Nikt nie chce umierać
Nobody Wants to Die
Self-destruction in Cultural Perspective
Contributor(s): Ewa Rudnicka (Editor), Halszka Witkowska (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: self-destruction; borderline situations; suicidology; suicide; crisis; sociology; psychology
Summary/Abstract: The experienced and junior research workers who are the authors of the texts collected in this publication discuss different suicidal and self-destructive behaviours and reasons for them. They analyse cultural messages in literature, art and entertainment as well as those present in everyday conversations. The thematic and generational range of the research enriches the existing works on suicides and emphasizes the need and importance of interdisciplinary approach to a complex problem of human self-destruction.
- E-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-5563-6
- Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-235-5555-1
- Page Count: 238
- Publication Year: 2022
- Language: Polish
„Zamknięty świat samobójstwa” – opowiadanie Fiodora Dostojewskiego "Potulna"
„Zamknięty świat samobójstwa” – opowiadanie Fiodora Dostojewskiego "Potulna"
(„A closed world of suicide” – "Potulna", a short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
- Author(s):Mirosława Michalska-Suchanek
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:15-29
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:Dostoyevsky; fatalistic suicide victim; escapist suicide victim; female suicide victims
- Summary/Abstract:Apart from inherently associated with Fyodor Dostoyevsky ‘calculated’ egoistic, fatalistic and escapist suicides became one of the major themes in the writer’s work. The article attempts to analyze the image of the title character of the story titled "Potulna", which combines the features of both types of suicidal death. The starting point for the analysis is the writer’s belief that the suicide is situated in the center of the “suicidogenic space”, understood as the whole of dynamically growing circumstances and conditions that, extended in time, determine the final solution. The true meaning of suicide is constituted through the process of cognition, and the final act itself is the tragic culmination of a tangle of interrelated factors.
- Price: 4.50 €
O różnicach w podejmowaniu decyzji ostatecznej
O różnicach w podejmowaniu decyzji ostatecznej
(On the differences in making the final decision)
- Author(s):Halszka Witkowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:30-40
- No. of Pages:11
- Keywords:suicide; time; decision; scoptsy; sect
- Summary/Abstract:The text addresses the process of making decisions about taking one’s own life, depending on whether it is a decision made individually or influenced by the behaviour of the community. The examples given are the suicides of nineteenth-century Russian skoptsy, whose decisions were made not only under the pressure of time, but also thanks to a charismatic leader. On the other hand, the author presents the thoughts expressed by Venedikt Yerofeyev, who describes in an accurate and literary manner his feelings related to making decisions about death. What is the function of time in making the final decision? Is suicide always related to loneliness? And finally, can the idea of taking one’s own life be a result of imitation? The author of the essay tries to answer these and several other questions, which not only concerns the decision-making process to take one’s own life, but above all points to the importance of time in it.
- Price: 4.50 €
Realizm – między kąpielą, brakiem nazwiska i omnibusem
Realizm – między kąpielą, brakiem nazwiska i omnibusem
(Realism – between taking a bath, no name, and a stagecoach)
- Author(s):Filip Mazurkiewicz
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:43-57
- No. of Pages:15
- Keywords:realism; biopolitics; punctum; studium; representation
- Summary/Abstract:In the text, I ask a question about the status of realism in 19th-century realistic literature in a situation where it is subjected to various social or moral taboos, as well as to political and patriotic censorship. In this theoretical circle, I try to include the problem of representing suicide in those texts, adding to it the parameter of biopolitics.
- Price: 4.50 €
Izolacja
Izolacja
(Isolation)
- Author(s):Katarzyna Szymańska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:58-79
- No. of Pages:22
- Keywords:Thomas Bernhard; Austrian literature; isolation; Holocaust; extinction
- Summary/Abstract:The present paper approaches the self-destruction mechanisms in Thomas Bernhard’s prose works – at the level of the construction of characters, language and the image of the disintegrating world and objects. The protagonists stay in places of extreme isolation, which is both a prison and a salvation, and they put their own destruction (die Selbstzerstörung) under obsessive control. The existence of these disturbances (die Störungen) in the analyzed texts has a psychological but also a historiosophical basis.
- Price: 4.50 €
Sto lat!
Sto lat!
(Hundred years!)
- Author(s):Piotr Nowak
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:80-88
- No. of Pages:9
- Keywords:God; Honor; Fatherland; Baczyński; self-destruction
- Summary/Abstract:Culture in Poland is the „ground” and all highest values are grounded in it, which was testified by a number of historical events. First of all, it is over one hundred and twenty years of geographical and political non-existence the Poles endured thanks to the highest culture, thanks to the works of the world’s greatest poets. Polish Poets are the greatest of the greatest and – therefore – completely untranslatable, which means – peculiar and national. They are extremly important for us, Poles, and urgently needed, indispensable. At the same time, Polish poetry has always bordered on self-destruction. The Holy Trinity „God, Honor, Homeland” demanded from poetry to be a victim (Polish Romanticism). Let’s wish her another hundred years!
- Price: 4.50 €
Samobójstwa mniejszości narodowych w Poznaniu w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym
Samobójstwa mniejszości narodowych w Poznaniu w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym
(Suicides of national minorities in Poznań during the interwar period)
- Author(s):Adam Czabański
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:91-109
- No. of Pages:19
- Keywords:suicide; national minority; socio-demographic characteristics
- Summary/Abstract:Polish nationality was dominant among the inhabitants of Poznań during the interwar period. Moreover, the German, Jewish and Ukrainian populations belonged to the national minorities. Research has shown that the share of suicides of national minorities in Poznań amounted to 7.7 percent. 40 people of German nationality, 13 people of Jewish nationality and 10 people of Ukrainian nationality committed suicide. The research obtained information on gender, age, marital status, profession and methods of committing suicide by representatives of national minorities in Poznań.
- Price: 4.50 €
Samobójstwa honorowe kobiet na Bliskim Wschodzie
Samobójstwa honorowe kobiet na Bliskim Wschodzie
(Honour suicides of woman in the Middle East)
- Author(s):Weronika Śliwowska
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:110-127
- No. of Pages:28
- Keywords:suicidology; islam; femicide; conservatism; patriarchy
- Summary/Abstract:This article investigates the issue of high suicide rates among females in the Middle East. The paper explains the specificity of the region mainly on the example of Turkey, which is the best described and researched country of the Middle East. The work describes the influence of various cultural and social factors, as well as the role of traditional values, in the context of self-destructive behaviour. The article additionally analyses films and works of literature, which endeavour to discuss the issues of women living in an oppressive, patriarchal society. Finally, the author describes the causes, methods of suicide and ways of preventing them.
- Price: 4.50 €
Niech mnie piekło pochłonie!
Niech mnie piekło pochłonie!
(Damn me!)
- Author(s):Ewa Rudnicka
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:131-148
- No. of Pages:18
- Keywords:swear words; curse; self-destruction; wishes; pop culture; formulaic constructions
- Summary/Abstract:The subject of the article is contemporary curses/swear words in the form of schematic formulas, which in fact are also self-destructive desires (e.g. niech mnie drzwi ścisną). The aim of the considerations is to present the results of observations of contemporary linguistic customs in the use of wishful self-destructive formulas and to discuss the most important changes within the Polish custom of cursing oneself, taking into account the original, magical function of curses and the sphere of the sacred.
- Price: 4.50 €
Samobójstwo w Wilkowyjach – analiza sposobu przedstawienia prób samobójczych w serialu „Ranczo”
Samobójstwo w Wilkowyjach – analiza sposobu przedstawienia prób samobójczych w serialu „Ranczo”
(Suicide in Wilkowyje – an analysis of suicide attempts portrayal in “Ranczo” TV series)
- Author(s):Karol Milczarek
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:149-160
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:suicidology; suicidal behaviors; TV series; pop culture; suicide stereotypes
- Summary/Abstract:Adopting a suicidological perspective, the author analyses one of the recent Polish pop-culture phenomena – “Ranczo” – a comedy series directed by Wojciech Adamczyk. He describes the ways of presenting several types of self-destructive behaviors, but focuses on the scenes of suicidal attempts and their classification and comparison. Taking historical context into account enables the author to explain particular esthetic and fabular choices. Finally, he explores ethical implications of creating a specific image of suicide in “Ranczo”.
- Price: 4.50 €
"Mój ziom się powiesił w Sylwestra"
"Mój ziom się powiesił w Sylwestra"
("My homie hanged himself on the New Year’s Eve")
- Author(s):Maciej Grzenkowicz
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:161-183
- No. of Pages:23
- Keywords:rap; popular culture; suicide; social inequalities; Michał Matczak
- Summary/Abstract:Mata is one of the most popular rappers in Poland and a voice of young Polish upper classes. This article describes his history and characterizes his work, analyzing his songs in order to find the main self-destructive behaviours and reasons for them in Mata’s discourse. The author lists two main types of behaviour – suicide ideation with suicide attempts and extensive use of psychoactive substances – and two main reasons, which are the family relations and the hegemonic pressure to be productive. He also interprets Mata’s works as a proposal to form of a social class alternative to the contemporary intelligentsia, that is: patointelligentsia, which, by its critical approach towards contemporary cultural-political hegemony would be able to lead to the dialogue and improvement of the situation of the youth.
- Price: 4.50 €
Samobójstwo osób w kryzysie bezdomności w Polsce
Samobójstwo osób w kryzysie bezdomności w Polsce
(Suicide death among homeless people in Poland)
- Author(s):Dominika Filipowicz
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:187-203
- No. of Pages:17
- Keywords:homelessness; psychological crisis; suicide
- Summary/Abstract:The author analyses the problem of suicide death among homeless people in Poland. Since there is little research concerning this particular problem in Poland, she focuses on the case of Grzegorz Laskowski, a homeless man who committed suicide in 2014. By analysing his blog entries, she tries to find the reasons which could have pushed him to the decision to commit suicide. This particular case is only a starting point for further considerations regarding possible risk factors in homelessness. Laskowski’s blog provides us with a unique insight into a homeless man’s perspective on suicide.
- Price: 4.50 €
Groza wiatru
Groza wiatru
(The influence of the halny wind on suicidal behaviour in Tatra County)
- Author(s):Zofia Kowalczyk
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:204-217
- No. of Pages:14
- Keywords:foehn; suicidology; Podhale; suicide; halny
- Summary/Abstract:The article’s aim is to inquire whether the halny wind affects suicidal behaviours in Tatra County. It analyses the region’s literature on the wind and its influence on the community; documentary and feature films depicting life in Zakopane; research on the correlation between the foehn winds and suicides; a survey conducted for this purpose; and interviews conducted with the people of Zakopane. The outcome of this analysis is an observation of reconceptualization of the halny and its legend as a pretext for avoidance of both further discourse about it and design of preventive programs.
- Price: 4.50 €
Zjawisko suicide survivors – konsekwencje samobójstwa oraz postwencja w przypadku kontaktu ze śmiercią samobójczą
Zjawisko suicide survivors – konsekwencje samobójstwa oraz postwencja w przypadku kontaktu ze śmiercią samobójczą
(The phenomenon of suicide survivors – consequences of suicide and postvention in the event of contact with suicidal death)
- Author(s):Aleksandra Brągiel
- Language:Polish
- Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Sociology, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Theory of Literature
- Page Range:218-229
- No. of Pages:12
- Keywords:suicide; family; intervention; self-destruction; grief
- Summary/Abstract:With the growing interest in the suicide phenomenon, more and more information on intervention and social education has emerged over the past decades. A fuller understanding of the topic of self-destruction along with helping people in a suicidal crisis and their relatives may contribute to reducing the number of sudden deaths. Through a review of research and specialist literature, the work explains the phenomenon of suicide survivors and presents how suicide affects people in the suicide’s environment. Moreover, it distinguishes needs of suicide-bereaved families. It also emphasizes what forms of help may be effective for people who come into contact with suicide and deal with grief as a result of it.
- Price: 4.50 €