Misfits of war: First World War nurses in "The Daughters of Mars" by Thomas Keneally

The article is an analysis of the representation of Australian nurses in Thomas Keneally 2012 First World War novel, The Daughters of Mars. Inspired by rigorous research, Keneally fictionalizes the lives of two nursing sisters in the Middle East, on a hospital ship in the Dardanelles, as well as in hospitals and casualty clearing stations on the Western Front. His novel thus reclaims an important facet of the medical history of the First World War. The author of the article situates her analysis in the context of historical research on the First World War and the Australian Anzac myth, illuminating the specifically Australian elements in Keneally’s portrait of the Durance sisters. She demonstrates that The Daughters of Mars celebrates the achievements of “Anzac girls”, negotiating a place for them in the culture of commemoration. Yet, at the same time, Keneally attempts to include his female protagonists in the “manly” world of Anzac values, privileging heroism over victimization. Consequently, they become “misfits of war”, eagerly accepting imperial and nationalist ideologies. Thus, in a way characteristic of Australian First World War literature, The Daughters of Mars fuses the tropes of affirmation and desolation.This research was supported by grant DEC–2013/11/B/HS2/02871 from the Polish National Science Centre (Narodowe Centrum Nauki)

Canadians in the Manichean Universe of War: The Novels of Ralph Connor

The purpose of my article is an analysis of two war novels by Canadian best-selling author Charles W. Gordon, known to his readers under the pseudonym of Ralph Connor (1830-1937): The Major (1917) and The Sky Pilot in No Man’s Land (1919). At the age of fifty-four, Connor was sent to the front as a preacher; only a fourth of his battalion survived, which made his determined to support the cause of the Empire in North America. His sentimental romances were written to support the war effort (The Major) or consolidate the myth of Canada’s valorous sacrifice in the Great War (The Sky Pilot in No Man’s Land). In my interpretation, I intend to show how in The Major Connor uses Manichean dichotomies to oppose the Allies to German characters; as a result, the Great War is represented in this novel as a defence of Christianity and European civilization. Love relationships in the novel serve, additionally, to depict the binary opposition between the noble British and Canadian characters and the corrupted and aggressive German ones. Larry Gwynne, the hero of the novel, is a Quaker, opposed to violence and bloodshed, yet, in spite of his initial opposition to military conflict, he eventually supports the Sacred Cause. The Sky Pilot in No Man’s Land in turn depicts Canadians competing to send money, resources, and soldiers to Europe when the war is declared. Connor’s volunteers are only motivated by the desire to defend the Motherland - Britain; he fails to mention such factors as unemployment that, as we know today, had a huge impact on enlistment in Canada. The central protagonist, in spite of his physical weakness, joins the Canadian Corps at the front. In the portrait of Barry Dunbar, Connor refers to the concept of muscular Christianity, an ideal of physical and religious discipline, fusing honour, courage and manhood with a modernised conception of Christian love, responsibility and sacrifice, which was key to his earlier success. Barry is a charismatic preacher, who teaches the soldiers in his battalion to die peacefully for the sake of God and the Empire. Death in the war, represented as a sacred crusade, is the ultimate sacrifice Canadian soldiers, Christ-like, are eager to face, confident about the righteousness of the Holy Cause and their own immortality. In conclusion, I demonstrate, how, using nineteenth-century aesthetic models, Connor created the model of the Great War novel in Canada

Evaluation of factors affecting the decision to register as a potential bone marrow donor

Introduction. Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT) are the curative treatment for a number of hematological ailments.  A number of transplants from matched unrelated donor (MUD) is increasing. The search for donors and the exchange of information in the international space is possible thanks to the global organization of the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) and Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide (BMDW). The DKMS is a Polish organization involved in the registration of potential bone marrow donors (PBMD).Purpose of work. The objective of the study was to assess the factors that influence the decision to register as a PBMD.Material and method. 124 people took part in the survey and filled the original questionnaire. Some of the surveys were collected during the registration of PBMD organized by the DKMS Foundation and some were filled in electronically. Questions were divided into groups.  The first part concerned the determination of demographic characteristics of surveyed people. Then there were single-choice and multiple-choice questions. The results were analyzed with computer program Microsoft Excel 2011.Results. 86.3% of the respondents were women, while men - 13.7%.  The majority of respondents live in cities with a population of 150 000 - 500 000 residents. 8.9% of respondents confirmed that someone from their environment required a bone marrow stem cell transplant. When asked about how fast they made the decision concerning  the issue of registration as PBMD, 44.4% of the respondents made the decision on the day of the registration. Conclusion. In this group classical altruistic motives are top drivers for registering as PBMD. The knowledge about factors which influence people’s decision to become PBMD is important to target recruitment efforts.

