William Morris’s Dream of John Ball and the Victorian Vision of Medieval History

Author(s): Joanna Bukowska / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The paper analyses the representation of the fourteenth century Peasant Revolt in William Morris’s Dream of John Ball. Like many Victorian social and religious polemics Morris sets the idealised vision of the Middle Ages in contrast to the overall degeneration of the nineteenth century world. His idealisation of the medieval world is, however, very selective and he calls for more radical changes than suggested by Victorian social reformers. Morris extolls the superiority of medieval craftwork, which for him constitutes a proof that feudalism was a less tyrannical system than capitalism and, yet, exposes the oppressive character of the medieval social system. Looking at the rebellion of 1381 from a historical distance, he exposes its limitations and does not rewrite its achievement into a story of success but rather chooses to praise the very effort which the medieval non-ruling community exhibited in standing up against the powerful establishment, as well as the rebels’ heroic determination and a sense of fellowship. Morris’s visionary account of the major uprising of the medieval third estate brings into focus the issue of social oppression and exposes these aspects of class struggle which Morris considers desirable. Morris places, thus, the medieval events of 1381 in a larger perspective of mankind’s struggle for freedom and presents the Peasant Revolt as a forerunner of the social revolution, which he considers as a necessary answer to capitalist practices of his own times.

Strukturalno-semantyczna analiza słownictwa z komponentem nazwy barwy złotej w lirykach Leopolda Staffa (część trzecia)

Author(s): Mirosława Białoskórska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2016

An analysis of the material shows that the poet used such techniques of creating adjectival,substantive and verbal derivatives with a component of a golden color that made it possible toexpress:a) a degree of subduing or intensifying the color (gradual adjectives: goldish (Polish: złotawy),pale gold (Polish: bladozłoty);b) the essence of the colour in relation to an accompanying noun (for example, qualitative adjectives:golden/amber (Polish: złocisty), super golden/amber (Polish: przezłocisty);c) the phenomenon of a color state (using verbs that describe a state: to gild, to shine like gold,to take on a golden colour [złocić, złocić się, ozłacać, rozzłocić]; verbal nouns: złocenie);d) a degree of metamorphosing of synthetic adjectival-substantive forms instead of nominal groups (for example, złotowłosy ‘with golden hair (golden-haired)’, złocistokłosy ‘of golden spikes (ears of grain)’, złotobramny ‘of/with (a) golden gate(s)’;e) adjectives containing two colors (for example, zielonozłoty golden green, modro-złoty‘golden (dark) blue’, krwawozłoty ‘golden blood-red’, złotopłowy ‘golden tawny’);which affected the economy of his poetic expression. Thanks to the above-mentioned techniques the poet created a colorful language to describe animated and inanimate nature; he provided positively valorized descriptions of golden hair of some characters and the beauty of the artefacts that create material culture of the people.

Revisiting the fairy land: Anne Sexton’s transformation of the Grimms’ female characters

Author(s): Paulina Korzeniewska-Nowakowska / Language(s): English Issue: 03 (10)/2015

Anne Sexton’s vivid and scandalous literary heritage has always been arousing controversy mostly due to its confessional character. It is, however, underestimated that one of the sources of her poetic inspirations was a broadly defined European culture and tradition, including the Grimms’ fairy tales. This article strives to inquire how Sexton revisits narratives of canonical tales with special regard to female protagonists. An apparent discrepancy will be shown between the two versions in terms of poetic imagery, character construction, and the reality in which they are firmly anchored. The morals drawn from the poems markedly diverge from the original versions, for it is with pessimism and disillusionment that Sexton transforms the naïve and sentimental images. The applied adaptation, hence, serves here to articulate the conflict between the traditional, male-centered set of values and a feminist perspective. The poems’ structures, literary figures, cultural references, features of genre, and other elements will be examined and analyzed to compare the retold stories with their archetypes and to provide a detailed interpretation in the light of the addressed problems.

