Pociąg do Hollywood : o prozie Andrzeja Barta

W naszym świecie pisarskim Andrzej Bart jest twórcą osobnym przede wszystkim w tym znaczeniu, że praktykowanie literatury jest dla niego aktywnością poniekąd poboczną i zastępczą, a także w dużej mierze adaptacyjną. Bynajmniej nie chodzi o to, że Bart wziął sobie do serca słynną maksymę Lenina, mówiącą o kinie jako najważniejszej ze sztuk, lecz o to, że związki z filmem mają przemożny wpływ na jego twórczość literacką. W pierwszej kolejności należy powiadomić o tym, że część jego dorobku stanowią przekształcenia wcześniejszego materiału scenariuszowego (to ów żywioł adaptacyjny). […

Cały ten zgiełk. O wczesnych reakcjach na uhonorowanie Olgi Tokarczuk Literacką Nagrodą Nobla

The paper discusses selected reactions to the Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to Olga Tokarczuk. The author focuses on the dispute about the legitimacy and justification of the Swedish Academy’s decision, highlighting the sceptical opinions, in some cases challenging the Academy’s members’ verdict. Referring to a book by James F. English on cultural prizes, the author recalls the role of public controversies as an essential tool of influencing the general public. He also compares the situation of two winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature (Olga Tokarczuk – for 2018, Peter Handke – for 2019), announced on the same day. Concluding, the author seeks to present the most important aspects of the dispute on the position and influence of Tokarczuk’s literary output

Moc, która drzemie : wokół powieści Janusza Głowackiego

The article constitutes an attempt at reviving the intriguing novel Great Powers Tremble by Janusz Głowacki (1981). The author recounts the events surrounding the writing of the novel and reconstructs the original contexts in which–following its launch and directly after that–it was discussed. First and foremost, however, the author is interested in the artistic and content-related potential of Głowacki’s novel, attempting to showcase its continued relevance, originality and the strength of expression contained in this fairly short and rather forgotten work. To this end, the author points to the peculiar, extremely successful and subversive at the same time creation of the anti-hero protagonist, and in the concluding parts of the article, he attempts to contrast Great Powers Tremble with the last work published while Głowacki (1939–2017) was still alive, a volume of stories entitled I Came (2013)

Presence of Szela: Three Examples from the New Prose

The article presents three novels in which the person of Jakub Szela and motif of the Galician slaughter appear. These are Fairy Tale about the Snake’s Heart or Another Word about Jakub Szela (2019) by Radek Rak, Deutsch for Intermediates (2019) by Maciej Hen and Galicians (2016) by Stanisław Aleksander Nowak. The starting point for the considerations is the remark of Stanisław Aleksander Nowak who acknowledged the 1846 peasant revolt as a relevant legacy that could support present-day forms of protest against injustice and exploitation. The author of the article examines if the modern prose writers who brought the person of Jakub Szela back to life in their novels truly invoke the aforementioned tradition and if Szela is a rebel icon and an avenger model for them. The result of said examination is negative: the author proves that only pop-cultural or quasi-pop-cultural presence of Szela (in artistic literature) comes into question, which is loosely tied to the broader discussion on “the peasant question” – the so-called plebeian turn in Polish culture, which became most visible in the years of 2015–2016. The author argues that the discussed works of literature do not have the ambitions to deal with the past; the allegedly renounced or unjustly forgotten legacy of peasant resistance and rebellion weren’t claimed. Thereby the difference between the demands of the historians and sociologists who reflected anew on the situation of serfs in spirit of the so-called pedagogy of shame and today’s literary practice was revealed

Awans aktywisty

The article discusses a collection of essays by Grzegorz Jankowicz entitled "Blizny" [Scars]. Jankowicz’s attainments are what constitutes the main focus for the author of the article – not only those relating to literary criticism, but also the untypical ones that belong to the sphere of "literary activism". In the text, there is conducted a close analysis of the essayist’s self‑presentation considered in a context of the societal games of prestige and significance. Furthermore, a more general situation in the intellectual domain known as literary essayistic writing is outlined. Apart from the foregoing, the author ponders the issue of an emergence of the literary form in question, namely, the collection of texts – once dispersed and written in various circumstances, prompted by variegated impulses, and then consolidated, ordered to achieve a convincing monographic effect

O czym liście szumiały : w czterdziestą rocznicę debiutu Donata Kirscha

The article discusses circumstances surrounding Donat Kirsch’s debut (Liście croatoan, 1977) and presents various critical responses to the novel. A special attention is given to Jerzy Sosnowski who “demonized” Liście croatoan when in his journalistic writings and his novel (Sen sów, 2016) he underlined that the novel supposedly resists being read. The article attempts to reconstruct the inclinations of Kirsch’s book interpreters. It also raises the issue of literary skills that brought about this debut

Po trosze powieść kryminalna. Przypadek Zbigniewa Białasa

The article deals with the book series written by Zbigniew Białas referred to as “Sosnowiec chronicles”, which were announced in the years 2011–2015. The writer employed some elements belonging to the convention of the urban vintage crime fic‑ tion, especially in the first and second parts of the trilogy. The author of the article reflects on the usefulness of the solutions employed by the writer, inquiring what he has achieved with them, how he has modelled the plot, and what prompted him to choose the formula of the historical detective novel as a matrix. These considerations are embedded in a broader genological context. Also, the author discusses the career of a  sub ‑genre of contemporary crime fiction initiated by Marek Krajewski’s first novel and its transformations, as well as critical literary reactions to this sub ‑genre. The author pays special attention to the links between the urban vintage crime fiction and the so ‑called literature of little homelands, a  trend that dominated the Polish literature of the 1990s. He asks about the possibility of literary „splendouring” of urban space, demonstrating various solutions in this matter. At the same time, he reflects on socio ‑literary transformations, pointing out that the authors of vintage crime novels – with few exceptions – have enjoyed only local fame, and their works seem to have been a response to local needs, often associated with the promotion of particular cities. Then he presents the image of the city (Sosnowiec) which emerges from Białas’s trilogy, focusing on the differences in the approach to spatial issues that are observed in the three subsequent volumes. At the end of the article, the author wonders about the perspectives of the story about Sosnowiec

Między nostalgią i resentymentem : o pisarstwie Janusza Andermana

Niewielu polskich pisarzy miało tak świetny start literacki jak Janusz Anderman; w pokoleniu, do którego ten twórca należy, bodaj nikt. Przede wszystkim zadebiutował szybko, a biorąc pod uwagę realia wydawnicze lat 70. ubiegłego wieku i — szerzej — ówczesne sposoby zawiadywania ruchem literackim, należałoby oznajmić: błyskawicznie. Pomijając nieledwie dziecięce wystąpienie na łamach „Świata Młodych”, godzi się przypomnieć, że jeszcze jako student pisał reportaże dla tygodnika „Politechnik”. Pod koniec studiów, które odbył na krakowskiej slawistyce, ogłosił przekłady z poezji czeskiej; w tym samym czasie stawiał pierwsze kroki jako zawodowy scenarzysta. Ale najlepsze miało dopiero nadejść. W październikowym numerze „Twórczości” z roku 1975 ukazała się jego debiutancka mikropowieść Głuchy telefon, znana z wydania książkowego jako Zabawa w głuchy telefon (1976); wcześniej — jeszcze jako maszynopis — wyróżniona w konkursie wydawnictwa Czytelnik, a po ukazaniu się edycji książkowej uhonorowana Nagrodą im. Wilhelma Macha za najlepszy debiut powieściowy roku. […

Kaśka Kariatyda już tu nie mieszka : temat niechcianej ciąży i aborcji w nowej prozie kobiet

The article discusses the literary representations of the experience of unwanted pregnancy and abortion in new women’s prose. The author of the article refers to the novels published between 2003 and 2016. He considers the previously conducted research on the same subject (especially that of Agnieszka Mrozik). However, he concentrates mainly on the prose created in the last few years. He is above all interested in changes regarding the problem of unwanted pregnancy and abortion that occurred after 1989. When writing about this aspect of female experience has appeared in new prose, it is usually about the past and used to question the morality of the Polish People’s Republic. Recently the problem of unwanted pregnancy seems to be non-existent as all issues pertaining to maternity are solved in a similar way: despite initial hesitations the heroines of the novels decide to have babies and never regret their choice. In this context Aleksandra Zielińska’s novel Przypadek Alicji (The case of Alice) seems to be especially interesting. Considerations concerning this novel appear in the final part of the article