Prace Literaturoznawcze

Jan Kaczyński. Nauczyciel, literaturoznawca, humanista, bibliofil

Grzegorz Igliński — 2024-10-18

Jan Kaczyński. Nauczyciel, literaturoznawca, humanista, bibliofil

A Historical Examination of the Self-Help Book Genre: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Movements

Katarzyna Skrzypczak — 2024-10-18

The self-help book genre, encompassing works that offer practical guidance for personal growth and improvement, boasts a surprisingly long and rich history. While the term itself emerged in the 19th century, the underlying concept of sharing knowledge for self-betterment stretches back millennia. The present article delves into the evolution of the self-help genre, exploring its ancient roots, transformations through the ages, and its enduring popularity in the modern world.

Spotkanie z Psyche. Nowela "Faun" Ignacego Nikorowicza wobec antycznej tradycji (Apulejusz z Madaury) i młodopolskiej konwencji (Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer)

Grzegorz Igliński — 2024-10-18

The subject of this work is one of novellas by Ignacy Nikorowicz (1866–1951), a journalist, playwright, novelist and poet of Armenian origin. This article analyzes and interprets the novella "Faun" (probably 1903) and its poetic prose with the aim of bringing greater awareness of the beliefs and artistic imagery of this largely forgotten writer. The text is considered in the context of the story of Cupid and Psyche from Apuleius’s "Metamorphoses" and against the background the fashion present in the literature and arts of the turn of the 19^th and 20^th century to depict idols with goat horns (Pan, faun, satyr). The writer’s biography was also considered. The article also compares Nikorowicz’s work with the poem by Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer "Szalony Faun" ["Crazy Faun"], the probable source of inspiration.

The meeting of faun with Psyche presented in the novella may be interpreted as the meeting with one’s own self or soul. The character is subjected to effective therapy allowing him to see something in himself that he had not seen earlier – the desire for good and beauty. He surrenders to the power of spiritual love rather than being subjected solely to sexual desire and thus becomes a man focusing in himself life’s opposites – sorrow and joy, reason and feeling.

Axiological Centre and Aesthetic Periphery in Henryk Bereza’s Literary Criticism

Tomasz Pawłowski — 2024-10-18

The text examines various insights found in the reception of Henryk Bereza’s criticism. Among other things, his commentators emphasised the coherent and essentially invariable system of values on which his appraisals were founded. The article sets out to identify and elaborate on those hypotheses. The author attempts to determine which value was central to Bereza’s criticism and, based on the analysis of sample reviews and sketches, demonstrate how the aforementioned central value informed specific peripheral values and how it bore on Bereza’s critical verdicts. As it turns out, the fundamental value that the critic sought in prose was the subjective and unique truth of the subject, i.e. the artistic record of the writer’s existential experience. The assessment criteria that enabled Bereza to ascertain whether the truth of the subject had been captured in a given work were formulated a posteriori, as the critic intuitively verified the formal means chosen by authors for consistency with their goals.

Laughter in life-threatening situations - a reflection on the example of the film "Life is beautiful"

Anna Szwarc Zając — 2024-10-18

The article focuses on Roberto Benigni's film, Life is Beautiful and analyses the film's unique combination of comedy and drama which evokes intense emotions and prompts reflection on human existence in the face of incomprehensible suffering. This culturally and historically significant film has gained prominence in world cinema, becoming an important work of cinematic art. The article demonstrates how the director's approach to depicting the Holocaust through humour and love provokes debate about the role of cinematic art in portraying difficult themes. Despite the controversy, Life is Beautiful is an undeniable testament to human endurance and strength of spirit, reminding us that sparks of hope and beauty can be found even in the darkest moments. The humour in the film acts as a soothing element that offsets the weight of the difficult topic, while emphasising that laughter can be a form of resistance to suffering.