The Development of the Protagonist in Rudolfo Anaya’s Chicano Bildungsroman Bless Me, Ultima

Author(s): Kinga Maria Mioduszewska / Language(s): English Issue: 03 (10)/2015

The main aim of this article is to examine the psychological and emotional development of the protagonist of Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima, a book which is perceived as a prime example of Chicano Bildungsroman. First, I concentrate on providing brief theory about the sub-genre of Bildungsroman and on Chicano literature to situate Anaya’s novel within these contexts. A considerable part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the protagonist’s family background and school environment, which signify the influences of Mexican and American culture in his life. Finally, the motifs of war, violence and death are discussed as significant factors contributing to the protagonist’s coming of age.

Against dechoukaj: the trauma of Haiti in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker

Author(s): Anna Maria Karczewska / Language(s): English Issue: 04 (11)/2015

Diaspora writers add to a long American literary tradition of engaging with political issues, a rich body of literature focused on themes of occupation, persecution, dictatorship, repression and trauma. This paper focuses on a political protest in the form of personal narrative of Haitians whose forgotten or ignored stories were reinscribed by Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat in The Dew Breaker (2004). The paper examines the representation of Haiti’s history and the collective experience of violence and trauma during the Duvaliers’ dictatorship, and revisits the terror instilled by a paramilitary police – the Tonton Macoutes. In The Dew Breaker Danticat offers a compelling portrait of individuals haunted by pain, trauma and loss. Their stories function as a testimony of the generations of Haitians who experienced abuses and atrocities committed during the era of “Papa Doc” and “Baby Doc”. The book presents the effects of trauma on the individuals and the community, shows what is destroyed by trauma and offers solutions to deal with the traumatic experience. The aim of the paper is to analyze how The Dew Breaker gives a unique access to Haitian history, how it deals with its legacy of violence, how the subaltern articulate their traumas and how literature creates a voice for victims of political violence and psychological terror.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Portrayal of Femininity and Its Transformations in Subsequent Adaptations

Author(s): Weronika Łaszkiewicz / Language(s): English Issue: 04 (11)/2015

The aim of the following paper is to examine the portrayal of female characters and femininity in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Since Tolkien’s heroines have been both praised and severely criticized, this paper will, first of all, investigate and recapitulate the arguments in favor and against Tolkien’s depiction of women. Secondly, it will be argued that the ambiguity surrounding these fictional characters stems from the writer’s private relationship with women. Finally, the paper will analyze how Tolkien’s ambiguous female characters have fared in various adaptations of his works, particularly in the cinematic versions produced by Peter Jackson and in fan-made art.

“Birds have Proustian capacity for making remembrance” – a post-pastoral reading of John Lewis-Stempel’s Meadowland and the question of anthropomorphising animals

Author(s): Anna Dziok-Łazarecka / Language(s): English Issue: 01 (12)/2016

The article proposes discussion of John Lewis-Stempel’s Meadowland (2015) developed along two perspectives. One is the post-pastoral reading as suggested by Terry Gifford. He offers a contemporary interpretative mode that draws from both the rich history of British pastoral and countryside writing and from recent ecocritical devices. Additionally, this paper aims to point out the manifold functions of anthropomorphism and presents it as the longestablished strategy of making sense of the ‘outer’ nature. Both animating non-humans in literary representation and post-pastoral depiction of British countryside prevail to be an expression of spatial proximity, and apparently an indispensable prerequisite for co-existence, for sharing material place. Far from causing confusion or misunderstanding, anthropomorphisation has an enduring power of organizing human experience and expressing interconnectedness. In historical terms, it remains a fact that people have always responded to the natural world, and that they have seen animals respond as well, thus turning them into agents.

Polysemy in language and thought

Author(s): Siergiej Grinev-Griniewicz / Language(s): English Issue: 01 (12)/2016

This paper focuses on the present state of investigation into polysemy, taking into account drawbacks of the existing definitions of this phenomenon. It was found that in Polish and Russian linguistic manuals and encyclopaedias, polysemy as a phenomenon is equalled with a quality for which a new term – polysemantism may be suggested. A brief survey of some of the existing directions in the research of this phenomenon from the point of view of terminology science, translation, terminography and cognition makes it possible to identify some new types of polysemy. A peculiar character of relations between polysemy and homonymy is shown, three sources of polysemy are indicated and such varieties of polysemy as regular polysemy, hyponymic polysemy and consubstantivety are revealed. In translation we come across interlingual hidden polysemy. The development of terminography leads to discovering artificial polysemy and misleading polysemy which are causes of spoiling quality of both dictionaries and translation. In cognition evolution research anthropolinguistic studies made it possible to discover diachronic hidden polysemy of the early words. There are reasons to believe that the development of cognition is based on and results in eliminating this type of hidden polysemy. The resulting tentative classification of types of polysemy reflects progress in investigating this phenomenon and may be used in further research.

Race, space and post-colonial landscape in Bernard Malamud’s The Tenants

Author(s): Magdalena Klimiuk / Language(s): English Issue: 02 (13)/2016

The following article presents strategies for decolonizing complex ethno-racial and social relationships between Jewish and black characters within a restricted, multifaceted area of a decaying tenement in Bernard Malamud’s The Tenants. This interpretation is concerned with finding features of post-colonial discourse such as the representation of the characters in dichotomous terms: the colonized/colonizer, the observed/the observer, superior/ inferior. It focuses on the analysis of the main characters’ different methods of dominating the ‘space or subjectivity’ of each other through surveillance, mimicry and appropriation.

Why is Kwame Anthony Appiah’s proposal to dismiss the concept of “The West” premature?

Author(s): Stefan Kubiak / Language(s): English Issue: 02 (13)/2016

This paper is a response to Kwame A. Appiah’s article “There is no such thing as western civilisation” published in The Guardian of 9 November 2016. Appiah’s proposal to dismiss the term ‘western civilisation’ seems premature since it is strongly established in the humanities and social sciences. Discussing selected models representing systems of civilisations (Spengler, Koneczny, Toynbee, Huntington) as well as Fernand Braudel’s concept of longue durée history, this paper demonstrates the importance of the term ‘western civilisation’ in academic and political discourses. Moreover, referring to post-colonial studies, it is impossible to avoid the term because without it, any discussion on the colonial and post-colonial reality would be devoid of substance.

Parallaxes as Means of Organizing Memory in Travel Narratives of Patrick Leigh Fermor and Ryszard Kapuściński

Author(s): Grzegorz Moroz / Language(s): English Issue: 02 (13)/2016

This paper offers a comparative analysis of travel narratives of two key contemporary writers: Patrick Leigh Fermor and Ryszard Kapuściński. Fermor’s A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople; From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube (1977), Between the Woods and the Water (1986), and The Broken Road (2015) are compared with Kapuściński’s: Imperium (1993), The Shadow of the Sun (1998), and Travels with Herodotus (2007). The figure of a ‘parallax’ is suggested as being crucial in capturing the key similarities between Fermor’s and Kapuściński’s travel narratives. The differences between these narratives are explained in terms of the differences in developments of Anglophone and Polish travel writing traditions.

Understanding Self and Others: Marriage Scenarios in Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina

Author(s): Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed / Language(s): English Issue: 02 (13)/2016

Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina establish a literary and cultural dialogue through the exploration of the individual’s private space. The two writers are undoubtedly intrigued by a fluid nature of the individual: marriage appears to reveal inner conflicts, doubts, anxieties, as well as longing for happiness. Although pursuing different agendas when indulgingly devising sentimental love stories and outrageous adulteries, Ford and Tolstoy echo each other when delivering their vision of self and other. This essay explores the topos of marriage as an

OBCY, ABSURDALNY ŚWIAT I OBCY SPOGLĄDAJĄCY Z LUSTRA. Motywy obcości w twórczości Alberta Camusa

