What a Suave Man he Was! […] The Earth Trembled as he Perished Two Polish Suicides: Wołodyjowski – Wokulski

There is more to the literary polemic between the author of The Doll and the creator of The Trilogy than merely Prus’ contradictory review of Sienkiewicz’s With Fire and Sword. It also includes The Doll’s multifarious allusiveness to Fire in the Steppe, manifested in particular in the meaningful, symbolic ending, whereby both protagonists blow themselves up, literally and metaphorically cornered in old buildings. Prus converses with Sienkiewicz in a discreet manner, though the careful reader will spot contentious issues. These include the struggle for a different type of protagonist – not a hero, but an individual entangled in romantic myths, paralysing their life forces; a different perception of the past, rational and fair rather than glorified and martyrological; finally, a different outlook on the present and the future, promoting entrepreneurship and economy as tools for the development of Poland as a European partner, rather than the idealistic focus on the utopian, foregone concepts of military achievements. The text highlights the similarities in the characters of Wokulski and Wołodyjowski, with special emphasis on the final scenes and the demise of the world after the protagonists’ respective disappearance. The two famous literary suicides, patterning after the deed of Ordon as depicted in Mickiewicz’s poem, have been parodied (e.g. by Mrożek) and adopted, thus becoming literary weapons in the struggle with the Polish mythopoeia, xenophobia, and exaggerated patriotism

People kill animals not only for saving lives but for soup and roast – Killing animals in Henryk Sienkiewicz’s works

W pisarstwie Henryka Sienkiewicza motywika animalna przejawia się w kilku odsłonach. Mapa występowania i typologia zwierząt wynikają z uwarunkowań topograficznych i służą przyjętej zasadzie realizmu jako sposobowi oglądu i opisu rzeczywistości. Ze szczególnym upodobaniem eksponuje pisarz pojedynki człowieka ze zwierzęciem, który stanowi dla niego zagrożenie (bykiem, niedźwiedziem, lwem), ale również podejmuje temat cierpienia zwierząt „stowarzyszonych”, zwłaszcza konających na oczach czytelnika. Mimo fokalizacji męskiej (perspektywa myśliwego) i raczej miernie wykorzystanej formuły per analogiam ad humanum, jest jednak w dziełach autora Trylogii doza „wyobraźni współczującej” (Coetzee).In Henryk Sienkiewicz’s literary works motifs of animals appears in some displays. The map and typology of animals arise from topography and serve principle of realism as a way of describing reality. The writer exposes “duels” between animals and a human being. The animals (bull, bear, lion) are treated as a threat to human beings, but Sienkiewicz is also sensitive to their suffering and death. Apart from hunter’s perspective and weakly used formula per analogiam ad humanum in Sienkiewicz’s works considerable dose of “imagination of sympathy” according to J.M. Coetzee’s idea is visible

Resident bards. The court poet in light of memoirs from the Polish Eastern Borderlands in the first half of the 19th century

The article discusses a specific social phenomenon, which was the functioning of the first half of the nineteenth century in the rich magnate or noble courts of the Borderlands of a group of residents – usually single men without a permanent profession, often leading a wandering lifestyle and serving their employers with their skills. In this group, court poets stood out (‘resident bards’ as Julian Tuwim defined them), for whom residency was a form of patronage, creating small occasional, panegyric, entertaining and love pieces, usually in a sentimental convention. The output of these poems in minorum gentium is usually devoid of artistic value, but due to its great popularity it gives a credible testimony to the tastes of the epoch

Ekspresja niewerbalna w Sobowtórze Fiodora Dostojewskiego

The article discusses how nonverbal communication in Dostoyevsky’s The Double is presented. It is a story about an official who fell into madness as a result of dehumanized interpersonal relations. Both, controlled and uncontrolled behaviours, are manifested by the body language. These reactions alternate, and they are a consequence of the protagonist’s emotional state made up of: his physical appearance, face expressions, visual imaging and vocal reactions, gestures, and forms of communicating with the outside world, paralleled or unparalleled by dialogues or monologues. The analysis of selected fragments of the work, which covers, above all, the non-verbal messages sent by Goladkin, and how they correlate with what he actually says, shows that the writer succeeded in creating an astonishingly accurate, even clinical, description of schizophrenia

