How does the contemporary Polish weird fiction scare us? Cover Image

Czym i w jaki sposób przeraża najnowsza polska literatura weird fiction?
How does the contemporary Polish weird fiction scare us?

Author(s): Katarzyna Trzeciak
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: weird fiction; Grabiński Stefan; Lovecraft H.P.; living dead

Summary/Abstract: The text concerns different strategies of constructing weird fiction by contemporary Polish writers. In two anthologies published in 2013, authors of weird novels reinterpret the classic paradigm of weird fiction (associated with Lovecraft) as well as try to refer it to the present reality. Polish writers, inspired mainly by Stefan Grabiński’s work, use his best known motives, such as weird trains and desolate stations. The second source of inspiration is Poe’s dead subject (from The Facts in the Case of M. Waldemar), who acts as a living one and generates the horror. These inspirations, however, do not help contemporary writers with creating a new paradigm of weird fiction but rather close them in the circle of constant inspirations and dependence on their predecessors.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: 18
  • Page Range: 129-138
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Polish