Author(s): Maciej Kałuża / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The article discusses the sources and the specifi city, as well as the evolution, of the category of ‘estrangement’ in Albert Camus’s writings. In Camus’s early essays the feeling of estrangement is the starting point of philosophical refl ections which manifest the ultimate need to confront the condition in question, in particular in the sphere of human relations. While Camus’s early reflections are inspired by philosophy of existence as well as by the problem of the absurd, he remains faithful to the idea which he articulated already in 1938, in his review of Sartre’s Nausea, that both the experience of the absurd and the accompanying experience of estrangement must be considered as the point of departure for further philosophical refl ection rather than its conclusion. The body of the article comprises a discussion of the most significant turns in Camus’s intellectual confrontation with the category of estrangement in the course of the development of his conception of value-creating revolt. Camus’s intellectual progression shows his conviction that estrangement, at least in the sphere of human relations, may be overcome by way of dialogue.

Litanic Tradition in Of on that is so fayr and bright and the Harley Ms Five Joys of Mary

Author(s): Anna Czarnowus / Language(s): English Issue: 1 (38)/2016

This article discusses the influence of Litanies of the Saints on Middle English ly­rics, which is exemplified by Of on that is so fayr and bright (New Index No. 2645) and Five Joys of Mary from the Harley Miscellany 2253. The influence of liturgy on Middle English poetry is thus confirmed again. The introductory parts of the poem in the vernacular are interspersed with Latin phrases that must have been taken from litanies, which makes the text a representative of the so-called “litanic verse.” Furthermore, events from the Virgin Mary’s life are referred to, which is inspired by the Byzantine Great Akathist hymn. The Great Akathist itself also uses diverse Holy Names of Mary. The Harley Five Joys of Mary must have derived from a similar inspiration, since under the form of chanson d’aventure lies the tradition of the Names of Mary, and the listing of the Joys of Mary also suggests the Great Akathist as a source for the lyric. Recent research on litanic verse in various literatures of Europe throughout the ages includes the term “polyonymic,” which refers to the many names of God, Jesus, and Mary. The Great Akathist also includes the “chairetismic” element of this type of verse, since Mary is addressed with the word “hail.”

Tradycja i rozumienie. Epistemologia hermeneutyczna w „Hyperaspistes I” Erazma z Rotterdamu

Author(s): Jakub Koryl / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1 (38)/2016

The aim of this paper is to present a functional and historical-semantic analysis of the following notions: tradition (traditio), authority (auctoritas), understanding (interpretatio), explanation (sensus), and sensus communis, which appear in the hermeneutics of Erasmus of Rotterdam. In a wider perspective, the study is also an attempt at re-identifying the place of the Dutch scholar’s thought within the history of hermeneutics. Contrary to what has been said to-date in studies (mainly by E.-W. Kohls, R. Stupperich, F. Krüger, and P. Walter), the hermeneutical problem, according to Erasmus, is not restricted only to exegesis or biblical philology, i.e. methods of explaining a text’s meaning. In its basic form, it includes the ontology of hermeneutical experience (disregarded in this context) and the act of understanding, with its initial conditions, course and specific cognitive benefits. Therefore, this paper attempts to answer two fundamental questions. First: how did Erasmus arrive at the universal, historically mediated horizon of the process of understanding? Second, introducing the epistemological dimension, did Erasmus attribute to tradition – by cognitively appreciating it as an element essential for understanding – the ability to reveal a truth that is different to that which is verifiable by objective exegesis? The 20th century hermeneutics of M. Heidegger, H.-G. Gadamer and R. Bultmann provide helpful terminological frames that go beyond the solely methodical character of understanding. The fundamental sources include those of Erasmus’ texts that constituted his polemic with Martin Luther, that is De libero arbitrio, and particularly the first part of Hyperaspistes diatribae adversus Lutherum. Thanks to this choice of literature the contention between the two scholars concerning the freedom of will is here discussed from a barely known epistemological point of view. The next subject discussed is the epistemological character of Erasmus’ hermeneutics. It was supposed to help formulate specific exegetic judgements, while at the same time, it already included historicity (Geschichtlichkeit), which, according to Erasmus, was the imperative feature of understanding perceived as an epistemological-existential act. The next subject discussed is the rhetoric specificity and the cognitive value of the so-called sensus communis, which together with philological skills, constituted the indispensable research equipment of an exegete in Erasmus’ opinion. In the hermeneutical reflection of Erasmus, sensus communis − unlike Luther’s binding judgement (assertio) − is what makes explanation as a result of understanding only probable, not certain, and reveals how the process of understanding depends on a particular situation. Hermeneutical epistemology of Erasmus provides us, therefore, with practical knowledge that constantly includes changing circumstances and so constitutes the basis for sensus communis. Consequently, in Erasmus’ thought, the Christian tradition has a cognitively privileged function of an authority that aids understanding. Thereupon, Erasmus supplements the previously adopted hermeneutical division into the Holy Scripture and its interpretation with an equally important relation between the exegetical tradition applied and the exegete that relies on it. For according to Erasmus, far from obstructing understanding, tradition actually enables it because understanding always retains its historical character. In this regard, Erasmus substantially differs from Luther. Thus, the presented hierarchy of tradition and exegete not only determines the hermeneutical stance of the Netherlandish scholar, but also methodically substantiates his scepticism of a positive epistemological stance. The functional and semantic analysis of the notions of tradition and understanding presents Erasmus’ thought as one of the early elements of the history of hermeneutics that is supposed to consider not only rules and canons of “proper” understanding, but also indicate the historical dependence and the actual process of understanding. Having problematized such cognitive relations between tradition and understanding, Erasmus set off on a similar course to that which had been crowned by H.G. Gadamer’s ontological rehabilitation of prejudices (Vor-urteile).