"Zabawy mędrców" Antoniego Wysockiego – powieść z życia akademików krakowskich XVI wieku

Zabawy mędrców – a novel by Antoni Godziemba Wysocki, a forgotten writer, an eccentric and intellectual from Lviv, was published in the interwar period and became a literary event. Reviewers unanimously emphasized his innovative approach to history. It was not the historical novel that readers were used to, both in terms of idea and form. Placing the action inside the Krakow Academy in the 16th century, at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, was supposed to demonstrate the pathology of education that was dominated by dogma and scholasticism against the background of the daily life of those days. In order to achieve that, the author allegedly worked on his book for over twenty years, thoroughly studying the sources: rare papers, manuscripts and numerous dissertations about the history of the Jagiellonian University. Consequently, a vivid (but strongly biased and clearly depreciating the Middle Ages) study of a few teachers came into life. The professors and bachelors, who had authentic prototypes, were shown through psychoanalytical examination in search of their complexes and personality disorders that limited their mental and didactic work. Wysocki’s work: cool, intellectual, and allusive, it was a unique but one‑sided presentation of Polish culture during the times of the last Jagiellon, but above all, it was a type of warning that concerned the condition and future of Polish education after gaining independence

Korekty i uzupełnienia do biografii Teodory (Dory) Lebenthal

Dość skąpe informacje o Teodorze Lebenthal, przyjaciółce Bolesława Leśmiana, biografowie poety czerpali głównie ze źródeł wtórnych, przede wszystkim z relacji Jana Brzechwy i córki poety, Marii Ludwiki Mazurowej. W procesie weryfikacji z odpowiednimi dokumentami (metryki, spisy urzędowe, a w dalszej kolejności: księgi adresowe i notki z czasopism) większość przywoływanych opinii okazała się nieprawdziwa. Dzięki kwerendom archiwalnym udało się ustalić podstawową wiedzę o rodzicach Teodory Lebenthal, dacie jej urodzenia, adresach warszawskich. Podano w wątpliwość jej specjalizację lekarską, zgodnie z adnotacjami urzędowymi w spisach lekarzy i anonsami prasowymi była ona dermatologiem. Podważono pogłoskę, jakoby była żoną chirurga, Józefa Szpera, uzasadniając ten lapsus odpowiednimi dokumentami. Odsłonięto również nieznany dotąd krąg znajomych Dory oraz zarysowano ostatni, iłżecki etap jej życia.Until now, little was known about Teodora Lebenthal, the mistress of the poet Bolesław Leśmian, and that information was mostly based on secondary sources such as accounts by the poet Jan Brzechwa or by Leśmian’s daughter, Maria Ludwika Mazurowa. Attempts to confirm these reports with relevant documents (vital records, official registers, address books and notes published in magazines) suggest, however, that most of them were untrue. The basic data revealed through archival research include the names of Teodora Lebenthal’s parents, her date of birth and her addresses in Warsaw. Administrators’ annotations in registers of medical practitioners as well as newspaper advertisements indicate that Lebenthal was a dermatologist. Other documents disprove the idea that Lebenthal was married to the surgeon Józef Szper. Finally, hitherto unknown information has emerged on Dora’s circle of acquaintances and on the last stage of her life in the small town of Iłża

W kręgu późnobarokowej zootanatologii. Trzy próbki literackie Jana Ludwika Platera

A manuscript collection, literary Miscellanea, from the 18th century, which is in the possession of the Ossolineum Library, contains works written by Jan Ludwik Plater (ca. 1670–1736), a Livonian voivode. Three poems about little domestic animals, and more specifically – their dying, are worth the attention. The author, who was an educated man, wrote elegies for the death of the ‘turkey court’ favourites, following the model of ancient (Catullus, Ovid) and old‑Polish (Kochanowski, Szymonowic) writers. He wrote light and graceful poems, which contain the features of an elegy but are also decorative in the Rococo style; on the one hand they ‘commemorate’ ephemeral beings, on the other hand they provoke thought on the universality of death.