(Nie)przekładalność kultur: postkolonialne porównania

Comparison is a conceptual tool often used in postcolonial studies, juxtaposing phenomena and artefacts being the products of different cultural codes. In a global and multicultural world such an analysis might seem a simple interpretative procedure. However, since the 1950s a thorough transformation of the comparative practice can be observed in English postcolonial theory and criticism. The article is an attempt to discuss these changes, while putting into question the problem of translating cultures. The theoretical introduction is followed by an intertextual interpretation of two contemporary postcolonial novels: The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, which was inspired by Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre , and Foe by John Maxwell Coetzee, which revisions Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. The author concludes by exploring cultural appropriation in the context of deterritorialization and globalization, attempting to define new ways of approaching comparison in postcolonial studies.Porównanie stanowi nieodzowne narzędzie badacza postkolonializmu, który opierając się na swej wiedzy i doświadczeniu, usiłuje dokonać interpretacji zjawisk będących wytworem odmiennych kodów kulturowych. W warunkach globalizacji i wielokulturowości tego typu analiza może wydawać się prostym zabiegiem interpretacyjnym. Jednakże od lat pięćdziesiątych ubiegłego stulecia zaobserwować można gruntowne transformacje procedur komparatystycznych i wartościujących w anglojęzycznej krytyce postkolonialnej. Autorka artykułu szczegółowo omawia te transformacje, stawiając pod znakiem zapytania problem przekładalności kultur. Następnie analizuje relacje intertekstualne w dwóch współczesnych utworach postkolonialnych stanowiących reinterpretację klasyki angielskiej – w Szerokim Morzu Sargassowym kreolskiej pisarki Jean Rhys zainspirowanej Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte oraz w powieści Foe południowoafrykańskiego noblisty, Johna Maxwella Coetzee’ego, nawiązującej do Przypadków Robinsona Kruzoe Daniela Defoe. W konkluzji autorka zastanawia się nad pojęciem apropriacji kultur w dobie deterytorializacji i globalizacji, starając się zarysować twórcze horyzonty badawcze dla komparatystyki postkolonialnej

1914 – anty-opera Wielkiej Wojny

RecenzjaJean Echenoz, 1914, przeł. Anna Michalska, Wydawnictwo Noir sur Blanc, Warszawa 2014, ss. 7

Implicated in Entangled Stories: Colonial Encounters, Immigration and the Representation of East Africa in Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah

The article offers an analysis of colonialism, immigration, and the representation of East Af-rica in Desertion (2005) by Nobel-Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah. By analyzing the com-plex structure of the novel, the article demonstrates that its protagonists are implicated in multiple stories, which only appear to be incompatible, but in reality are deeply entangled. Applying a variety of postcolonial theories, I focus on Gurnah’s representation of the colonial encounter at the end of the 19th century in British East Africa. I show that the colonizers’ attitudes in the novel vary from an aggressive perspective on colonial conquest, through to the belief in the legitimacy of the imperial mission, to an ideolog y which Mary Louise Pratt defines in terms of anti-conquest and reciprocity. However, their uncontrollable, often somatic reactions, illustrate the ambivalence of colonial discourse and foreshadow the decline of colo-nialism. The article also argues that Gurnah’s vision of local interactions in East Africa at the turn of the 20th century is particularly complex and that the writer proposes cosmopolitan ethics. Yet, at the same time, Gurnah does not idealize East Africa and depicts prejudice and discrimination, particularly in relation to women of mixed parentage. Furthermore, the arti-cle discusses the cultural shock of the immigrant figure and the phenomena of mimicry and (de)colonization of the mind in Gurnah’s novel. Finally, it shows how Gurnah questions the concept of racial divisions, demonstrating their harmful effects in the 1960s both in Britain and in Zanzibar.Projekt został sfinansowany ze środków Narodowego Centrum Nauki, przyznanych na podstawie decyzji numer DEC: 2019/33/B/HS2/00019

I wojna i (nie)pokój. Motyw traumy i powojennej odnowy w literaturze francuskiej, angielskiej i kanadyjskiej przełomu XX i XXI wieku

Artykuł stanowi analizę postaci weterana w literaturze francuskiej, angielskiej i kanadyjskiej przełomu XX oraz XXI wieku. Autorka kreśli portret żołnierza I wojny jako figury abiektu, nie-osoby, zawieszonej w przestrzeni liminalnej. Następnie analizuje relację między nieprzepracowaną traumą, działającą destrukcyjnie na podmiot, a przepracowaniem urazu, które pozwala weteranowi odbudować swoje życie. Interpretuje powieści, które wpisują się w „kulturę rany”, koncentrując się na urazie doznanym przez żołnierza I wojny, uniemożliwiającym mu powrót do normalnego życia. Oprócz poetyki traumy, uczulającej czytelnika na tragedię doznaną przez tysiące mężczyzn w trakcie konfliktu, autorka ukazuje również, w jaki sposób przepracowanie traumy może prowadzić do zaangażowania społecznego. Obok urazu istotny w analizowanej prozie jest więc również wątek wytrwałości i odnowy. Niepokój, którego źródłem jest wojna, pobudza bohaterów do działania na rzecz pokoju

Polish Immigrants’ Search for the Peaceable Kingdom: Andrew J. Borkowski’s Copernicus Avenue

L’article est une étude du recueil de nouvelles Copernicus Avenue (2011) de Andrew J. Borkowski, écrivain canadien d’origine polonaise. L’analyse se concentre sur l’évolution de la diaspora polonaise à Toronto après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale et sur les efforts des immigrants pour reconstruire leur existence au Canada. L’article commence par un aperçu historique sur l’immigration polonaise dans les années d’après-guerre et sur la législation concernant ce groupe ethnique. On vise à analyser les histoires individuelles des refugiés polonais et leur assmilation au Canada à l’exemple de Thadeus Mienkiewicz, le personnage principal de Copernicus Avenue. Discriminé et humilié, Thadeus rêve d’une identité canadienne interprétée comme liberté et succès. Dans Copernicus Avenue, Borkowski établit aussi un dialogue fascinant entre les diasporas polonaise et irlandaise, fondé sur leur expérience d’exclusion sociale partagée. Les concepts de migration et d’identité diasporique sont étudiés du point de vue du constructivisme et des théories du trauma