„Strzały serdeczne z Pisma świętego i ojców świętych zrobione, a od dusze nabożnej ku niebu wypuszczone”. Siedemnastowieczna adaptacja Pia desideria Hermana Hugona z rękopisu lubelskich karmelitanek bosych klasztoru Niepokalanego Poczęcia Najświętsze

Author(s): Anna Nowicka-Struska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2 (39)/2016

Researching the literary output of Polish early modern convents is problematic because what remains of it is dispersed, and the literary culture and reading preferences of 17th Polish nuns have not yet been comprehensively studied. A to-date unknown translation of a fragment of Herman Hugo’s Pia desideria, found in manuscript No. 246 in the Archives of the Discalced Carmelites in Cracow, entitled Strza­ły serdeczne z Pisma świętego i ojców świętych zrobione, a od dusze nabożnej ku niebu wypuszczone, serves as an example here. The manuscript is currently lost. The handwriting indicates the feminine hand of a Discalced Carmelite Sister, Jagnieszka Konstancja od Pana Jezusa Baranka, Iżycka, related to the Immaculate Conception of Holy Mary Convent of Discalced Carmelite Sisters in Lublin, who belonged to the intellectual elite of the Lublin nunnery. Iżycka was a daughter of a Lublin judge, Daniel. She was born on October 25th 1636, took the veil in Lublin in 1653, and died in Poznań on May 27th 1723. The manuscript was probably written on the turn of the 1650s and 1660s, but certainly before 1665. It is known that in order to answer the Carmelite Sisters’ needs, efforts were undertaken to adapt Herman Hugo’s Pia desideria. This is evident from other Lublin relics. This prayer book was a sort of silva rerum (Pl. sylwa) and included various texts, mostly ascetic, but also a few letters of the sisters, translations of texts written by Saint Teresa of Ávila or Saint John of the Cross. Until now, its value for scholars studying the Carmelites was mainly related to the writings penned by charismatic personages of the convent that comprise: Stefan of Saint Teresa (Hieronim Kucharski), Anna of Jesus (Stobieńska), and Teresa Barbara of Eucharist (z Kretkowskich Zadzikowa). A fragment depicting the nuns’ knowledge of and interest in the famous Jesuit work was until recently unnoticed in the manuscript. The manuscript was a kind of private prayer book of a Lublin Carmelite Sister. It belonged to the type of small, personal prayer related notes, very characteristic of Carmelite nuns who solicitously filled them with texts and drawings. On page 509 begins a section entitled: Strzały serdeczne z Pisma świętego i ojców świętych zrobione, a od dusze nabożnej ku niebu wypuszczone (Heart-born arrows made from the Holy Script and Church Fathers, and by a pious soul shot at heaven). It is an adaptation of Herman Hugo’s Pia desideria. It contains a free translation of the main title, the titles of individual books, translations of biblical inscriptions and patristic fragments (one for each emblem). Book one: Wzdychanie dusze pokutującej (The yearning of a soul doing its penance) contains fifteen prose texts that include a biblical motto and a patristic passage. The same number of texts is to be found in book two: Pragnienia dusze świętej (The desires of a saintly soul), and in book three: Wzdychania dusze miełującej Pana Boga (Yearnings of a soul that loves the Lord). The Lublin adaptations of Herman Hugo’s work did not exhaust the sisters’ interest in the Jesuit collection. Printed copies of A.T. Lacki’s Pia desideria (Pobożne pragnienia, Cracow, 1673) preserved in the library of the Cracow convent of Discalced Carmelite Sisters on ul. Kopernika, serves as evidence for this hypothesis.

