Acta Neophilologica

About taste in Italian. The relation of contextual synonymy between lexemes "gusto" and "sapore"

Agnieszka Kwapiszewska — 2025-12-16

This article examines the contextual synonymy between two Italian lexemes that denote taste: gusto and sapore. The aim is to develop a semantic profile of these two lexemes by considering both their literal (i.e., sensory) meanings and figurative ones. The central research question is: when is the Polish lexeme smak equivalent to the Italian gusto, and when does it correspond to the Italian sapore? The analysis reveals that gusto and sapore tend to be interchangeable in their sensory meanings, though only in certain contexts, whereas their figurative meanings diverge remarkably.

The Third Mission in the Humanities: Trilateral Collaboration at the Faculty of Philology within Science Hub UŁ

Aleksandra Makowska — 2025-12-16

Science Hub UŁ is a pioneering initiative at the University of Lodz fostering trilateral collaboration among students, academics, and external stakeholders. Its model enables students to conduct community-engaged research while addressing societal needs. This report explores the university's third mission through implementation conducted at the Faculty of Philology until June 2024. These include a glossary on neurodiversity, a guide for expatriates, and initiatives promoting cultural heritage. Humanities students apply their expertise to real-life challenges, benefiting external partners such as the Neurodiversity Foundation, Philips Polska, and the Archive of the Literary Institute.

The Ethical Dimension of Holocaust Fiction: Representations of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski in Leslie Epstein’s King of the Jews and Andrzej Bart’s "Fabryka muchołapek"

Iga Cemer-Matysewicz — 2025-12-16

The article analyzes the ethical dimension of Holocaust fiction through a comparative examination of two novels: Leslie Epstein’s "King of the Jews" and Andrzej Bart’s "Fabryka muchołapek". Specifically, the study focuses on the literary portrayal of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, the Nazi-appointed chairman of the Łódź Ghetto. Drawing on Monika Polit’s 2012 book "Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. Prawda i zmyślenie", this analysis seeks to determine whether Epstein and Bart transgress ethical boundaries to imaginative representation of the Holocaust in fiction.

Literary Anthropology as a Key to the Analysis of Selected Texts of the German Enlightenment. A Case Study – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's "Emilia Galotti"

Mateusz Niedziela — 2025-12-16

This article presents literary anthropology as a valuable and relatively new approach to analyzing German Enlightenment texts. It is structured as a case study, with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s "Emilia Galotti" serving as a canonical example. In doing so, it highlights the shortcomings of the social-critical method that dominated scholarship in the 1970s and 1980s. Addressing the fundamental question of the protagonist’s death, the article pays particular attention to the psychological characterization of the figures, masterfully constructed by Lessing, a keen observer of human nature.

Companion Demons – Visual Metaphors of anorexia nervosa in Graphic Novels "Przepowiednia pancernika" and "Moja przyjaciółka Nore"

Julia Gugołek — 2025-12-16

The article discusses contemporary graphic novels and their visualizations of the eating disorder anorexia. Anorexia nervosa, as a disease of civilization, is one of the most prevalent social problems of the 21st century, particularly affecting people during puberty. Awareness of the dangers posed by this disorder manifests itself on many levels, including artistic representations. Artists depicting eating disorders often use metaphors that have a strong emotional impact on the audience. The article analyzes two graphic novels: Przepowiednia pancernika (Zerocalcare) and Moja przyjaciółka Nore (Elisabeth Karin Pavón Rymer-Rythén), which employ demonic figures and their associated traits to raise readers’ awareness of the struggle against anorexia. It also examines the new functions of contemporary comics and the communicative potential of this intermedial form.

Desire of Emeralds. The Temptation of Jewels in Poetry of Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska

Ewelina Suszek — 2025-12-16

In the analyses and interpretations of selected poems by Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, the author explores several dimensions of her work: its intermedial aspect of the correspondence between poetry and jewelry art, a fascination with nature, and an uncharacteristic, even surprising, social reflection articulated in the poem "Emeralds". The motif of alluring jewels, which serves as the focal point of the proposed interpretations, functions not only as a distinctive ornamental element in her poetry but also establishes the cosmological and ontological foundations of the poetic world and influences the ethical dimension of her lyricism (the phenomenon of dirty stones).

Infinity on limits of the seas. Poetry and Life in "Baśń marynarska" [The Seafarer’s Fairy Tale] by Aleksander Szczęsny

Grzegorz Igliński — 2025-12-16

Analysis and interpretation of Aleksander Szczęsny’s poem Baśń marynarska [Seafarer’s fairy tale] (written in 1911 and published posthumously in his 1932 volume Pieśń o drodze [Song about the road]) is the subject of this article. This poem is immensely representative of the entire range of creative accomplishments of the poet, who liked applying marine imagery. Consequently, the interpretation is conducted in the context of his other works. Necessary references are also made to the literary tradition that was cherished by Szczęsny as a poet growing up in the Young Poland [Młoda Polska] period. These are works of authors who were young at that time: Le Voyage by Charles Baudelaire and Le Bateau ivre by Arthur Rimbaud, which both contain motives of seafaring. The article also attempts to explain the metaphoric term “fairy tale”, frequently utilised by Szczęsny, by applying the criteria developed during early German romanticism, mainly in works by Novalis.

"Balada o křiwéj budźe" by Óndra Łysohorsky Translated by Marina Tsvetaeva

Grzegorz Ojcewicz — 2025-12-16

The author examines the figure of Óndra Łysohorsky, a Lachian poet little known in Poland, and analyzes the translation of his poem Balada o křiwéj budźe (A Ballad of the Crooked Hut). The poem was translated into Russian by Marina Tsvetaeva, who based her work on a philological translation prepared by Łysohorsky himself. Tsvetaeva’s version stands out for its high artistic quality and avoids excessive amplifications or formal distortions-techniques often employed by masterful translators to leave their mark on the original text. A Ballad of the Crooked Hut has drawn particular attention from researchers because it eerily foreshadows Tsvetaeva’s tragic death: like the poem’s heroine, she died by suicide, hanging herself from a noose fixed to a nail.

The Death of Antoni Słonimski in the Light of the Censorship Documents from 1976

Magdalena Budnik — 2025-12-16

The archives cited in the article testify to the specific way in which the GUKPPiW dealt with Słonimski. It is noteworthy that, according to the censors, it was not the writer's work but his person that was most problematic. This is particularly clear in the documents produced post mortem by the office in 1976. Banned only a few months before his death, the text could only have been a reprint of a PAP memo. The attitude of the censors towards Słonimski is well illustrated by the types of interference introduced, in which the author appears as persona non grata, whose brave deeds in the fight for freedom of speech in Poland should no longer be quoted. Political allusions were scrupulously removed.

“To Break the Boy’s Word.” Stylisation into the Language of the Youth Criminal Groups in the TV Series Boy’s Word: Blood on the Asphalt by Zhora Kryzhovnikov

Olga Letka-Spychała — 2025-12-16

The purpose of this article is to characterise the language subjected to environmental stylisation in Zhora Kryzhovnikov’s TV series The Boy’s Word: Blood on the Asphalt. The lexical layer of the series has been analysed. The lexical units have been extracted from eight episodes and come from the utterances of the characters, who are representatives of youth criminal groups. The vocabulary used by them is divided into two thematic groups: names of people and vocabulary describing behaviour. In the case of the TV series, we are dealing with an all-encompassing stylisation, as it appears in high intensity and covers a significant part of the characters’ narration. The stylistic patterns used in the production are colloquialisation and argotisation, both based on the vocabulary taken from youth slang and criminal jargon.

German and Ukrainian Studies on the Representation of Fantastic and Mystic in Literature

Svitlana Ivanenko — 2025-12-16

The article deals with the problem of the differentiation of such concepts as the fantastic and the mystic in scientific treatises of German and Ukrainian literary studies. The reasons are sought for the fact that Ukrainianists use the term mystical not only with regarding Romantics, but also with regarding of contemporary literature, while German literary scholars tend to speak of the fantastic in literary works. The idea is supported that the mystic is shaped by the national tradition of attitude to the questions of a mystical feeling or divine enlightenment that have not yet been fully clarified by science.

The Power of Political Caricature in the Work of Thomas Nast

Mariusz Jakosz — 2025-12-16

With the edited volume Thomas Nast. Karikaturist zwischen Kunst und Kritik, an interdisciplinary publication is presented for the first time in the German-speaking world that offers a comprehensive examination of the work of German-American caricaturist Thomas Nast (1840–1902) from cultural-historical, political-scientific, and visual-rhetorical perspectives. Nast was not only a virtuoso illustrator but also an active participant in the political discourse of the 19th century. His caricatures played a significant role in shaping public opinion: they not only reflected contemporary political developments but also actively influenced them. His campaigns against the corruption of Tammany Hall and his firm stance during the American Civil War are still regarded as exemplary illustrations of the political potential of caricature. The collected contributions explore the life, work, and legacy of Thomas Nast, offering a multifaceted and nuanced portrait of an artist whose influence on the political iconography of the United States extends to the present day, while also leaving behind a body of work marked by ideological tensions and ambivalences.

Klangfiguren in Julian Tuwims Kindergedichten und ihr Übersetzungspotenzial ins Deutsche

Marta Gierzyńska — 2025-12-16

This article is a review of the monograph by Maria Migodzińska, devoted to the issue of translatability of children’s literature from Polish into German. The work fits into the field of translation studies with particular regard to phonostylistics, which examines the sound function of language. In the theoretical part, the author refers to various approaches to text translation and subsequently applies them to children’s and young adult literature, demonstrating both the specificity of this genre and the uniqueness of its audience. Special attention is given to sound devices (onomatopoeia, alliteration, paronymy), whose role and translation strategies are analyzed in detail based on selected poems by Julian Tuwim. This makes it possible to identify the greatest barriers affecting the adequacy of translation, as well as the strategies available to the translator.