The Necessary Otherness: Meditation on
Rafał Wojasiñski’s Novella “Stara” Cover Image

Нужната другост. Размисли върху „Старата“ на Рафал Вояшински
The Necessary Otherness: Meditation on Rafał Wojasiñski’s Novella “Stara”

Author(s): Pavel Petrov
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature
Published by: Великотърновски университет „Св. св. Кирил и Методий”
Keywords: otherness; saint; exaltation; contemplation; divine election; marginal

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents a critically informed reading of Polish writer Rafał Wojasiñski’s novella “Stara”: the first of his texts to be translated into Bulgarian in 2014. The reading focuses on the novella’s main character in an attempt to shed light on those aspects of his outlook which problematize the Cartesian “Cogito ergo sum” and Christian logocentrism. The analysis takes into account key differences between Polish and Bulgarian interpretations of the text, which are mostly due to the important role of religion in Polish society. Attention is also paid to certain dichotomies, which characterize relations between the nameless central character and his environment, such as logocentrism vs. visiocentrism, humility vs. divine election, and exaltation vs. asceticism.

  • Issue Year: 25/2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 398-407
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Bulgarian