Żeromski and Timetable. The Case of Judym’s Brother’s Wife Cover Image

Żeromski i rozkład jazdy. Przypadek Judymowej
Żeromski and Timetable. The Case of Judym’s Brother’s Wife

Author(s): Wojciech Tomasik
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Stefan Żeromski;railway timetable;Żeromski's biography;Żeromski's letters;"Ludzie bezdomni" ("Homeless People");Żeromski's travel to Switzerland

Summary/Abstract: The article shows the railway timetable significance which may serve for a Żeromski biography researcher. They can be viewed as a valuable source, allowing, inter alia, to complete (and in some cases to rectify) the information found in Żeromski’s letters written during his first trip to Switzerland. The analysis of timetables also sheds new light on the origin of "Ludzie bezdomni" ("Homeless People") and it also shows how important role in the characteristics of the novel’s characters are played by somatic sensations. The novel opens with a scene which exhibits the distress of Tomasz Judym’s looking for shadow and cold in a torrid afternoon. High temperature is also felt later when, having returned from Paris to Warsaw, he decides to visit home and his brother. The presentation of Judym’s brother’s wife fictional trip to Winterthur involves the experience of both: the writer and his wife Oktawia. Żeromski in his novel with naturalistic pedantry sticks to railway reality of which he learned travelling to Switzerland. Quite distinctly, he moves away from that reality in the scene of Judym’s brother’s wife unsuccessful train change while her travel to Switzerland in order to intensify the significance of the picture of the trip hardship meaning which he himself experienced as a seriously ill man.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 5-32
  • Page Count: 28
  • Language: Polish