Obraz regionu w opowiadaniach gwarowych Klemensa Frenszkowskiego. Wybrane zagadnienia

Izabela Lewandowska — 2024-10-18

The aim of this article is to restore to public memory the literary output of Klemens Frenszkowski as the author of stories in the Warmian dialect prepared for publication. The analytical material consists of 24 stories of various genre provenance, the content of which concerns the everyday life of Warmians at the threshold of the 20th century. Problematisation distinguished three scopes. The social and family context involves the reconstruction of the author's biography on the basis of historical sources and literary texts. The cultural context concerns the realities of everyday life, fragments of customs and beliefs practised by the Warmian characters. The political-military context concerns the realities of public life (military service and politics).

Historical, patriotic and regional education and intercultural tolerance in Stanisław Jędryka’s film Zielone lata

Adrian Uljasz — 2024-10-18

The topic of the article is the value of Stanisław Jędryka's film Zielone lata from the point of view of teaching intercultural tolerance and historical, cultural and regional education. The film events take place in the director's hometown - Sosnowiec in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie, shortly before the outbreak of World War II and during the German occupation. The author of the article justifies the thesis about the great, timeless value of the film Zielone lata from the point of view of historical, patriotic and regional education and learning intercultural tolerance.

Zielone lata is an adaptation of Jerzy Przeździecki's novel Troje nad czarnej rzeki (first edition - Warsaw 1975). The creator of the book original is the author of the film script. Jędryka showed the friendship between three children: the Pole Wojtek Lewiński, the Jew Abramek Rotbaum and the German Erna König. The educational message concerns the need for mutual ethnic tolerance. During the occupation, Wojtek and Erna save Abramek from the Holocaust.

The author of the article draws attention to the constant relevance of Jędryka and Przeździecki's work and its educational and upbringing values based on his own analysis of the film, studies of press statements, scientific and popularizing literature, and the reception of Zielone lata among viewers. The high artistic and ideological value of the film and its good reception by the audience confirm the validity of the initial research thesis. In the work on the article, the biographical method, analysis of the content of the film and its artistic form were used, and media research was carried out - on press publications and online statements and assessments about the Zielone lata.

Das Konzept der Liebe in Frauenliteratur des Fin de siècle (1890–1920) Franziska zu Reventlow und Grazia Deledda

Alexandra Juster — 2024-10-18

Immer noch dominiert in der Literatur der männliche Blick auf Liebe. Dieser Dominanz soll durch den vorliegenden Beitrag anhand der Untersuchung des weiblichen Liebesdiskurses der Fin de siècle Epoche anhand der Beispiele der Briefnovelle Von Paul zu Pedro (1912) von Franziska zu Rewentlov sowie des Romans Marianna Sirca (1915) von Grazia Deledda entgegengewirkt werden. Während bei zu Rewentlov Luhmanns kodierter Liebesdiskurs als amour-plaisir durchbricht, knüpft Deledda an Julia Kristevas Theorie der Subjektivität und an Roland Barthes’ Einwegigkeit des versprachlichten Liebesdiskurses an. Eine kurze Einführung in das literarische weibliche Schaffen in den Jahren 1888–1920 als beginnender Akt der sexuellen Emanzipation der Frau vermittelt die literarische Epoche, in die Von Paul zu Pedro und Marianna Sirca zu verorten sind. Wenn auch das Anliegen der weiblichen Selbstbestimmung im Liebesleben beiden Autorinnen gemeinsam ist, so divergieren dennoch ihre Auffassungen von Liebe: Zu Reventlow tritt für die freie Wahl der Frau von Art und Zweck der Liebesbeziehung ein, Deledda fordert die freie Wahl des Ehemannes, losgelöst von sozialen Konventionen, ohne jedoch das traditionelle romantische Liebesmuster der Frau als Gattin und Mutter in Frage zu stellen.

Utalentowana epistolografka czasów saskich – Konstancja z Gnińskich Czapska (rekonesans)

Iwona Maciejewska — 2024-10-18

This article is an introductory characterisation of an extensive collection of letters written in the first half of the 18th century by the Konstancja née Gnińska, wife of a Pomeranian Voivode Piotr Jan Czapski, a woman involved in great politics but also in complicated family business. The surviving sources provide an interesting example of epistolography of the period, when more and more women of noble and magnate origin reached for the pen to express their thoughts, emotions, and expectations in various forms of writing. Often educated by home teachers or at the few monastic boarding schools, they were aware of the conventions of genre on the one hand, and on the other were able to break them, introducing their own individual touch, provided they were gifted with talent. The article shows the cultural, linguistic and stylistic richness of the letters of Konstancja Czapska, who was undoubtedly one of the most interesting correspondents of the late Baroque.

“The Beads” by Maria Wirtemberska – an interperiodic comedy of consolation

Marta Biedrzycka — 2024-10-18

The article discusses the one-act comedy The Beads by Maria Wirtemberska, which remains in manuscript. The subject of the paper is an attempt to situate the duchess's work in the panorama of creative tendencies of the time, with particular attention to the circumstances of the text's creation, the types of Enlightenment comedies, as well as the culture of the théâtre de société and masquerades. In addition, the affiliation of The Beads to sentimental and romantic literature is considered, thus highlighting the problem of the drama's positioning in relation to literary movements and periods.

“Image of the author” – Maria Komornicka/Piotr Odmieniec Włast— in Xięga poezji idyllicznej [The Book of Idyllic Poetry]

Barbara Stelingowska — 2024-10-18

Skazane na nostalgię: Maryla Wolska, Beata Obertyńska, Jadwiga Czechowiczówna i wiersze o Lwowie

Chrystyna Stelmach — 2024-10-18

The article analyzes the nostalgic dominant in the works of Lviv poets Maryla Wolska, Beata Obertyńska and Jadwiga Czechowicz, presents a general outline of their memoir poetry and an interpretation of selected and less known poems on Lviv’s themes, considering the biographical context and theoretical issues of memory studies.

Representations of women’s biographies through monodrama. Agnieszka Przepiórska’s Theatre

Beata Popczyk-Szczęsna — 2024-10-18

Agnieszka Przepiórska's monodramas are a series of performances inspired by women's biographies. They are an example of herstory – history that reflects the specificity of women's experiences through an affective and identity-building approach. Monologues establish a strong biographical relationship between the actress and the heroines by combining the features of testimony and confession.

Utilising Genograms as a Visual Diagnostic Tool to Explore Trauma within Agata Tuszyńska’s Family

Aldona Kiełpińska — 2024-10-18

The burden to continue the war narrative falls on the so-called second generation, i.e. persons who, despite being born after World War II, are equally burdened by the memory of their mothers’ traumatic experiences. Existing research in psychology and the social sciences, as well as the genogram theory formulated by American researchers, proves helpful in expanding knowledge and structuring information on the phenomenon of trauma and its inheritance. The tools thus obtained enable reinterpretation of the texts by A. Tuszyńska, whose experience of the war, although not direct, largely shaped her identity and had a destructive impact on development and assimilation in the new, post-war reality.

Temat mody w prozie emigracyjnej Nadieżdy Teffi

Iwona Anna Ndiaye — 2024-10-18

The author focuses on the topic of fashion in Nadezhda Teffi’s work, a Russian writer who spent over thirty years in exile in France. An attempt to determine the function of “fashionable things” and the importance of fashion in constructing the presented world was made based on the analysis of short stories, tales and columns collected in emigration collections published from 1920–1952. Teffi's “costume code” includes all categories of clothing, footwear, accessories and jewellery that give an idea of the typical children's, men's and women's fashion of the last century. Clothing details play an important role in the structure of the presented world, fulfilling numerous functions: characterological, psychological and symbolic. Based on Teffi's texts, we can conclude what was considered particularly fashionable at that time, and also study the canons of beauty. Fashionable accessories, as an important part of the objective world of the writer's emigrant prose, are an integral part of expressing the characters’ individuality, indicating their origin, gender, and age, as well as their internal experiences and emotional state. At the same time, it also describes the cultural and historical background.

Stanisława de Karłowska and Katherine Mansfield – an (un)obvious connection

Anna Kwiatkowska — 2024-10-18

The article focuses on the links between the life and work of a Polish emigree artist, Stanisława de Karłowska (1876–1952) and the New Zealand modernist writer, Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923). Both women, despite their unquestionable artistic merits, have stayed at the margins of critical attention for quite some time. Nevertheless, while Mansfield has been finally recognized as an innovator and one of the greatest short story writers, Karłowska is still relatively unknown, especially in Poland where her paintings can be found merely in private collections. Therefore, the main aim of this article is to bring the work of Karłowska to the attention of the reader. By presenting her paintings against and in relation to the work of the New Zealand Modernist writer, I want, among others, to demonstrate how much the two women share in terms of their engagement and presence in Modernist artistic life, which in itself is an indicator of their importance and recognition, as well as to point out that the voice of the painter in relation to social criticism was as important as the voice of the writer. In the article, two of Karłowska’s paintings are discussed against the social background and a selection of Mansfield’s short stories.

Heroines of Dune (based on the novel by Frank Herbert and the film directed by Denis Villeneuve)

Piotr Przytuła — 2024-10-18

In Dune, Frank Herbert portrayed strong female characters who have a significant impact on the events presented in the novel. The power of femininity is manifested by, for example, members of the influential Bene Gesserit order who are implementing a long-term eugenics plan aimed at creating the Kwisatz Haderach - a man capable of controlling higher-order dimensions. The film, directed by Denis Villeneuve, reinforces the book's feminist message through visuals, dialogues and plot changes. For example, to eliminate the disproportion between the number of women and men in Dune, the director replaced doctor Liet-Kynes, who is a man in the book, with a female character.

Febronia Sikora i jej życie na Warmii

Sabina Kowalczyk-Wesołowska — 2024-10-18

The main objective of the paper is to portray Febronia Kornelia Sikora (1904–1994) – coming from Pomerania, forgotten activist and teacher. She operated in Warmia in the prewar years with her husband Konrad Sikora (teacher from Polish schools in Wymój and Jaroty). The Sikorowa’s manuscript – Wspomnienia z Warmii rok 1930–1939 [Memories from Warmia year 1930–1939] is a basic research material in following article. Based on this text as well as other found documents the Warmian stage of Sikorowa’s life was reconstructed. Educational and cultural work of this women was characterized. The article discusses also her observations of Warmian culture and of announcements of World War II.

Scientific and literary achievements of Hanna Maria Sawicka (1931–2015)

Joanna Daniluk — 2024-10-18

The article presents the outline of personality and literary heritage of Hanna Sawicka– the person known to literary scholars as the authoress of the first biography of the Warmian poetess Maria Zientara-Malewska, the authoress of scientific articles and reports acting as editor, journalist, writer, and poetess. Her literary activity was investigated based on available diaries and press sources.

Mirosława Szott, Czytanie miejsca. Poezja lubuska w perspektywie geopoetyki, seria „Historia Literatury Pogranicza”, cz. VII, Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego, Oficyna Wydawnicza Pro Libris, Zielona Góra 2021, ss. 262

Dawid Kopa — 2024-10-18

Sabina Kowalczyk, Wizerunek wiedźmy w piśmiennictwie staropolskim XVI i XVII wieku, Towarzystwo Autorów i Wydawców Prac Naukowych Universitas, Kraków 2023, ss. 276

Wiesława Zielińska — 2024-10-18

Kwestia charakteru. Bojowniczki z getta warszawskiego, red. Sylwia Chutnik, Monika Sznajderman, Wydawnictwo Czarne, Warszawa 2023, ss. 344

Joanna Chłosta-Zielonka — 2024-10-18

Sylwia Zientek, Tylko one. Polska sztuka bez mężczyzn. Muter, Rajecka, Szapocznikow, Bilińska, Kobro i inne, Wydawnictwo Agora, Warszawa 2023, ss. 624

Julia Gugołek — 2024-10-18

Joanna Kuciel-Frydryszak, Chłopki: opowieść o naszych babkach, Wydawnictwo Marginesy, Warszawa 2023, ss. 496

Maria Zielonka — 2024-10-18