Malwina Meyersonowa’s Emancipation Project Cover Image

Emancypacyjny projekt Malwiny Meyersonowej
Malwina Meyersonowa’s Emancipation Project

On the Reception of Two Novels

Author(s): Anna Jeziorkowska-Polakowska
Subject(s): Studies of Literature
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Malwina Meyersonowa; Meyersonowa’s literary creativity; Franciszka Arnsztajnowa; Emil Meyerson

Summary/Abstract: The article describes the figure and literary output of Malwina Meyersonowa, the first Lublin woman writer of Jewish origin writing in Polish. The person beyond measure deserves attention. This woman of Lublin 19th century intellectual elite, mother of a poetess Franciszka Arnsztajnowa and a philosopher Emil Meyerson, is an authoress of two novels in which she touches the problems of Jewish people contemporary life. It may be argued that in this respect she was a predecessor of Eliza Orzeszkowa’s novels on the same topic. The sources of Meyersonowa’s creativity, connected to the idea of assimilation, emancipation, and the Jewish struggle to escape from the centuries-old isolation, can be located in the Haskalah movement. Meyersonowa was also a translator; her two translations from the German have remained. Her patriotic and social activity as well as many a year actions aimed at propagating education among the Jewish society complete the woman writer’s artistic achievements.

  • Issue Year: 2019
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 155-170
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish