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Łódź. City of Modernity Cover Image
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Łódź. Miasto modernistyczne
Łódź. City of Modernity

Contributor(s): Katarzyna Badowska (Editor), Tomasz Cieślak (Editor), Krystyna Pietrych (Editor), Krystyna Radziszewska (Editor)
Subject(s): History, Sociology, Local History / Microhistory, Rural and urban sociology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Łódź; modernism; social history; literature; art; architecture; theatre; film
Summary/Abstract: The monograph consists of 33 articles devoted to Łódź, a city that in the 19th century transformed from a small agricultural center into an industrial metropolis within one generation. At the end of the 19th century, it was a symbol of modernization and industrialization for Central Europe, and was often compared to Manchester and the industrial cities of the United States. The authors of the monograph analyze various aspects of the economic, social and cultural life of Łódź in the period before the outbreak of World War II. They examine the faces of Łódź's modernity: modernization trends, metropolitan and peripheral nature of the city, its multiculturalism and multiethnicity, because Łódź was an attractive place of settlement for Germans, Polish peasants, Jews and newcomers from the depths of the Russian Empire. Important phenomena include the development of the workers' movement, which culminated in the revolution of 1905–1907, and emancipation movements. The analysis covered urban infrastructure and architecture, cultural phenomena (especially literature and mass entertainment typical of industrial cities), religious and political life.

  • E-ISBN-13: 978-83-8331-277-4
  • Print-ISBN-13: 978-83-8331-276-7
  • Page Count: 544
  • Publication Year: 2024
  • Language: Polish
Wprowadzenie

Wprowadzenie
(Introduction)

  • Author(s):Katarzyna Badowska, Tomasz Cieślak , Krystyna Pietrych, Krystyna Radziszewska
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Editorial
  • Page Range:7-15
  • No. of Pages:9
  • Keywords:Łódź; modernism; social history; literature; art; architecture; theatre; film
  • Price: 0.52 €
Łódź – miasto przemysłowe, miasto nowoczesne?

Łódź – miasto przemysłowe, miasto nowoczesne?
(Łódź – An Industrial City, a Modern City?)

  • Author(s):Kamil Śmiechowski
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory
  • Page Range:17-33
  • No. of Pages:17
  • Keywords:Łódź; urbanity; modernization; modernity; 19th century; 20th century
  • Summary/Abstract:The text is an attempt to answer the question to what extent industrial Łódź was a modern city. The author draws attention to the ambiguity of the term modernity itself, then emphasizes that the development of the city itself was the result of the modernization project of the authorities of the Congress Kingdom. He emphasizes, however, that the project was not warmly welcomed by the Polish public, and the city was perceived as alien and sinister. He tries to explain this phenomenon by emphasizing the ambivalence of the development of Łódź, in which rapid economic growth did not go hand in hand with the development of education or public services. By analyzing the testimonies of people from different social classes, he shows how differently this city was perceived and assessed depending on the place in the social hierarchy that each person occupied. Constituting a terra incognito for the educated and wealthy layers of society, it was a place of enormous emancipation and social advancement for working women. This promotion brought greater benefits than the risks associated with staying in a big city, where exploitation and other negative phenomena to which these classes were exposed were common. In the author's opinion, the ambivalence of Łódź's development was most visible in the sphere of culture, where the opinion of the elites about Łódź as a cultural desert went hand in hand with the real achievements of the city's inhabitants in the field of culturalization. An emanation of this phenomenon was the creation in the city of one of the first collections of modern art in Europe. In conclusion, the author argues that the case of industrial Łódź says a lot about modernity in Central and Eastern Europe and its asynchronous character.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Biedne miasto Łódź

Biedne miasto Łódź
(The Poor City of Łódź)

  • Author(s):Inga B. Kuźma
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory, Culture and social structure
  • Page Range:35-48
  • No. of Pages:14
  • Keywords:ethnographic archive; workers' culture; Łódź; memories; poverty
  • Summary/Abstract:The author deals with the problem of exclusion and poverty in Łódź during the modernist period, extending this period to 1939. She relies on oral sources from field ethnographic research, which are based on the memory of the history of working-class families. This type of evidence is provided by the B. Kopczyńska-Jaworska Ethnographic Archive, Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Łódź. Research on working-class culture preserved in the Archives concerned, among others, the lifestyle and everyday life of working-class families, changing cultural patterns of migrants from the countryside to the city, and the formation of a new social layer and the phenomenon of urbanity in its Łódź variant. Poverty or poverty was not a topic directly addressed and isolated during ethnographic research, although this topic appeared indirectly, e.g. in memories of crises, including those in the family or on the labor market. Poverty, however, can be included among the themes that constitute the structure of the long-lasting specific myth of Łódź as a "bad city". On the other hand, it is important to understand poverty to find descriptions of its experience in order to consider whether it is possible to talk about changes in the experience of poverty over a long period of time.
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Na wschodzie bez zmian. Analiza figur władcy, kata i ofiary na przykładzie zdjęć z czasów represji po rewolucji 1905–1907

Na wschodzie bez zmian. Analiza figur władcy, kata i ofiary na przykładzie zdjęć z czasów represji po rewolucji 1905–1907
(All Quiet on the Eastern Front. An Analysis of the Figures of ruler, Executioner and Victim on the Example of Photographs)

  • Author(s):Tomasz Ferenc
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory, Culture and social structure
  • Page Range:49-62
  • No. of Pages:14
  • Keywords:Łódź; workers' revolt; photography; Russian terror
  • Summary/Abstract:The text contains an analysis of three photographs taken in the Tsar's prison in 1908 after the suppression of the workers' revolt in Łódź (Revolution of 1905). They show both prisoners and the staff supervising the convicts, including the prison warden and the executioner and his assistants. In one of the photos, which was taken in the style of a traditional souvenir shot, torturers and convicts pose together. This forced situation raises many questions and has many meanings, which are described in the text. However, these photographs are primarily an excuse to show the chain of terror that starts with the head of the Russian state (Tsar Nicholas II) and through the governor (General Nikolai Kaznakov) reaches the prison warden (Karol Modzelewski) and the executioners subordinated to him (including, among others, Ryszard Fremel), who executed condemned workers. The photographs included in the text can be read in the context of the revolutionary history of Łódź, testimonies of tsarist terror, and the workers' struggle to improve their fate, but also to liberate themselves from the yoke of the invader. For the author of the text, however, these photographs should be read in the perspective of the broadly understood history of the Russian empire, the methods of operation of the state apparatus of terror, apparent normalization, references to rules and order, behind which, however, the imperial doctrine of conquest and violence is hidden.
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„Kobieta a wiek XX”. Wyzwania, cele i oczekiwania kobiet wielkoprzemysłowej Łodzi przełomu wieków

„Kobieta a wiek XX”. Wyzwania, cele i oczekiwania kobiet wielkoprzemysłowej Łodzi przełomu wieków
(‘Women and the 20th Century’: The Challenges, Goals, and Expectations of women in Industrial Łódź)

  • Author(s):Marta Sikorska
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Gender Studies, Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory, Culture and social structure
  • Page Range:63-80
  • No. of Pages:18
  • Keywords:history of Łódź; history of women; women's work; workers
  • Summary/Abstract:The article presents the situation of women who lived in the large-industrial Łódź at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Łódź was a city of many cultures, inhabited primarily by Poles, Germans and Jews, and was undergoing modernization processes. In the rapidly developing city, thousands of women from various social classes and nationalities entered the labor market. The article presents the professional and social problems that women faced at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in an industrial city.
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Narodziny metropolii. Łódź w okresie międzywojennym

Narodziny metropolii. Łódź w okresie międzywojennym
(The Birth of a Metropolis: Łódź in the Interwar Period)

  • Author(s):Rafał Matyja
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Architecture, Local History / Microhistory
  • Page Range:81-92
  • No. of Pages:12
  • Keywords:Second Polish Republic; voivodeship; metropolis; public buildings
  • Summary/Abstract:The text describes the process of changing the status of Łódź from a great industrial centre to a voivodship capital and the birth of metropolitanism. This change is expressed in the creation of new institutions - the Voivodship Office, the District Court, the military Command Headquarters of the Corps District. Symbols of the city's metropolitan character during this period became a Polish Radio broadcasting station, numerous diplomatic missions, the seat of Catholic and Evangelical Augsburg Dioceses. The new status was also confirmed by its wide area of influence, extending beyond the borders of the province. The face of Łódź was also changing due to the actions of the city's socialist management. The text also shows the importance of this period and the development plans created at the time, for the city to gain a stronger position after the war - based also on the development of universities, cultural institutions, mass media. However, this advancement is made on the initiative of public authorities - national and local, and shows the specific development path of large cities in Central and Eastern Europe.
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Łodzianie międzywojnia wobec wyzwań nowoczesnej polityki. Próba refleksji nad zjawiskiem modernizacji życia politycznego w Łodzi w latach 1918–1939

Łodzianie międzywojnia wobec wyzwań nowoczesnej polityki. Próba refleksji nad zjawiskiem modernizacji życia politycznego w Łodzi w latach 1918–1939
(The Challenges of Modern Politics: A Reflection on the Political Life of Łódź in the Years 1918–1939)

  • Author(s):Przemysław Waingertner
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory, Political history
  • Page Range:93-103
  • No. of Pages:11
  • Keywords:Łódź; modern city; local government; local government elections; interwar period 1918–1939; political activists
  • Summary/Abstract:The subject of this article is a proposal for reflection on one of the aspects of the practice of local government political life in Łódź in the interwar period (1918–1939) – i.e. elections to the city council (the participation of Łódź residents in them, the mechanisms governing the decisions they made over the ballot box, and finally the results of subsequent elections) in the context of the phenomenon of "modernity in politics” or “modern politics”. The result of this reflection is an attempt to both outline the answer to the question about the project and the practical dimension of political modernity in the city on Łódź in relation to the issue of the "celebration of democracy" (from the perspective of the city government), as well as to characterize the electoral decisions of the Lodz citizens – their motivation and rationality, compliance with the concept of modern politics.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Nowoczesność publiczna czy prywatna? Woda, gaz i elektryczność w międzywojennej Łodzi a stracone szanse

Nowoczesność publiczna czy prywatna? Woda, gaz i elektryczność w międzywojennej Łodzi a stracone szanse
(Modernity – Public or Private? Water, Gas, and Electricity in Interwar Łódź and Missed Opportunities)

  • Author(s):Marcin Szymański
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory
  • Page Range:105-116
  • No. of Pages:12
  • Keywords:Electricity; gas; waterworks; sewerage; history of Łódź; local government
  • Summary/Abstract:Łódź was the largest industrial city in Europe without a water supply or sewage system. At the same time, electricity arrived there quite late, only in the early 20th century. The city gasworks were the first to be built. A clear development barrier in the construction of these devices was the lack of municipal government during the partitions, and thus the lack of the ability to obtain appropriate funds for the implementation of ambitious projects. The only option was to look for a private investor who would be willing to build and operate the infrastructure in exchange for a favorable concession. After regaining independence, the situation changed, but the local government was deprived of adequate income, so it was also forced to look for companies willing to implement urban investments. This time, unfortunately, the barrier was the lack of decision-making, especially after 1926. As a result of the short-sighted policy of the local government and the reluctance of the central authorities, Łódź lost its chance for modern urban facilities, and the infrastructure created was modest and insufficient.
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Modernizm i wyznania. Łódzka droga do nowoczesności zwyczajna czy wyjątkowa?

Modernizm i wyznania. Łódzka droga do nowoczesności zwyczajna czy wyjątkowa?
(Modernism and denominations? Łódź’s Road to Modernity – Ordinary or Exceptional? Ewelina Maria Kostrzewska)

  • Author(s):Ewelina Maria Kostrzewska
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory, Culture and social structure
  • Page Range:117-135
  • No. of Pages:19
  • Keywords:History of Łódź; history of religion; non-habitual orders; Honorat’s assemblies; Mariavitism; modernism in the Catholic Church
  • Summary/Abstract:The text presents the religious mosaic of Łódź. It shows why and how the network of connections, integrations, emancipatory splits and distinctiveness of religious associations was created. Against this background and on the indicated levels, I indicate where modernization and modernism appeared on a religious basis and what it meant. Did it open new fronts in the fight for modernity or maybe the opposite? The text presents the social dimension of religion with a look at the role of women. The question of redefining religious identity in the face of social democratization and the intensification of modernist trends came to the fore. Next, the role played by religion in the processes of integration and disintegration of the multinational city of Łódź. Modernity in Łódź in the form of religion had its own specificity of internal penetration of new currents drawn from Europe. She appeared in various relationships with tradition, including that transferred from the times of partition to the regained state. Issues of the influence of religion on modernity and viewing the urban fabric with churches, communities and denominations incorporated into its infrastructure are a new way of talking about modernist Łódź.
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Na Wschodniej w Łodzi. Opowieść o handlowej ulicy w przemysłowym mieście

Na Wschodniej w Łodzi. Opowieść o handlowej ulicy w przemysłowym mieście
(Wschodnia Street, Łódź: The Story of a Bussiness Street in an Industrial City)

  • Author(s):Grażyna Ewa Karpińska
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):History, Cultural history
  • Page Range:137-146
  • No. of Pages:10
  • Keywords:shopping and crafts street; Jews; flâneur's walk
  • Summary/Abstract:In the article, I reconstruct the image of Wschodnia commercial street in the interwar period, a street where Jews engaged in trade and small-scale manufacturing. Walking along the street, I talk about the shops and shops, craft workshops, beer houses, tea houses and eateries. The article was based on archival documents, research studies on industrial Łódź, and materials from the local, interwar daily press.
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Budowanie Łodzi nowoczesnej

Budowanie Łodzi nowoczesnej
(Building Modern Łódź)

  • Author(s):Krzysztof Stefański
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Architecture, Local History / Microhistory, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939)
  • Page Range:147-164
  • No. of Pages:18
  • Keywords:architecture of Lodz; interwar period; public buildings; housing constructions
  • Summary/Abstract:Łódź developed during the 19th century as a large industrial center struggling with many problems resulting from neglect of urban infrastructure. In the field of urban planning, there were negative aspects of planning from the first period of the city's development, when such significant industrial development and population growth were not taken into account; in the architectural sphere, great contrasts were visible, an unfavorable mixture of residential and industrial buildings, and no plans on a larger scale. Attempts to change this situation at the beginning of the 20th century, before 1914, had no chance of success given the policy pursued by the Russian authorities. The first manifestations of modernization aspirations appeared during World War I, during the German occupation, but in the war situation it was impossible to put them into practice. It was only after regaining independence that opportunities for action on a larger scale appeared. However, numerous initiatives of the city authorities and social initiatives brought only partial results in the face of constant financial problems and political disputes. Despite this, it was possible to create a new regulatory plan for the city and undertake investments that would change the city's image. Private entrepreneurs also played a significant role by building a large number of modern tenement houses in the city center, introducing modernist forms on a large scale.
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Modernizm, modernizmy i modernizacje w architekturze Łodzi międzywojennej. Przypadek osiedla im. Józefa Montwiłła-Mireckiego

Modernizm, modernizmy i modernizacje w architekturze Łodzi międzywojennej. Przypadek osiedla im. Józefa Montwiłła-Mireckiego
(Modernism, Modernisms, and Modernisations int the Architecture of Interwar Łódź)

  • Author(s):Aleksandra Sumorok
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Architecture, Local History / Microhistory
  • Page Range:165-181
  • No. of Pages:17
  • Keywords:Modernism; modernization; social estate; housing architecture
  • Summary/Abstract:Interwar modernization took on a special dimension in Łódź - a multicultural, multinational, monofunctional center that developed dynamically on its raw roots in the 19th century, on the one hand representing modernity (industrialization, urbanization), and on the other hand, backwardness in the sphere of culture, education and quality of life. Modernization concepts were created here based on Western European ideas, but they were not copied but actively modified. Particularly interesting in the context of the diversity and shape that modernity takes in Łódź are initiatives related to housing construction initiated in the 1920s by the city government. A new spatial and social landscape was created, dynamically reacting to what was happening around, both on a national scale (building an independent state; Łódź's new role in it) and in the region (healing and modernization of a center with many civilization backwards). The starting point for me will be, first of all, the estate named after Józef Montwiłł-Mirecki, one of the most modern and pioneering housing projects in Poland in the second half of the 1920s from the point of view of modernist form, urban planning and the concept of a social estate.
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Ruiny nieobiecane. Destrukcja i re-konstrukcja łódzkiego modernizmu

Ruiny nieobiecane. Destrukcja i re-konstrukcja łódzkiego modernizmu
(Non-promised ruins. Destruction and re-construction of the modernism of Łódź)

  • Author(s):Małgorzata Nieszczerzewska
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Architecture, Local History / Microhistory, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
  • Page Range:183-198
  • No. of Pages:16
  • Keywords:promised land; destruction ruins; vintage culture
  • Summary/Abstract:The article attempts to answer the question of why we need nineteenth-century architecture today and what the revitalization "game of modernity" in Łódź is all about. The author analyses the issue of the process of modernization of Łódź in the context of multidimensional construction/destruction/re-construction of individual fragments of its space, using primarily the concept of ambiguity and multidimensionality of ruins as a cultural phenomenon. With reference to the novel “the Promised land” written by Władysław Reymont, she emphasizes one of the basic ambivalences of the ruins, referring to their allegorical and spectral nature. Analyzing the process of contemporary re-contextualization of the ruins of Łódź (primarily in the sense of their revitalization and revalorization), the author proposes the use of the term "consumed modernism" and evokes the context of vintage culture.
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Środowisko dźwiękowe i łódzki modernizm

Środowisko dźwiękowe i łódzki modernizm
(The Sound Environment and Łódź Modernism)

  • Author(s):Elżbieta Rybicka
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Cultural history, Culture and social structure
  • Page Range:199-215
  • No. of Pages:17
  • Keywords:Łódź; literature; sound; noise; experience of modernity
  • Summary/Abstract:The aim of the article is an attempt to reconstruct and analyze literary representations of the sound environment of modernist Łódź, taking into account its diversity - city noise, industrial bustle, silence, processes of semantic harmonization or disintegration of the sonosphere as the effects of aural poetics. The field of interest also included issues related to the social diversity of the city's sound space. The sound environment of Łódź presented in literature until 1939 was presented as a sphere of literary resonances which, in varying intensities, highlight the resonance between modernity, its psychocorporeal experience and creativity.
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Nowoczesna czy prowincjonalna? Łódź okiem przedwojennych publicystów i pisarzy

Nowoczesna czy prowincjonalna? Łódź okiem przedwojennych publicystów i pisarzy
(Modern or Provincial? Łodź Through the Eyes of Pre-war Journalists and Writers)

  • Author(s):Katarzyna Badowska
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Polish Literature, Sociology of Literature
  • Page Range:217-238
  • No. of Pages:22
  • Keywords:Łódź; city in literature; modernity
  • Summary/Abstract:At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries Łódź was commonly thought of as the embodiment of modernization and industrialization, a symbol of the modernity of the industrial era. Thanks to technical progress and specialization in textiles, the city transformed from an agricultural settlement into a metropolis during the lifetime of one man. And at the same time, Łódź was perceived as a province, a kind of Wild West. The author analyzes the image of pre-war Łódź preserved by publicists and writers in reportages, columns, correspondence and literary works; how contemporaries assessed the city - its inhabitants of various nationalities and visitors curious about the “cotton town”.
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Łódzka (po)niemieckość w literaturze polskiej jako trop nowoczesności

Łódzka (po)niemieckość w literaturze polskiej jako trop nowoczesności
(The (Post-)Germanness of Łódź in Polish Literature as an Indicator of Modernity)

  • Author(s):Wojciech Browarny
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Cultural history, History of ideas
  • Page Range:239-248
  • No. of Pages:10
  • Keywords:modernity; Germanness; city; Polish literature; cultural memory; regionalism
  • Summary/Abstract:The author of the article explores the tropes and meanings of (post)Germanness in Polish literature dedicated to modern Łódź, delving into theoretical frameworks of regionalism, geopoetics, and studies on collective memory. He reads selected texts or their fragments that present and problematize the presence of Germans in the culture, economy, and history of the city, as well as the local experience of its Germanness. The primary goal of these reflections is to interpret the relationship between literary depictions of the multicultural industrial-commercial center and the model of a metropolis fitting into modern integral nationality. By analyzing representations of Germans in Łódź and Germanness, the author raises the question of how concepts such as civilization, technology, progress, otherness, urbanity, and bourgeoisie are entangled in Polish identity and national memory in the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century.
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„Uwielbiam masy ludzkie, kocham żywioły, przepadam za wszystkim, co się staje dopiero” – Łódź jako temat literacki „Ziemi obiecanej” w korespondencji Reymonta

„Uwielbiam masy ludzkie, kocham żywioły, przepadam za wszystkim, co się staje dopiero” – Łódź jako temat literacki „Ziemi obiecanej” w korespondencji Reymonta
(‘I Love the Masses of People, I Love the Elements, I Am So Fond of Everything That Is Just Coming into Existence’: Łódź as the Literary Topic of the Promised land in Reymont’s Correspondence)

  • Author(s):Dorota Samborska-Kukuć
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Polish Literature, Culture and social structure
  • Page Range:249-257
  • No. of Pages:9
  • Keywords:Reymont; correspondence; Promised Land novel
  • Summary/Abstract:Reymont reported on the stages of construction of the Promised Land in letters to friends and family. His spontaneous way of reporting resulting from the hyperbolization of experiences and impressions provides source material for examining the creative process and the way of perceiving the described space. For the writer, Łódź was a place that interested him in its spectacular development and functioning, and he decided that it could be an artistic challenge for him. He worked on the work in several stages: in Łódź itself, collecting the necessary material, and for the next several months (including in France), drawing on these findings colored by imagination. He informed about each of these stages in his correspondence, proving his keen interest in the factory town and its peculiarities.
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„Ludzie pozamieniali się w dzikie zwierzęta”. Zapomniany poemat, rewolucja 1905 roku i początki nowoczesnej polityki masowej

„Ludzie pozamieniali się w dzikie zwierzęta”. Zapomniany poemat, rewolucja 1905 roku i początki nowoczesnej polityki masowej
("People Have Turned Into Animals Wild": A Forgotten Poem, the Revolution of 1905, and the Beginnings of Mass Politics)

  • Author(s):Kamil Piskała
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Political history
  • Page Range:259-273
  • No. of Pages:15
  • Keywords:Revolution of 1905; Łódź; Mass Politics; Polish Socialist Party; Political Violence
  • Summary/Abstract:The following essay is focused on the forgotten epic poem Włókniarze (Weavers) by Józef Jatczyk, self-taught writer and former activist of the National Workers’ Union. His poem is one of the unique literary records of the 1905 Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland and, at the same time, an attempt at working through the trauma brought on by the confrontation with the most violent and excessive manifestations of modern mass politics. In the poem a rather schematic romance serves foremost as a pretext for facing the experience of the “fratricidal conflict” in Łódź during the revolutionary period. It was a time when successive waves of strikes rolled through the city, hundreds of rallies were organized, and heated political disputes proceeded in factories and working-class homes. In 1906, when their temperature reached its zenith, paroxysm of political violence shook the city. Thus I argue that modern mass politics brought with it opportunities, but was also burdened with serious risks. On the one hand, it has created conditions for the actual political empowerment of the plebeian strata. However, it has resulted in an exacerbation of social divisions, the politicization of everyday life, and the threat of fueling resentments in the name of political mobilization. In Łódź modern forms of mass politics manifested themselves suddenly, in conditions of revolutionary crisis. I argue that Jatczyk’s poem is a study of the potential hazards posed by modern politics based on mass mobilization and driven by symbols, emotions, and an ideologized vocabulary. The dangers presented in Włókniarze are exaggerated, thus obscuring the emancipatory dimension of the revolutionary experience, however, they were certainly not imagined.
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Łódź 1911. Widzenia Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza

Łódź 1911. Widzenia Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza
(Łódź, 1911, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, modernity)

  • Author(s):Tomasz Wójcik
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Cultural history
  • Page Range:275-283
  • No. of Pages:9
  • Keywords:Łódź; 1911; Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz; modernity
  • Summary/Abstract:The subject of the sketch is a reflection on Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz's first meeting with Łódź (in 1911). The writer's essays serve as a source of knowledge about this meeting. From their confrontation with appropriately selected historical documents, a much more general issue emerges - the specific relationship between the veristic and phantasmatic vision/description of the city. At the same time, the sketch is an attempt to answer the question of what significance this first sight of Łódź - that is, the 20th century and modernity - had for Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz's spiritual formation.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Tendencje modernizacyjne na łamach łódzkich czasopism literackich dwudziestolecia międzywojennego

Tendencje modernizacyjne na łamach łódzkich czasopism literackich dwudziestolecia międzywojennego
(Trends of Modernization in Literary Journals of Łódź in the Interwar Period (1918-1939))

  • Author(s):Tomasz Cieślak
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Cultural history, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939)
  • Page Range:285-298
  • No. of Pages:14
  • Keywords:Łódź; literature; literary journals; modernism; interwar period
  • Summary/Abstract:The article presents an important aspect of the cultural life of Łódź in the interwar period 1918–1939, which was the local literary magazines that appeared at that time, especially in the 1930s. They created a modernization ferment and promoted literary trends and fashions that were current at that time. These magazines, in addition to presenting the achievements of authors associated with Łódź, tried to consolidate the Łódź literary community (especially the young generation) and initiate a discussion about the social obligations of literature, especially important in the environment of a large industrial center.
  • Price: 0.52 €
„Wśród kominów Łodzi” Marii Przedborskiej – wiersze społecznie zaangażowane

„Wśród kominów Łodzi” Marii Przedborskiej – wiersze społecznie zaangażowane
(‘Among the Chimneys of Łódź’ – Socially Engaged Poetry by Maria Przedborska)

  • Author(s):Krystyna Pietrych
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Poetry, Studies of Literature
  • Page Range:299-313
  • No. of Pages:15
  • Keywords:poetry; Maria Przedborska; social involvement; proletariat
  • Summary/Abstract:The article recalls Maria Przedborska, a unique figure for the Łódź intelligentsia and workers in the interwar period. First, her professional and social activity, resulting from her role as a labor inspector in factories in Łódź, was presented, and then her journalistic and poetic works were presented. Through both her professional and journalistic activities, the Przedborska inspector tried to change existing social relations, thus fighting to improve the fate of Łódź workers. Przedborska, the poet, set herself the same task in the cycle of poems Among the chimneys of Łódź, published in "Głos Poranny" in the years 1932–1936. The poems that make up this cycle, drawing direct inspiration from the observations that Przedborska made during her inspector's activity, provide numerous testimonies of the life and work of women workers in Łódź textile factories. They show the most destructive aspects of the functioning of large-scale factories during the Great Depression of the 1930s: excessive work, accidents with machines, layoffs, unemployment, diseases, hunger, poverty, prostitution. In her poetry, Przedborska shows a large-industrial city undergoing radical political and social changes, which are the result of accelerated industrialization, which were not accompanied by extensive modernization changes. Przedborska's works do not only have a documentary function, they are equally important in showing solidarity with the workers, appealing to a sense of social sensitivity and defending those who were most affected by the negative aspects of the modernization processes.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Społecznikowski krąg współpracy. O Stefanii Skwarczyńskiej w międzywojennej Łodzi

Społecznikowski krąg współpracy. O Stefanii Skwarczyńskiej w międzywojennej Łodzi
(The Cooperation of Social Activists in Pre-war Łódź)

  • Author(s):Tomasz Majewski
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939)
  • Page Range:315-330
  • No. of Pages:16
  • Keywords:applied literature; a thought collective; cooperation; humanities; The Free Polish University; Stefania Skwarczyńska
  • Summary/Abstract:The Free Polish University was the first institution in the interwar period create possibility of practicing the humanities in Łódź as an industrial city. Stefania Skwarczyńska's activity in Łódź in those years shows that the new styles of theoretical thinking and forms of shaping the research community that were formed at that time differed from the academical patterns typical of nowadays university centers. The community of teachers and independent researchers that emerged then would build the University of Łódź from scratch after 1945, transferring the ideas of the "thought collective" into the post-war period. Skwarczyńska's direct collaborators during this period included, among others: Tadeusz Czapczyński, Wilhelm Fallek and Zygmunt Hajkowski, whose works had much in common with the idea of "applied literature" developed by Skwarczyńska.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Co wiemy o polszczyźnie łodzian w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym?

Co wiemy o polszczyźnie łodzian w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym?
(What Do We Know About the Polish Used by the Residents of Łódź in the Interwar Period?)

  • Author(s):Elżbieta Umińska-Tytoń
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Cultural history, Communication studies, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939)
  • Page Range:331-342
  • No. of Pages:12
  • Keywords:Łódź; the language of the inhabitants of Łódź; the interwar period; loanwords; dialectisms; naming trends
  • Summary/Abstract:The article contains an overview of the state of research on the Polish language of the inhabitants of Łódź in the interwar period. The everyday speech of the city's inhabitants (mainly workers) was characterized, drawing on various sources (spoken language, literary texts). On the basis of student newspapers, the correct, careful variety of Polish taught at school was presented. The area waiting for the researcher turned out to be the language of the Polish-language press in Łódź. The reflection also covered the naming trends dominant in the discussed period, visible in urban names, urbochrematonymy, and in personal names. The review carried out here has revealed areas that have not yet been covered by linguistic reflection, while others, subjected to partial analysis, encourage their deepening. It seems that the presented review of research undertaken so far and postulated for the future of the Polish language of the city's inhabitants proves that the Polish language of the inhabitants of Łódź in the interwar period may constitute an important and interesting research object.
  • Price: 0.52 €
„Nowa sztuka” w Łodzi w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym

„Nowa sztuka” w Łodzi w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym
("New art" in Lodz in the interwar period)

  • Author(s):Aneta Pawłowska
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Visual Arts, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), History of Art
  • Page Range:343-356
  • No. of Pages:14
  • Keywords:Lodz; visual arts; avant-garde; interwar; "a.r." group
  • Summary/Abstract:The article presents the circumstances of the formation of modernist art in a large industrial city like Łódź in the interwar period. The factory character of the multinational, dynamically developing city influenced its culture and art. Through the fact that the Jewish diaspora (the expressionist Jung Idysz group) and the abstractionists (Władysław Strzemiński, Katarzyna Kobro, Karol Hiller, Stefan Wegner, Aniela Menkesowa) participated in the artistic movement in large numbers, the city of the "cultural desert" grew to become an important centre of modern art. Important activities supporting the development of modern art in the city of Lodz included the creation of the International Collection of Modern Art in the Lodz Museum and publications from the so-called "a.r. Library" (related to the artistic practice of the "a.r." group).
  • Price: 0.52 €
Pedagogika patrzenia. Sztuka jako narzędzie modernizacji społecznej

Pedagogika patrzenia. Sztuka jako narzędzie modernizacji społecznej
(The Pedagogy of Looking: Art. As a Tool of Social Modernization)

  • Author(s):Leszek Karczewski
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Sociology of Culture, Pedagogy
  • Page Range:357-378
  • No. of Pages:22
  • Keywords:Avant-garde; Realism; Modernism; Modernity; Visual awareness
  • Summary/Abstract:The text analyzes the debate on the roles of realism and irrationality in art, especially on the example of the writings of Władysław Strzemiński, Karol Hiller and the Jung Yiddish group, active in Łódź between the wars. The cosmopolitan artistic environment of the visual avant-garde reinterpreted both realism and irrational elements in art as tools of social modernization.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Awersy i rewersy modernizmu. Paradoksy „pejzaży łódzkich” Władysława Strzemińskiego

Awersy i rewersy modernizmu. Paradoksy „pejzaży łódzkich” Władysława Strzemińskiego
(Obverses and Reverses of Modernism: The Paradoxes of Władysław Strzemiński’s “Landscapes of Łodź”)

  • Author(s):Agnieszka Karpowicz
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Cultural history
  • Page Range:379-390
  • No. of Pages:12
  • Keywords:Władysław Strzemiński; functionalism; modernism; urbanism; cultural landscape
  • Summary/Abstract:The author analyses Pejzaże łódzkie and the lithographs from the series Łódź bez funkcjonalizmu by Władysław Strzemiński in relation to his urban project proposed in the article Łódź sfunkcjonalizowana. She searches for the multilateral relations between the artist's works and texts from the 1930s and the cultural landscape of Łódź at the time. This approach makes it possible to point out the main tensions, crises and internal contradictions of Łódź modernism in architecture and urban planning, Strzemiński's art and his urban experience, but also, more broadly, the crisis of modernism understood as a formation within modern culture.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Z dziejów żydowskiej awangardy w Łodzi

Z dziejów żydowskiej awangardy w Łodzi
(From the history of the Jewish avant-garde in Łódź)

  • Author(s):Krystyna Radziszewska
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Cultural history, Jewish studies, Modern Age
  • Page Range:391-402
  • No. of Pages:12
  • Keywords:Jewish avant-garde; Łódź; 20th century; "Jung Idysz"; Mojsze Broderson
  • Summary/Abstract:The aim of the article is to present "Yung Yiddish", the first avant-garde Yiddish group in Poland, operating in Łódź in 1919-1921. The group was founded in a multinational city with various traditions and spiritual sources. Moyshe Broderzon, with his experience of avant-garde movements in Russia, played a leading role in creating the group and its program. The group included outstanding painters, writers and theater creators of international rank co-created the community as Yitsḥak Katzenelson, Yekhezkl-Moyshe Nayman (Neuman), Chaim Leyb Fuks, Chaim Krul and artists: Yankl Adler, Marek Szwarc, Yitskhok Broyner (Brauner), Henekh Bartshinski. They created mainly in the circle of the Yiddish language, which became their programmatic distinguishing feature. They were also open to inspiration from outside, to the influence of other avant-garde groups from Warsaw, Poznań, Berlin, Dresden, the cities of the Rhineland, as well as Moscow and Kiev. It also drew from other cultures among which Jews lived and worked. The artists published a magazine with the same title that combined visual and literary experiment. Six issues of the Yung-Yiddish magazine have been published.
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Wobec tradycji i wyzwań nowoczesności. Żydowskie artystki w Łodzi 1918–1930

Wobec tradycji i wyzwań nowoczesności. Żydowskie artystki w Łodzi 1918–1930
(Facing Tradition and Challenges of Modernity: Jewish Women Artist in Łódź, 1918-1930)

  • Author(s):Irmina Gadowska
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Jewish studies, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939)
  • Page Range:403-416
  • No. of Pages:14
  • Keywords:Art; Łódź; women's art; Jewish artists; Jewish art
  • Summary/Abstract:The 1920s were a period of dynamic development of the artistic community in Łódź, in which women played an important role. As members of groups operating in the city with various programs, they actively co-shaped the landscape of local culture through participation in exhibitions and, in several cases, educational activities. The noticeable presence of women from Łódź on the Łódź art market particularly concerned Jewish women, whose presence in this sphere often opened the way to emancipation and acculturation. On the basis of press mentions and catalogues, it is possible to identify over twenty names of artists actively practicing art. Most of them came from wealthy and middle-income merchant families and studied outside Łódź - in Warsaw, Krakow, Vilnius and abroad, only a few continued their careers in the next decade. The article is an attempt to outline the issue of the presence of Jewish women artists in the artistic environment of Łódź. Based on the analysis of sources and archives, he identifies names, analyzes the environment from which they came, recalls the exhibitions in which they took part, and asks questions about the reasons why their achievements remain outside the mainstream discussion about Polish art of the interwar period.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Problemy z opisem. Teatr i inne atrakcje w Łodzi przed I wojną światową

Problemy z opisem. Teatr i inne atrakcje w Łodzi przed I wojną światową
(Difficult to Describe: The Theatre and Other Attractions in Łódź Before the Great War)

  • Author(s):Piotr Olkusz
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory
  • Page Range:417-427
  • No. of Pages:11
  • Keywords:Theatre in Łódź; Władysław Rowiński; Polish provincial theatre; People's Theatre
  • Summary/Abstract:Since the first known professional theatre performance in Łódź (1844), local opinion-forming circles have been calling for the establishment of a permanent Polish-language theatre in this city. This was largely dictated by the post-Romantic belief in the need to emphasize the Polishness of the city by locating a permanent institution of high culture there - this was all the more important because the theatre of the German and Jewish minorities was developing relatively dynamically. In line with this project, many times - including in the press - the most appropriate repertoire for such a stage was outlined, with a special place reserved for national, preferably serious, dramas with patriotic overtones. Subsequent attempts to create such a scene ended in failure, increasing the frustration of many local elites and contributing to the creation of a myth about a city averse to dramatic art. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Łódź had the opportunity to watch the entertainment repertoire shown in a similar period in other large European cities, which may prove both the surprising activity of traveling groups and the tastes of Łódź residents not differing from those of the industrial cities of the West. Moreover, Łódź also became the cradle of Polish folk theatre - a special type of theatre venture addressed to a working-class audience and modeled on similar theatres in Europe.
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Łódź jak Ameryka – o występach gwiazd-migrantów teatralnych w Łodzi

Łódź jak Ameryka – o występach gwiazd-migrantów teatralnych w Łodzi
(Łodź Like America – On the Performance of Stars – Theater Migrants in Łodź)

  • Author(s):Karolina Prykowska-Michalak
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory
  • Page Range:429-437
  • No. of Pages:9
  • Keywords:Theatre migrants; theatre; migration; theatre stars; Lodz city of migrants
  • Summary/Abstract:America providing quite an attraction to provincial stages. A number of Polish and non-Polish theatre stars arrived in Lodz, a city developing in the late 19th century. Many of them hoped for professional and financial success. However, theatrical performances in a "city without tradition", carried certain risks. This article turns its attention to the paradoxically difficult reception of theatre stars' performances in Lodz, such as Ira Aldridge, Helena Modrzejewska and Isadora Duncan, who came to the city in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although they did not always succeed in performing on stage.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Kupcy operetki. Importowana nowoczesność na scenie niemieckiego teatru w Łodzi przed I wojną światową

Kupcy operetki. Importowana nowoczesność na scenie niemieckiego teatru w Łodzi przed I wojną światową
(The Buyers of Operetta: Imported Modernity on the Stage of the German Theatre in Łódź Before the First World War)

