Polish Mustache. On National Traditions and Personal Preferences in the Works of Henryk Sienkiewicz Cover Image

Polski wąs. O tradycjach narodowych i osobistych upodobaniach w pisarstwie Henryka Sienkiewicza
Polish Mustache. On National Traditions and Personal Preferences in the Works of Henryk Sienkiewicz

Author(s): Dorota Samborska-Kukuć
Subject(s): Polish Literature
Published by: Towarzystwo Literackie im. Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: Henryk Sienkiewicz; history of fashion; masculinity; tradition

Summary/Abstract: In the 19th century facial hair were not a part of a set Polish stereotype, boiling down to an ornament. Mustache connoted masculinity and its features: courage, physical strength, honour, and even social status and wealth. At the end of the 19th century, the fashion for facial hair associated was connected with the need to increase once perceived age and gravity, as well as with bohemian association. Sienkiewicz’s mustache were associated closely with associated with something emblematically Polish, a specific national trademark. The writer has equipped many of his heroes with mustache. The article presents the typology of the features of this theme in the writer’s oeuvre, with special emphasis on “The Trilogy”.

  • Issue Year: LI/2016
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 315-332
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish