Odwrócenie perspektywy – próba innego modelu historii literatury. Metoda wglądków

Author(s): Leszek Zwierzyński / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The present treatise aims at drawing up a new model of investigating the history of literature. Even though comparative approach is applied by the author, he does so within the constraints of an altered history of literature. A new form of the hermeneutic circle is developed. After a preliminary reading that accentuates particular issues in a poet’s work under analysis, what is further investigated is the reappearance of those issues in the poetry of a resourceful Continuator. At this very moment shifting of the perspective takes place: careful investigation of metamorphosis undergone by the resultant shape of phenomena in the realm of poetry allows to reverse-engineer the sought-after lens facilitating the creative reading of the poetry under analysis. The said reversal was utilized in the reading of Juliusz Słowacki’s poetry (namely, the problematic of liminal being present therein – transgression, disability, and destruction of ontic dimension of the human being), and the said lens, enabling the contemporary rereading, is in this very case the poetry of Słowacki’s prodigious Continuator – Bolesław Leśmian. First, the reading of the latter’s „Bałwan ze śniegu” (Snowman) allowed to uncover the broader basis for the epiphany in one of Słowacki’s lyrics, then the ballads by Leśmian helped to recognize the depiction of a crippled nun as a metonymical symbol that highlights her other mode of being inside the metonymicality of body. Finally, Leśmian’s poems unveiled the fact that negative epiphany occurring in Semenko’s martyr-like body is what reveals more radically his existential transgression and metamorphosis, than the sacred symbolism used.

Refleksja aksjologiczna w „Eli, Eli” Wojciecha Tochmana

Author(s): Monika Wiszniowska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Literary journalism, by its genological nature, is not concerned with philosophical deliberations. Keeping this in mind, it is worth exploring the works of Wojciech Tochman, one of the most interesting contemporary writers, who is continuing the tradition of Polish literary journalism. Tochman’s writings include three collections of reportage on general social topics, one documentary novel, two novels treating of the genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda, as well as a story about the hell of everyday lives of the residents of Onyx – a district of Manila. However important the subject matter of his prose is, it is not in itself a measure of its artistic value. Unlike the majority of his colleagues, Tochman is not interested in telling a story about a “different” world, unknown to the readers. The subject of the author of „Eli, Eli’s” fascination is a human being. He pursues the question about who man is in today’s world and what defines his identity. A recurring motif in his writings is the difficult matter of telling a story of someone else’s extreme experience and reflection concerning the moral dilemmas raised by such an experience. The second, equally important feature of this prose, is the awareness of a reporter’s responsibility for their work, which also means responsibility for the world.

Maria Kuncewiczowa — wieczna cudzoziemka

Author(s): Barbara Szymczak-Maciejczyk / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Andrzeja Bobkowskiego powrót do ojczyzny

Author(s): Ewa Zwolak / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The purpose of the chapter is to show that the case of Andrzej Bobkowski—which emerges from his extensive epistolography—eludes all renditions of the concept of emigration. The associated strategy of creating identity is the result of the confrontation of the author of Sketches in Pen with the otherness, which was the result of constant contacts with ideologically deformed Europe. Bobkowski’s correspondence (with, among many others, Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, Jerzy Giedroyc, Jerzy Turowicz, Tymon Terlecki and Aniela Mieczysławska) witnesses the end of French universalism. According to the epistolographer, Europe of that time became the center of totalitarian ideology and he took on the role of “the third”—an observer, not enclosed within the symbolic register of reality. The fall of the ideals from youth inspired Bobkowski to ask a question about his own subjectivity. The place considered, until World War II, a quintessence of Western European civilization and at the same time the center of Bobkowski’s own symbolic universe, ceased to be a reference system for his identity. Therefore, paradoxically, the place which was foreign to him culturally and socially, allowed him to self-determine and reforge his cultural identity. He managed to find his spiritual home in Guatemala. Consequently, the strategy adopted by Bobkowski in building his own subjectivity prompts the question of whether the protection project of his “I” was a fight against strangeness or, on the contrary, its affirmation.

Fotografia i malarstwo jako przestrzenie budowania obcości na przykładzie Hanemanna Stefana Chwina

Author(s): Olga Osińska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

In the chapter Photography and Painting as a Space of Alienation in Stefan Chwin’s “Hanemann”, Olga Osińska addresses the relations between the reception of a photography and a painting in reference to the eponymous Polish novel. At first, according to Francois Brunet, Osińska distinguishes between traditional and modern way of reading photographs, favouring the latter, constructivist theory that describes photographs as affecting its viewer with an impulse to create a fictional narrative. In the core part of the chapter, Osińska depicts how the novel’s protagonist, Hanemann, fantasizes about the idea of a suicide or his own sense of alienation, concluding, that the interpretation of a photography as a kind of confabulation can be seen therein not only as a way of a therapeutic self-identification, but also as a self-aware artistic strategy.

Dyskursywne mechanizmy wytwarzania obcości w prozie Magdaleny Tulli

Author(s): Agnieszka Wójtowicz-Zając / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The chapter concerns Magdalena Tulli’s novels, such as "Sny i kamienie" (1995), "W czerwieni" (1998), "Tryby" (2003), Skaza (2006), with the exception of her autobiographical prose "Włoskie szpilki" and "Szum". Wójtowicz-Zając focuses here on the discursive means of producing otherness in "Zamiast procesu. Raport o mowie nienawiści" (2003), compiled by Magdalena Tulli and Sergiusz Kowalski, used as a predominant reference for presented interpretation. The report offers an overview of otherness and foreignness presented throughout the analyses of storylines, vocabulary, idioms, style, or other language tools used for constructing the other in radical right-wing newspapers. Almost every Tulli’s novel, from "Sny i kamienie" to "Szum", reiterates the aforementioned issues, either as the main topic ("Skaza", 2006), or part of author’s personal experience ("Włoskie szpilki", "Szum"), or embedded as a secondary plot, initiated in some point of narration ("W czerwieni", 1998, "Tryby", 2003). "Sny i kamienie", Tulli’s literary debut, on the other hand, is shown as a tractate on creational powers of language which completes analyses from "Zamiast procesu". An emphasis on this creational powers of language in Tulli’s novels leads to comparing the report’s conclusions, that envision the world presented in selected newspapers, with linguistic rules composing the narrative in Tulli’s novels. The work of the metaphor, realized through its literalization, backgrounds her writing style allowing to emphasize the discursive power of creating divisions between the self and the other as well as between individual as a victim. The article tracks down how the observations from the report interweave with individual plots which span from literary tractates on the creational power of language (Sny i kamienie) to meticulous observations of the nature of separating, excluding, and naming of the other. Magdalena Tulli’s novels are therefore, argued to serve as a perfect ‘laboratory’ for studying discursive means of producing the otherness and exclusion alike.

Postkolonialne fikcyjne światy w twórczości Andrzeja Ziemiańskiego

Author(s): Mariola Lekszycka / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The chapter “Postcolonial Imaginary Worlds in the Works of Andrzej Ziemiański” delivers a postcolonial interpretation of the work of Polish fantasy writer, Andrzej Ziemiański. The theoretical part summarizes the critical standpoints towards postcolonialism delivered by Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Robert J. C. Young and Bill Ashcroft. The research is based on five volumes composing the series “Pomniki Cesarzowej Achai” by Andrzej Ziemiański. First featured in Achaja—the previous Ziemiańki’s series—the fictitious world is significantly expanded to include new characters and locales. Among the latter are significant differences which point at postcolonial relationship in the analysis of the “first encounters”—which, according to Mariola Lekszycka, complements the interpretation of Ziemiański’s oeuvre that was heretofore looked upon from feminist perspective.

Księga "Myśliwski" (w oczekiwaniu na siódmy rozdział…)

Author(s): Józef Olejniczak / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Percepty Myśliwskiego. Estetyka „Widnokręgu”

Author(s): Artur Żywiołek / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Trzy inwencje Myśliwskiego

Author(s): Tomasz Bocheński / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Rzeczy, miejsca, ludzie… Słowo o depozytach i katalizatorach pamięci w prozie Wiesława Myśliwskiego

Author(s): Karol Maluszczak / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Trudna sztuka gry na saksofonie, czyli Myśliwskiego lekarstwo dla duszy

Author(s): Antoni Leśniak / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

„Kamień na kamieniu” Wiesława Myśliwskiego w świetle teorii popędów

Author(s): Paweł Otręba / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Telewizja a kres kultury chłopskiej – od „Awansu” Edwarda Redlińskiego do „Requiem dla gospodyni” Wiesława Myśliwskiego

Author(s): Jolanta Betkowska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Kwartet dramatyczny Wiesława Myśliwskiego

Author(s): Ewa Wąchocka / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

Leonard — wampir czy demoniczny sobowtór? O „Sile woli” Józefa Bohdana Dziekońskiego

Author(s): Dominika Szymanek / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The introduction of the article outlines the issue of black romanticism and gives reason why the concepts of vampire and doppelgänger have been combined with this aspect. The consecutive paragraphs present the definitions of vampirism and doppelgängerism based on „The Dictionary of the 19th-century literature” and works by various researchers (Maria Janion, Barbara Zwolińska, Dorota Samborska-Kukuć among others). There have been also provided the definition of unearthliness proposed by Maciej Szargot, one of the main researchers of the works by Józef Bogdan Dziekoński. This was the basis for building the essential part of the article, that is the interpretation of the story entitled „Willpower” by Józef Bogdan Dziekoński. The aim of the article is to provide justification for making this work the subject of not only the discourse regarding the doppelgänger, but also the vampire, while both of the interpretations may be treated equally, because not only are they not mutually exclusive, but also they are complementary. What is an important element is also the remark that the works by this writer may be considered in terms that refer to black romanticism, because both elements of vampirism as well as doppelgangerism are comprised in this issue.

Jungowskie archetypy a motyw szaleństwa w „Czarnych oczach” Ludwika Sztyrmera

Author(s): Julian Strzałkowski / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

This article presents the interpretations of „Black Eyes” by Ludwik Sztyrmer with the use the tools offered by Jungian depth psychology. What is an interesting motif in the context of the research is madness. Therefore, the author is looking for archetypes that affect the implementation of this motif. Hence, the aim of the article is to examine the dark-romantic text with the method that has not been used so far.

„Był to jakby dzień widziany przez kir żałobny”. Opowiadania Brunona Schulza a motywy charakterystyczne dla czarnego romantyzmu

Author(s): Anna Szumiec / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article entitled „It seemed to be a day seen through a burial shroud. The stories by Bruno Schulz and the themes characteristic of Dark Romanticism” discusses a few characteristics typical of the trend called Dark Romanticism in the context of the stories by one of the most outstanding Polish writers — Bruno Schulz. The associations between the prose by this author from Drohobycz and selected Romantic attitudes have been considered, however, what is the core of the essay is the interpretation of Dark Romantic themes, such as a characteristic of labyrinth, wanderer, doppelgänger, and the motif of madness and broadly understood darkness, on the background of selected stories from the volumes of „Sklepy cynamonowe” („The Cinnamon Shops”) and „Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą” („Sanatorium under the Sign of the Hourglass”). The aim of the article is to present Bruno Schulz not as a twentieth-century continuator of Dark Romantic writing, but as an author who drew inspiration from the works of the leading representatives of the trend called Dark Romanticism (Edgar Allan Poe, Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman), thus creating his own vision of literature with the use of the well-known nineteenth-century motives.

Na granicy snu, jawy i śmierci. Inspiracje Edgarem Allanem Poem w twórczości Bolesława Leśmiana

Author(s): Joanna Iżykowska / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

In the text „On the Verge of Sleep, Reality and Death. Inspirations coming from Edgar Allan Poe in the Works by Bolesław Leśmian”, I have been making an attempt to analyze the threads that seem likely to have been derived by Bolesław Leśmian from one of the most famous Dark Romantic writers — Edgar Allan Poe. In the course of a detailed analysis, numerous motifs characteristic of the works by Poe have been referred to, and subsequently selected texts by Bolesław Leśmian, wherein one can find similar elements have been discussed. The aforementioned topics include, among others, the motif of a suffering woman, crime, the aesthetization of death or the oniric presentation of the moment of the end of life. Besides, the text does not just focus on providing examples of similarities between the two authors. It is also an attempt to illustrate the very individual approach of Leśmian to the borrowed motives and creative utilizing them.

Kruczoczarny romantyzm. Motywy czarnoromantyczne w prozie Stefana Grabińskiego

Author(s): Paweł Otręba / Language(s): Polish Publication Year: 0

The article concerns the implementation of Dark Romantic motifs in short-story writings by Stefan Grabiński, and above all, the motive of madness. In my opinion, Grabiński, as a pioneer of Polish horror who took inspiration from one of the key creators of Dark Romanticism, Edgar Allan Poe, is one of those authors who should be seen, in the first place, as continuators of the tradition of Dark Romanticism. His works comprise motifs so much characteristic of this tradition, such as the motif of doppelgänger („Problemat Czelawy”, „Na tropie” — „On the Trail”), madness („Pożarowisko” — „Fire”, „Spojrzenie” — „Glance”) or demonism (frequently manifesting in the femme fatale characters in stories, such as „W domu Sary” („In the House of Sarah”) or „Kochanka Szamoty” („The Lover of Szamota”). What is relevant in the context of Dark Romanticism is also the recognition of the poetics of the works by Grabiński and placing it in the historical-literary context, while taking into consideration the fact that the prose by Grabiński has a modernist character, despite the fact that the author wrote during the interwar period.