  • Author(s):Monika Wąsik-Linder
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Cultural history, Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919)
  • Page Range:439-452
  • No. of Pages:14
  • Keywords:Operetta; Revue; Łódź; Modernity; German theatre
  • Summary/Abstract:This article discusses the history of the German Thalia theatre in Łódź and its place in the wider context of the operetta industry of the early 20th century. The author draws attention to the challenges the Thalia had to face as a theatre operating in the provinces, which wanted to play the same modern repertoire as in European metropolises. It was difficult to fulfil these ambitions, among other things, due to falling attendance and the problem of keeping titles in the repertoire for longer and, consequently, financial difficulties. The theatre was also not helped by the scepticism of reviewers, who saw the operettas fashionable on European stages only as a temporary sensation. Meanwhile, operettas not only offered an escape from reality, but also subtly commented on social and political problems, making them a vehicle for the cultural politics of the era. Despite its commercial nature, the modern operetta had a deeper impact on the formation of societies and was an expression of mass identity. In this sense, it may have influenced the development of modern societies, including that of Lodz, which, on the eve of the First World War, tried to emulate the lifestyle of Western metropolises.
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Chłopczyce, półdziewice, girlsy – wizerunek nowoczesnej kobiety łódzkiej w komiksach drukowanych w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym w „Expressie Ilustrowanym”

Chłopczyce, półdziewice, girlsy – wizerunek nowoczesnej kobiety łódzkiej w komiksach drukowanych w dwudziestoleciu międzywojennym w „Expressie Ilustrowanym”
(Flappers, Semi-Virgins, and Showgirls: The Image of the Modern Łódź Woman in Express Ilustrowany Comic Strips 1918–1939)

  • Author(s):Karolina Kołodziej
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Language and Literature Studies, Cultural history, Culture and social structure
  • Page Range:453-462
  • No. of Pages:10
  • Keywords:women; Łódź; press; interwar period; cartoons
  • Summary/Abstract:The article shows the image of a modern woman from Łódź that emerges from comics published in the interwar period in "Express Wieczorny Ilustrowany". The magazine published articles, literary works and comics that immortalized the image of a modern woman: liberated, aware of her sexuality, following the latest fashion.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Modernizacja rozrywki: umasowienie kina jako praktyki kulturowej w Łodzi do 1939 roku

Modernizacja rozrywki: umasowienie kina jako praktyki kulturowej w Łodzi do 1939 roku
(The Modernization of Entertainment: The Popularization of Cinema as a Cultural Practice in Łódź Until 1939)

  • Author(s):Łukasz Biskupski
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory
  • Page Range:463-480
  • No. of Pages:18
  • Keywords:Łódź; mass culture; history of cinema; film screening; mediatization of entertainment
  • Summary/Abstract:The text shows how, on the scale of one city, the large-industrial Łódź, the modernization of the commercial entertainment landscape took place, in which cinema took a dominant place. This process had aspects such as mediatization, centralization of content production and broadening the scope of influence. The commercialization of the invention of the cinematograph meant that the landscape of urban entertainment was quickly dominated by cinema, pushing to the margin earlier entertainments for which the panopticon and variete formats were the most representative. From a technical novelty, cinema has transformed into an archetypal modern mass media. Łódź, a large industrial center typical of modernity, also quickly became a "City of Attractions" with a rich popular cultural offer, among which cinemas increasingly dominated. The key elements of the process of massification of this form of entertainment have been described, illustrating how, during the first 40 years of the 20th century, the cinematograph evolved from a technological curiosity to a mass cultural practice that can be called cinephilia.
  • Price: 0.52 €
Merkuriańska Łódź i antyczne ikony nowoczesności

Merkuriańska Łódź i antyczne ikony nowoczesności
(Marcurial Łódź and Ancient Icons of Modernity)

  • Author(s):Przemysław Owczarek
  • Language:Polish
  • Subject(s):Architecture, Local History / Microhistory
  • Page Range:481-500
  • No. of Pages:20
  • Keywords:Hermes; architectural details; allegory; Rajmund Rembieliński
  • Summary/Abstract:Since the mid-19th century, numerous architectural details have appeared in industrial cities exposing the figure and attributes of Hermes - Mercury, the Greek god of trade, merchants and thieves, the protector of travelers, the messenger of the gods and psychopompus, the ruler of writing and communication, money and all measures, a prophet in the form of the Hellenic Hermes Trismegistus and the guardian of secret knowledge and the patron of Freemasonry (a wizard and a doctor with a caduceus wand). He is the only Greek and pagan god whose images and presence have so strongly marked the history of Western culture. Mercurian details can be found on the facades of factories, palaces, tenement houses and banks, wherever, through the shape of the building and its purpose, the bourgeoisie celebrated the triumph of control over the world flow of money. Hermes - Mercury became the patron of industry, an ancient icon of modernity and capitalism. City centers of 19th-century architecture are a kind of passages, passages, communication routes of historical style architecture as well as ideas and goods, they are streams through which the blood of capitalism - money - flows. This clever god, as Mercurius in alchemy corresponding to liquid mercury, is an intriguing image of modernity seen as fluid and fleeting in the thought of the great theoretician of modernism, Karl Marx. His dictum of the diagnosis of modernity: Everything that is solid melts into air - inspired researchers such as Walter Benjamin, Zygmunt Bauman, Georg Steiner and Marschal Bermann. Their thought became the starting point for a specific review of Mercurian details and architecture of Łódź, the center of which was marked not by the market square typical of pre-modern cities, but by a route-passage. The founder of industrial Łódź was the Freemason Rajmund Rembieliński.
  • Price: 0.52 €
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