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Tekst odczytany jak lectio ultima (wykład na zakończenie studiów) absolwentom Wydziału Filologicznego Uniwersytetu Wileńskiego w kościele św. Jana, 30 czerwca 2022 roku, w 111. rocznicę urodzin Czesława Miłosza.
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This article is a review of Pau Freixa Terradas’ book on reception of Witold Gombrowicz’s literary works in Argentina, which is presented in the context of the research on the Argentinian period in Witold Gombrowicz’s oeuvre, which includes his attempts at entering the local literary circulation, the posthumous reception of his work as well as his image in the local culture – especially as a literary character appearing in literary works of Argentinian writers.
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The Bruno Schulz oeuvre is not without images of horror; on the contrary, such forms are numerous but remain curious – often allusive or with an underpinning of irony. The most expressive is the image of the fury of an apparently endless gale destroying the roofs of houses. There is also horror, or rather its allusion, as a mysterious aura evoked by the dramas of clouds and celestial objects, taking place in the sky over Drohobych. Terrifying metamorphoses of persons changing into birds, insects, crabs or rubber intestines. More, there is an almost classical tragedy with all the elements of tragic qualities: when father-crab is baked and almost eaten in the course of a family dinner. Nonetheless, horror in Schulz’s world appears to lack a solid enrootment in the firm ground of reality – be it the reality of Nature or society; its epiphanies cease and dissolve without clear reason or lack consequences of any sort; we cannot even tell whether the threats were real. In an article published in “Pion” (1935) Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz undertook a philosophical interpretation of stories from the Sklepy cynamonowe volume. This clarification contains also a possible answer to the question why horror in Schulz’s works was treated so amicably.
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An account about the X. International Bruno Schulz Festival in Drohobych, held on 2–17 July 2022, i.e. during wartime. The inauguration took place upon the occasion of 130th anniversary of the birth of Bruno Schulz, with the most prominent Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan reading an essay written for this occasion, while translators and scholars from assorted countries participated online. Referring to the contexts of the oeuvre and biography of the author of Republika marzeń, confronted with wartime reality, the director of SchulzFest presented the most significant events of the previous, anniversary Festival, such as reading poems in shelters, the Nikita Kadan installation in Schulz’s home in former Floriańska Street, a performance given by Włodko Kaufman in Bianka’s villa, a meeting with Andrzej Stasiuk, a staging of Schulz’s spectacle “Universum” by actors from assorted Ukrainian towns, a documentary spectacle: “Grown Up Children”, involving teenagers resettled to Drohobych from locations most affected by the war, and auteur musical projects by Ukrainian poets Hryhoriy Semenchuk and Anton Slepakov, co-organisers and partners of the wartime SchulzFest in Drohobych.
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A publication of statements by translators and researchers from nine countries, all dealing with the works of Bruno Schulz, presented at the inauguration of the X International Bruno Schulz Festival in Drohobych, on 12 July 2022, upon the 130th anniversary the birth of the author of Republika marzeń. Words dedicated to Schulz and Ukraine at war were said during a video call on the stage of the Yuriy Drohobych Theatre of Music and Drama in Drohobych – the only festival event that took place on-line. The X SchulzFest lasted for a week and all events enjoyed enormous interest of the recipients. The participants of a virtual journey to the sites of Schulz’s life and works in his home tome included Stanley Bill (United Kingdom), Xavier Farré (Spain), Keti Kantaria (Georgia), Ariko Kato (Japan), Wei-Yun Lin-Górecka (Taiwan), Hanele Palková (Czech Republic), Theodosia Robertson (USA), Henryk Siewierski (Brazil), Branislava Stojanović (Serbia), and Karen Underhill (USA). The presented publication contains all ten statements. Some are combined with handmade birthday cards intended for Schulz (Hanele Palková, Karen Underhill), and a poem dedicated to him (Xavier Farré). The online meeting was chaired in Drohobych by Vera Meniok, whose letter addressed to Schulz experts and translators of his works opens this publication.
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The article addresses the differences in the ways in which the research issue of “lite- rature and religion” is understood and interpreted in the humanities. The focus of attention is on Polish and Bulgarian literary studies as two cases which are very different in terms of socio- -cultural, political and religious conditions. The analysis is conducted from a postsecular per- spective and serves to indicate a possible crypto-theological framework for assumptions and practices typical of the Polish and Bulgarian scholarly fields. The aim of the article is to com- ment on the cultural contexts that condition local specificities, and to show the possibilities of using those for the purposes of self-distancing and invigorating of the discipline(s).
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A better author could probably write a detective story about the word pudding. The cul- tural and linguistic complex associated with this word spans in its full extent a thousand years and six continents. This paper concerns itself only with its semantic evolution in English, and its spread to several of the geographically closest languages: German, French, and Italian, each of which has a different relationship with both the word and the dish. The intention is not to explain everything, it is too early for that, but rather to sketch the overall picture and thus to highlight those areas which require further investigation.
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Within the framework of an ample project dedicated to the study of WW I memory literature in Roma- nian culture, the present study aims at reflecting upon particular philological objects, most of them – imaginary, while the few real ones take unexpected forms. Philologists have frequently remarked upon the lack of an extensive corpus of letters written by Transylvanian Romanian peasants (drafted into the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and tend to put it down to the extremely precarious literacy standards of the category in question. Nevertheless, the “letter” as an instrument of correspondence between two worlds, an object both magical and redeeming, is a recurrent literary motif in the Transyl- vanian Romanian folklore inspired by the historical event in question. This topos is the object of our analysis. Between the modern written culture and the archaic oral one, imagining the letter in texts and folkloric artefacts belies the mentality conflicts triggered off by the war, as well as the means by which the rural (conservative) populace attempts to come to terms with the violence brought about by the new history ushered by the world conflict.
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In this article we reveal the publishing ventures of Octav Minar (1886-1967), one of the Romanian authors that was disesteemed by fellow literary historians on account of his counterfeiting acts such as forgery, plagiarism, plastography or trick photography. Related to the book market of interbellum Romania, Minar was frequently branded as the “man-of-the-day” while his publications followed the logic of the “hand-in-glove” ephemerides Notwithstanding the challenges of the term “bestseller,” we turned to it so as to better describe Minar’s cultural products as multiple-layered offers, cater- ing for both low-brow and high-brow readership and seizing signals from both public’s expectations (myth-making, melodrama, sensation, narrative simplicity) and enormous patrimonial gaps (editing the classics, writing the recent authors’ biographies). After a careful examination of Minar’s works, we reached the conclusion that he was an exceptional entrepreneur of letters and, nonetheless, a lite- rary historian endowed with a “melodramatic imagination” as well as with a playwright’s and a genre novelist’s plume. A swift intuition of marketing basics helped him realize, quite rapidly, that histori- cal facts and documents could be merchandized: this is how his impressive collection of Romanian writers’ miscellanea was wrapped as a commodity for the public. If the juridical and moral aspects of his literary ventures were put in between brackets, we would discover an astonishing and ingenious personality who glided between different speech registers, and popularized literary history as a genre belonging to the big tent of mass culture. We should thus take into consideration that the logic of the paraliterary circuit can also be applied to literary history. Boiled down to essentials, counting on cita- tions and on minimal critical comments, spiced with images (facsimile and pictures), Minar’s literary histories had their share in speeding the process of cultural literacy of average Romanian readers and in institutionalizing literary ideas.
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This article reflects on material objects and the practice of collecting as literary subject linked to the themes of memory and past in contemporary Turkish fiction. The analysis focuses mainly on Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence considering the objects exhibited both in the novel and the museum as narrative texts of subjective and collective memories. In order to better understand Pamuk’s works we will preliminarily reconstruct the intertextual chain that preceded such a specific approach to material culture, having particular reference to Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s first novel Mahur Beste. By comparing both the authors’ poetics of objects we aim at highlighting the intimate reasons which made this subject a peculiar topos in modern Turkish literary tradition.
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The essay considers the curators of Russian-language literary projects (editors, organizers of actions, publishers of contemporary literature, creators of literary study courses) implemented in war time. The text is based on an empirical qualitative study of the viewpoints and motivations of literary curators based both in Russia and abroad. Among the latter are literary curators who have lived abroad for a long time or who have emigrated from Russia in the last year and a half. The essay explores the reasons why curators closed or suspended their literary projects in Russia and their motives for creating new projects or continuing old ones. It reveals the literary curators’ point of view on the possible and real goals of Russian-language literary projects during the war. The study draws attention to the specificity of curatorial positions and actions depending on the location of the project (in Russia, abroad, in metropolitan or regional Russian cities), as well as the age of the curator. In addition, the study reveals the spectrum of literary curators’ opinions on “high-profile,” debatable issues related to the fate of Russianlanguage literary projects during the war: their attitude to cooperation with state cultural institutions, the practice of filtering project participants depending on the political position of the participants, their attitude to the thesis about the responsibility of Russian language and literature for military aggression, and their attitude to the demand for Russian-language literary projects to “shut up.” In general, the study showed that curators interpret the current situation of Russian contemporary literature as a “new underground” and see their task in psychological and professional assistance to the author, politicization of projects, and documentation of a new literary emigrant environment.
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This article sets itself a twofold task. On the basis of recently published scholarship, it wishes to revisit the history of Bakhtin’s discovery in Russia and the West since the 1960s; but it also intends to offer a tentative answer to the question: ‘What did Bakhtin discover as a thinker’? The two dimensions, cap- tured in the ambiguity of the genitive — ‘Bakhtin’s discovery’ — are closely interrelated. In a very significant sense, what we perceive to be Bakhtin’s dis- coveries as a thinker and a theorist is a dynamic target rather than a fixed apparatus. As I try to demonstrate through a plethora of examples, Bakhtin’s discoveries and the lessons we draw from them have been articulated differently at different historical junctures and in different cultural settings; the Bakhtin we see is a fluctuating image, resulting from superimposed perspectives involving growth, modification, loss, and a complex adjustment of meaning, as his body of writing travels across time and traditions and meets inherited patterns of reasoning. Bakhtin’s discoveries are thus not a reliable supply of knowledge or wisdom; they rather derive from the elusive, sometimes blurred, and never quite finished work of mediation and translation. Equally important, the optics we apply towards Bakhtin in discerning his contributions as a thinker is affected by the stories of his discovery at home and abroad. Processes that look as awkward time-lag or distortion are often marks of intense appro- priation and a high impact factor in disguise. Over time, we realise that the very narratives employed in telling and re-enacting the story of Bakhtin’s discovery in Russia and the West are saturated with the cultural and ideological heteroglossia which he came to analyse in his writings. In tracing some of these narratives, I hope to arrive gradually at a Bakhtin, whose legacy is the function of multiple historical articulations, a thinker in transit, a theorist subject to dialogue.
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These are Dmitry Donskoy and Vladimir Serpukhovsky, brothers Andrey and Dmitry Olgerdovich, Peresvet and Oslyabya, as well as the heavenly helpers of the warriors — the first Russian saints Boris and Gleb. The poetic technique of depicting paired heroes is used in The Tale with a certain artistic aim. The comprehension of this aim allows to put a point in the dispute of researchers concerning the image of Dmitry Donskoy in this work. Some of them believed that the author of The Tale created a panegyric to the Grand Duke, approaching to hagiographic praises, according to others — it is a pamphlet directed against him, minimizing and distorting his role in the battle. The article suggests that the author uses the image of paired characters to divide military functions between the main characters. Thus the role of the heroic prince-warrior, the real winner on the battlefield is assigned by the author to Vladimir Andreevich Serpukhovsky, and Dmitry Ivanovich acts as an ideal Christian, whose unwavering faith in God and diligent prayers ensured the victory of the Russian army. The article shows that the paired characters of The Tale go back to the binary images of the ancient and medieval heroic epic, the archetypal model of these imagesis the myth of the Dioscuri.
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The article examines the problems of expression, understanding and dialogue in the works of V. Odoevsky. The writer emphasized the importance and originality of his thoughts about this in a letter to A. Kraevsky. Odoevsky understood language broadly, as a semiotic system. Natural sciences, history, art have their own languages. The writer gave preference to the language of art and emphasized the superiority of the microcosm over the macrocosm, and of intuitive, creative knowledge over rational knowledge. Being a lybomudr, Odoevsky dreamed of creating an “ideal” language common to all sciences, but he soon became disillusioned with this idea. In the 1830s, the writer moved away from philosophical abstractions to the individual and unique. At the same time, he noted the universality of the language of art and especially music. In the novel “Russian Nights” Odoevsky comes close to the problems of expression and awareness of the “inexpressible” in words. The form of the novel actualizes this issue, since it is largely structured as a dialogue between friends who express their innermost thoughts, but often encounter misunderstanding or cold irony from their rational interlocutors. According to Odoevsky, the path to a genuine statement, as well as to its understanding, lies in the realm of the spirit: only a pure heart and prayer will help a person fully express his thought and understand another. Odoevsky’s philosophy of language is rooted in German classical philosophy, medieval Western European mysticism and the Orthodox patristic tradition.
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The article clarifies the value function of etiquette in the novel “Demons,” identifies communicative situations in which observance of etiquette or, conversely, departure from generally accepted norms of behavior affects the characters and beliefs of the characters. Noble, folk and folk-poetic (epic, fairy-tale) etiquette are considered. Various forms of his expression are analyzed — through the character’s speech, gestures, facial expressions, actions. The importance of moral attitudes that determine the ethics and the inner world of a person is demonstrated, reflecting to a greater extent in the external way of acting and relationships than the knowledge of the secular manners and communication culture. Despite the decent manners noted by the chronicler, Pyotr Verkhovensky regularly wanted to offend and insult his interlocutors; Stepan Trofimovich’s external untidiness appears along with his bad habits and inclinations; Verkhovensky’s “five” created a special behavioral narrative demonstrating their views and immoral appearance; the degraded and slovenly Lebyadkin begins to jauntily observe the etiquette when he sees a personal benefit in it. The different styles of the characters’ etiquette behavior allowed to identify a peculiar typology of heroes, in which, on the one side are the characters with elegant manners, but without a moral core, occupy diametric positions, on the other hand — heroes who are far removed from refined education, but not devoid of moral principles and virtues. Dostoevsky shows various functions of etiquette, many of which turned out to be a manifestation of the lack of the characters’ spirituality and served as a means to achieve their selfish goals. In addition to secular etiquette, elements of national consciousness are introduced into the poetics of the work. At its core are the Orthodox faith and love for Christ, which was a genuine ethical guideline for Dostoevsky. The convergence of the noble world with the folk world formed new value concepts of the novel’s characters, which was implemented in external behavior. The inclusion of folk culture in the cultural context introduced into the work complementary religious and ethical meanings inseparable from goodness and truth, which were significant for Dostoevsky.
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Dostoevsky considered “restoration of a ruined person” to be “the key idea of all art of the nineteenth century.” This is exactly what makes up the inner plot of many of the writer’s works. Such a “restoration” is not so much actually happening as it is implicit in some of them. This is the case in “Crime and Punishment” and “The Brothers Karamazov.” At the same time, in both works it is not only not articulated, but is barely outlined. Meanwhile, there are researchers who believe that Dmitry Karamazov is not sent to hard labor, but flees to America — this is how open the novel’s ending is. At the same time, Dostoevsky has, on the contrary, “ruined heroes,” i. e., the “underground paradoxalist,” Alexey Ivanovich from “The Gambler,” Svidrigailov, Stavrogin. Sometimes the “resurrection of a new man” occurs in the most unlikely Dostoevsky’s characters. One of such characters in “Demons” is Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky. In such deeply interconnected works of Russian literary classics as Dostoevsky’s “Idiot” and Tolstoy’s “Resurrection”, attempts to save the “fallen woman” are in the center of attention. Tolstoy even included this theme, understood after Dostoevsky precisely as “the restoration of a ruined person,” in the title of his novel. In “Resurrection,” Tolstoy actually rewrote the storyline of Myshkin, Totsky and Nastasia Filippovna. At the same time, he remade the plot of the novel “Idiot” into a more realistic one. In Dostoevsky one of the characters, Totsky, seduces and uses Nastasia Filippovna, while another, Prince Myshkin, tries to save her. In Tolstoy, Prince Nekhludoff pays for his own sin. The transformation in the “Resurrection” of the plot situations from the novel “Idiot” is aimed at their happy resolution; meanwhile it is not Nekhludoff’s repentance for his actions, but Katyusha Maslova’s quiet selfsacrifice that leads to it. Unlike Myshkin and Nekhludoff, the hero of Chekhov’s novella “My Life” is by no means conceived as a “positively wonderful person,” much less Christ. However, in some incomprehensible way, unlike Myshkin and Nekhludoff, he achieves his goal. Apparently, such, according to Chekhov, is the power of not just a word, but a beneficent example. Misail tries to find a path consistent with his conscience, and thereby sets a beneficent example to his entire environment. Thus, in Chekhov’s mature works, there is a constant reliance on the aesthetics of the “transformation of man.” So, this theme turns out, mutatis mutandis, to be common to all Russian literary classics — from Pushkin to Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov.
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The previously unpublished notes by A. A. Ukhtomsky in the margins of the first volume of the Complete Works of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (1905–1906) are proposed to be interpreted as critical presentation material for the novel “The Golovlevs” and as a road map to expand the intertextual boundaries of this work. The marginalia by A. A. Ukhtomsky open up the prospect of reading the text of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in the context of literary and patristic traditions. First and foremost, the former is identified by the scientist with Gogol’s tradition. A. A. Ukhtomsky calls the parallel “Plyushkin — Golovlev” one of its manifestations, which is explained through the prism of the “things/persons” antinomy. The features of the second are revealed by an Orthodox thinker when comparing the novel by M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin with the precepts of the ven. Isaac the Syrian: the marks record the echo of those most important semantic nuances in the final scene that the St. Father highlighted when comprehending the “Last Judgment” and “Repentance” categories. The study of the corpus of readers’ marginalia by A. A. Ukhtomsky to the novel “The Golovlevs” contributes, first of all, to clarifying the characterology of Judushka-Porfiry in general and the causes of his pre-death suffering in particular; and secondly, to recreating the features of the spiritual portrait of the author, explicated in the work.
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The article analyzes Christian motifs and images, evangelical quotations and reminiscences that make up an important semantic layer of the work. In the center of the events is the fate of a six-year-old boy (the hero-narrator), who, after the death of his mother, experienced the “horror of loneliness” and is looking for a “soul mate.” It is established that such evangelical reminiscences as “separating sheep from goats” (Matthew 25:32), “helping others” (Matthew 25:33–46), make it possible to identify the axiological coordinates of the inhabitants of the Ukrainian town where the protagonist’s family lives. It is shown that the behavior of the townspeople explicates such a phenomenon of religious life as Pharisaism, recalling the conversion of Christ to the Pharisees (Matthew 25:27–28). The text includes an allusion to the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 13:13) and parallels the situation to that in the small town in western Ukraine which exists only by virtue of three righteous people living there, one of whom is the narrator’s father. Also, the mention of the biblical prophet Jeremiah doesn’t seem accidental: he had to convert the people who had departed from the faith, knowing well that his calls to repentance would remain fruitless (Jer. 20:8). The events of the short story show that the boy’s personality is formed under the influence of beggars and vagabonds, as opposed to ordinary people who seek to observe the moral law. It has been determined that an important place in the plot structure is occupied by the good/evil, life/death and heart/stone oppositions, which outline the main differences in the characters’ ethical systems. According to the conclusions, in the imagined world of the short story, the inhabitants of Princetown, whose hearts have hardened, are the antithesis of the boy Vasya and his friends from the dungeon with merciful and sympathetic hearts. Their very existence seems to remind readers of the well-known words of the Savior: “…unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
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The turn of the 20th century was marked by M. Gorky’s search for new artistic forms, genres, new aesthetics and a new hero. It was important for the writer to bring timeliness and usefulness of literature come to the fore. In the short novel “The Mother” Gorky attempted to present the result of his search: to act as an innovator in terms of genre; to acquaint readers with a new type of hero, his new truth and aesthetics, to demonstrate his goals and capabilities; as well as to resolve the long-standing conflict of “fathers and sons,” which concerned the writer at the very beginning of his career. Gorky offered his version of the solution to the conflict, which consisted of breaking the binding thread between generations of “fathers and children.” According to the writer’s observations, the generation of “fathers” turned out to be incapable of this, as well as incapable of resolving the existing contradictions and finding a compromise, therefore, he took the side of the younger generation in the overdue “confrontation.” Having taken the father, as the bearer of the traditions of the past that have become obsolete, out of the dispute, the writer provided the Son with the opportunity to assert his own new truth, the essence of which is the struggle for a better future for all mankind. The author entrusted this exalted and honorable mission to the younger generation. Gorky’s innovation was expressed in the fact that he made Mother the key assistant, friend and ally in this significant matter, thereby reminding society of the lofty purpose and role of a woman, as well as the sacred essence of motherhood in this world. The main conclusion of the study states that the spiritual revival of Pelageya Vlasova as an individual is the central leitmotif of this work.
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The article discusses the reception of Christian tradition in the works of Karelian poet A. P. Vasilyev. The book of poems “To Your Name…” reveals a deep interaction with Orthodox tradition in its lexis, motifs, images and topics. The title of the book of poems represents a direct quote from psalm 113. The psalm concentrates multiple semantic layers: fate and history of the nation that became God’s “possession” and “sanctity;” the Exodus from Egypt; unity of the Lord’s people; chanting the Lord’s name; reprimanding idol worship. The book of poems “To Your Name” reflects these main themes of the psalm. Consequently, the book focuses on such eternal issues as spiritual foundation of human existence, a human’s place in history and at the turn of centuries. Problems of national and personal fate, historical and eschatological questions are considered in the light of Christian tradition. The focus shifts from the historical topic in the first part of the book to the idea of soul resurrection in the second part: common human destiny is specified in the lyrical subject’s personal experience. The concept of “prayer” is comprehensively reflected and synthesized with poetry.
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