Z tajników Sienkiewiczowskiego koniunkturalizmu. Botano- i zoomorfizacja w ornamentyce erotycznej

Największym sprzymierzeńcem erotyki jest kicz. Bo też erotyka sama w sobie jest kiczem, kiczem zaraża i unicestwia piękno, jak każda użytkowość sztuki. Autorka artykułu zwraca uwagę na masową metaforyzację erotyki posługującą się skojarzeniami roślinno-zwierzęcym. Jej przykłady odnajduje również w pisarstwie Henryka Sienkiewicza.Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00

Młodzieńcze wiersze miłosne Reymonta i ich adresatka

Reymont’s unpublished letters noted down in a special notebook of his called Marzenia (Dreams) are his juvenilia that lack much literary value, yet witness the future Nobel Prize laureate’s struggles with poetry which would never become part of his work as he would find himself most skilled in writing prose. What is important in Reymont’s letters, however, are the signatures of his personality, his characteristic style of expression and traces of his readings. The early lyrical texts reflect his emotional experiences from the time of writing and contain traces of the people he met, especially Wiktoria Słupska, the love of his youth, to whom the volume of poems was dedicated. Recalling these poems became a chance to reconstruct Reymont’s biography from his stay in Warsaw at the time of his fascination with theatre and spending time with the Woliński family.Reymont’s unpublished letters noted down in a special notebook of his called Marzenia (Dreams) are his juvenilia that lack much literary value, yet witness the future Nobel Prize laureate’s struggles with poetry which would never become part of his work as he would find himself most skilled in writing prose. What is important in Reymont’s letters, however, are the signatures of his personality, his characteristic style of expression and traces of his readings. The early lyrical texts reflect his emotional experiences from the time of writing and contain traces of the people he met, especially Wiktoria Słupska, the love of his youth, to whom the volume of poems was dedicated. Recalling these poems became a chance to reconstruct Reymont’s biography from his stay in Warsaw at the time of his fascination with theatre and spending time with the Woliński family.Reymont’s unpublished letters noted down in a special notebook of his called Marzenia (Dreams) are his juvenilia that lack much literary value, yet witness the future Nobel Prize laureate’s struggles with poetry which would never become part of his work as he would find himself most skilled in writing prose. What is important in Reymont’s letters, however, are the signatures of his personality, his characteristic style of expression and traces of his readings. The early lyrical texts reflect his emotional experiences from the time of writing and contain traces of the people he met, especially Wiktoria Słupska, the love of his youth, to whom the volume of poems was dedicated. Recalling these poems became a chance to reconstruct Reymont’s biography from his stay in Warsaw at the time of his fascination with theatre and spending time with the Woliński family

Dwa „łzawe” apele Marii Ilnickiej („Do sióstr moich”)

Maria Ilnicka is directly associated with the Manifesto of 22nd January, 1863. As its (co-) author, she expressed her opionion on emancipation issues both in poetry and ”Bluszcz”, which she edited herself. However, contrary to the expectations resulting from the contents of the Manifesto, these are not revolutionay views. In fact, they are more conservative and in line with the convential status quo. Two poems of the same title: Do sióstr moich, clearly reflect her ideas. Ilnicka emphasises first of all: a passive attitude of women towards national matters, suggesting the model of ‘a mournful weeper’, and second of all: abandoning social activity and remaining in the shadow of patriarchy – in the role of ‘a guardian of the hearth’