Komediantka – powieść o emancypacji?
Komediantka – The novel of emancipation?

Summary/Abstract: The text presents an analysis of Władysław Reymont’s novel Komediantka, treating it as a psychological study of a young woman and a commentary on the situation of women in Poland at that time, who were striving for emancipation. I present various earlier interpretations of the work, including those focusing on the environment of actors and philistines, as well as those describing the character of Janka Orłowska (Sztachelska, Zacharska, Nasiłowska, Legutko, Gruchała). Moreover, I discuss the autobiographical context of the novel and Reymont’s innovative use of personal narrative and seemingly indirect speech (Głowiński’s findings), which makes Komediantka not only a work that is an image of the realities of the time, but also an interventionist voice in the issue of female independence. Finally, the article aims to conclude that this novel is rather a study of the “impossibility of emancipation” and a moving story about female ambitions that are blocked and annihilated at various levels of the novel and social narrative.

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