch, but also contributes to it in an important way.

The devil in the human form and related matters: A handful of remarks

Author(s): Magdalena Wolf / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2021

The aim of the article is to present the book by Małgorzata Dowlaszewicz Diabeł w legendzie. Wyobrażenie diabła antropomorficznego w średniowiecznej literaturze niderlandzkiej, published in 2020. The researcher analyzed the anthropomorphic devil figure on the basis of two collections of exemplars and legends Gulden legende and Der Byen Boeck, translated into Middle Dutch from Latin. The research results were presented in the broad context of medieval Dutch literature.

Hoe benader je directheid? Het belang van culturele variatie

Author(s): Katarzyna Wiercińska / Language(s): Dutch Issue: 1/2021

In this contribution we review Directness and Indirectness Across Cultures by Karen Grainger and Sara Mills. We believe that this publication will help resolve many theoretical questions and doubts regarding intercultural communication, which is a sensitive matter within the field of extramural Dutch studies. What most NT2 or NVT teachers will probably have to deal with sooner or later is a discussion about Dutch directness. It seems that it has become a notorious stereotype which the students often bring to class.

Een schrijver verdwaald in het massamedialand

Author(s): Bożena Czarnecka / Language(s): Dutch Issue: 1/2021

The mass media are a prominent actor in the current debate on literature. In many ways, they contribute to defining its terms and settings, including what is said, whose voice is deemed valid/legitimate, and how it is all done/expressed. The mass media no longer merely mediate; rather, they produce views on and assessments of writers and their work. In his book De literatuur draait door. De schrijver in het mediatijdperk (2019), Sander Bax discusses selected cases of the media presence of well-known Dutch authors and their books to offer an insightful and accurate exploration of the ways in which the mass media influence the debate on literature and literature itself.

Hoe God aanwezig is in het werk van Maarten ’t Hart

Author(s): Hans Beelen / Language(s): Dutch Issue: 1/2022

Maarten ’t Hart is widely regarded as the prototypical Dutch author who has left his Orthodox Reformed background behind. Yet religion is present throughout his work. In her dissertation Religion im Werk von Maarten ’t Hart (2022), German theologian Christina Bickel describes the playful manners in which ’t Hart deals with religion as an inspiring way to open the mind of modern man to transcedental reflections. Her interdisciplinary approach combining literary analysis, theological hermeneutics and homiletics, offers a surprising example of the reception of a Dutch author within a foreign cultural context.

Geeraerts onttroond. Het beeld van de Vlaamse postkoloniale Congoliteratuur volgens Renders

Author(s): Bożena Czarnecka / Language(s): Dutch Issue: 1/2022

There are practically no comprehensive studies on the history of Flemish postcolonial literature.A new book by Luc Renders, which was published in 2021 under the title De mislukking van debeschavingsmissie. Het Nederlandstalige Congoproza van 1960 tot 2020 and is a continuation ofKoloniseren om te beschaven. Het Nederlandstalige Congoproza van 1596 tot 1960 (2019), aspiresto fill this gap. Renders’ pioneering work is the very first such detailed exploration of Flemish postcolonialliterature. Here, Renders provides a subjective view of postcolonial literature in Dutch, andestablishes his own hierarchy of what is valuable and important in this literature. One of his mostinteresting (and controversial) reevaluations concerns the work of Jef Geeraerts and the status ofthis writer within the postcolonial Flemisch literature about the Congo.

Vechtend met woorden en melodie. Het lied als protestmiddel in Nederland

Author(s): Joanna SKUBISZ / Language(s): Dutch Issue: 1/2022

In scientific research in the Netherlands, there is not yet a publication fully dedicated to contemporary Dutch-language protest songs. Laurens Ham’s book Op de vuist. Vijftig jaar politiek en protestliedjes in Nederland, published in 2020, is therefore pioneering. It shows Dutch protest music and its relationship to the changing political and social situation in the Netherlands over a period of fifty years, that is, from the 1960s to the first two decades of the 21st century.

AGNIESZKA MAŁOCHA, Uniwersytet Wrocławski [rec.], Jolanta Szpyra-Kozłow-ska, „Nianiek”, „ministra” i „japonki”. Eseje o języku i płci, Universitas, Kraków 2021, ss. 495.

Author(s): Agnieszka Małocha-Krupa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

Waldemar Czachur, “Lingwistyka dyskursu jako integrujący program badawczy”, Oficyna Wydawnicza „Atut” — Wrocławskie Wydawnictwo Oświatowe, Wrocław 2020, ss. 313

Author(s): Krzysztof Matyjasik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

Widmo Chopina krąży po Warszawie

Author(s): Łukasz Piaskowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

Pejzaż myśli. Warszawa Chopina i początek polskiej nowoczesności [A landscape of thoughts: Chopin’s Warsaw and the beginning of Polish modernity] by Michał Kuziak is a book combining the values of a scholarly work and a work whose main task is to popularise knowledge both about Frédéric Chopin himself and about the world that surrounded him and that shaped him. The dissertation is not only the context for the composer’s life; it is also part of a broader stream of research on the beginnings of Polish modernity. The book is therefore about Warsaw understood not only as the place where young Frédéric grew up, but also as the area where the foundations of Polish modernity were laid. Chopin functioned in a kind of intellectual melting pot within which there was a conflict between tradition and modernity, between progress and conservatism. The author precisely delineates the chronological framework within which he moves. These are the years 1810–1830, that is, the first 20 years of the composer’s life. However, the book does not only focus on the person of Chopin, so it is not “Chopin-centric.” The work consists of three parts, each of them marked with a significant title: 1. “City and people”; 2. “Institutions and people”; 3. “Thoughts and people.” This arrangement is a good example of the author’s main idea: to show Chopin among people, and also people within the city, municipal institutions and the thoughts that developed there. For the author of the book, Warsaw was a crucible and a cosmos of thoughts: on the one hand, there is a constant offensive of scientifi c and technical thought related to the Enlightenment tradition, and on the other, the birth of the world of spirit and religion. Polish modernity is an eclectic mixture in which there are still remnants of the noble world, but the foundations of the bourgeois world are also being laid. Kuziak, drawing an image of Warsaw at that time, emphasises the importance of key cultural institutions, such as literary salons and cafés. For Chopin, cafés, where he met with representatives of the contemporary world of literature and poetry, were of particular importance. Warsaw’s intellectual climate, inspired by the French Enlightenment, was giving way more and more to the influences of German culture associated with Romanticism. Kuziak writes that the modernity of the Romantic type was shaped by German culture. He regards the considerations of Kazimierz Brodziński and Maurycy Mochnacki as the two largest projects of modern Polish identity. Importantly, both of these authors were closely associated with the Polish musical culture which the young Chopin absorbed. The author of the book makes a reservation that it is difficult to conclusively confi rm what influence the institutional and intellectual shape of Warsaw at that time had on Chopin. He states with certainty that Chopin’s trips outside the city, and thus getting to know Masovian folklore, had a decisive impact on his imagination. The book does not, however, determine how the then Warsaw shaped the composer’s later life. The author brilliantly reconstructed the background on which Chopin’s shadow moved, but he chose not to answer the most important question: did the city, people, institutions and intellectual climate ultimately form the composer’s modern world view? This question remains open.

Poezja, która stawia opór

Author(s): Krzysztof Garczarek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The article is a review of the monograph by Aleksandra Zasępa Od surrealizmu do poezji symbolu. Tendencje artystyczne w twórczości poetyckiej Janusza Stycznia published in 2017. The author, recognising the value of the first scholarly study of Styczeń’s work, pays attention to the shortcomings and inaccuracies found in the book, including: expressing judgments that are insufficiently scientifically founded, incorrect methodological approach, leaving the terms used without definitions, gaps in the subject literature. The author states that the reviewed monograph is characterised by relative scientific correctness; however, the statements formulated by the researcher are too superficial.

Życie kobiet — więźniarek wobozie Auschwitz- -Birkenau

Author(s): Arkadiusz Kurek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

The book by Halina Rusek Koleżanki z Birkenau. Esej o pamiętaniu [Friends from Birkenau: An essay on remembering] published by the University of Silesia is a kind of diary about the life of women in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The author describes the fate of her mother and her friends confined in one of the most horrific war camps. This publication, apart from descriptions and memories of female prisoners, contains original letters and photographs collected by families, which allows the reader to refer to the past more directly. The book was divided by the author into chapters which intensify the women’s experiences: from pre-war times through the war period to regaining freedom and returning to their family homes. Reading the book, one gets to know the early life of young girls who were unexpectedly captured and transported to the concentration camp. Their fates are intertwined with the struggle for existence, forced labour, camp experiences and the anticipated freedom. Important throughout the book is the documentation collected by the families of the prisoners. Post-war letters, mutual contacts, feelings and family memories make the reader feel close to the characters. The author tries to describe the lives of girls coming from different regions of Poland, whose fates were intertwined with each other. The book shows different ways in which the female prisoners were treated, based on their nationalities. In an attempt to make camp life more real for the reader, the author refers to prison correspondence. Halina Rusek’s publication shows young readers how important it is to remember the past and what concentration camps were.

Usłyszeć ciszę

Author(s): Alan Tomasz Brzyski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

Richard Rohr is one of the most recognizable Franciscan preachers of our time. Even though he could be described as hermit, he did not choose to live in total isolation, neither form the world, nor from people. He is an active preacher in his religious community, as well as the author of more than thirty books that have been translated into several languages. In all of his published works one could notice his innovative method of contemplative spirituality, inspired by various schools of thought: Buddhism, Hinduism, Gandhi’s teachings, but also by Thomas Merton. In the book discussed in this review, the author suggests that silence is not a state of inertia, but rather an encouragement to action. To describe silence as a “form of intelligence” is to confirm its status as an excellence that could only be find in creative acts.

Czuły narrator, czuły czytelnik. Kilka uwag o literackim świecie Olgi Tokarczuk na podstawie Czułego narratora

Author(s): Adrianna Graca / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

Olga Tokarczuk’s Czuły narrator is composed of twelve essays written at different stages of her life. In one of them she presents her original concept of ognosis. It denotes a striving for a holistic approach to all areas of life. The writer also introduces the category of a tender narrator who tells a story while emphatizing with all living or unliving beings, thus viewing (and presenting) the world from different points of view. Tokarczuk also speaks about the great importance of literary fi ction and her method of writing stories. She tackles important social issues such an animal rights and social exclusion. Her works teach us to be more attentive and tender readers. And in the Nobel Prize acceptance speech, she presents her own, subjective diagnosis of the contemporary world.

Grzegorz Pełczyński, „Michał Kryspin Pawlikowski o narodach z obszaru Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego”

Author(s): Jacek Nowakowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021