Tęsknota, znak, dążenie jako momenty bycia w obliczu Boga Ukrytego w myśli Pseudo-Dionizego Areopagity i Blaise’a Pascala

Author(s): Bartosz Bednarczyk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 8/2015

Saint Sébastien: histoire d’une assimilation culturelle

Author(s): Artur Techmański / Language(s): French Issue: 8/2015

The article proposes to review the history of cultural evolution of the image of St Sebastian starting from the 3rd century up till now. The first part of the analysis focuses on the sources of the legend, the original cult of the Saint as well as on its early literary and artistic representations. The following part highlights the metamorphosis of the image of St Sebastian in painting and attempts to clarify how he became a “gay icon” due to being a subject for a safe representation of male nudity. However, even though such perception becomes predominant and enters modern literature as a distinctive sign in LGBT culture, the last part of the study evokes also some other incarnations of the Saint, which seem to reconnect to his primary pattern of meaning.

Gustaw Herling-Grudziński i Sándor Márai u wrót plutonium. Rozważania emigranta-intelektualisty o kondycji cywilizacji europejskiej

Author(s): Daniel Warmuz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 8/2015

Przedmiotem niniejszych rozważań jest fragment diarystycznej twórczości Gustawa Herlinga-Grudzińskiego i Sándora Máraiego poświęcony włoskim spotkaniom z kulturą antyczną i judeochrześcijańskimi źródłami humanistyki europejskiej. Z uwagi na to, że i polski, i węgierski autor zdecydowaną większość życia spędzili poza granicami swoich ojczyzn, a także obaj są uznanymi w Polsce i na Węgrzech pisarzami emigracyjnymi, intelektualne refleksje poświęcone stanowi cywilizacji europejskiej uzupełniam o kontekst losu emigranta. Równocześnie jest to pierwszy w Polsce – a także na Węgrzech – tekst komparatystyczny, który przybliża sylwetki tych dwóch ważnych dla literatury europejskiej XX wieku pisarzy, przez co niniejszy artykuł można traktować również jako przyczynek do większej pracy badawczej.

Wizja kultury europejskiej w wierszu Jeleny Szwarc Pływanie

Author(s): Kristina Woroncowa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 8/2015

Jelena Szwarc (1948–2010) była rosyjską poetką, eseistką i tłumaczką należącą do tak zwanej leningradzkiej drugiej kultury undergroundu. Jej wiersze, ze względu na ich religijny charakter i szokującą dla sowieckiej cenzury stylistykę, nie mogły ukazywać się oficjalnie aż do roku 1989. Były natomiast szeroko rozpowszechniane i przepisywane przez czytelników, dzięki czemu szybko zyskała rozgłos i opinię jednej z najwybitniejszych postaci swojego pokolenia. Między 1974 a 1987 rokiem w samizdacie opublikowano pięć jej książek.