A Glance at the Trilogy (edited by) Danuta Ulicka

The article contains a synthetic overview of the trilogy The Age of Theory, edited by Danuta Ulicka. It is the first comprehensive study of the achievements of Polish theoretical literary studies since its birth in the 1920s. The edition includes a multi-author monograph, organized according to “cultural themes” (as understood by Opler), to which the author of the article devotes most of her attention,and an extensive selection of texts preceded by factual introductions (two volumes of anthology) representative of the problem blocks discussed in the first part. Without questioning the content of the anthology, and especially the cognitive value of the monograph, which is based on innovative methodological assumptions and proves that modern literary theory was born in Central and Eastern Europe, and Polish works played an important role in its development, the author wishes it included the work of W. Borowy, the pioneer of intertextuality or J. Baudouin de Courtenay’s texts, which foresaw heteroglosia and minus-device.The article contains a synthetic overview of the trilogy The Age of Theory, edited by Danuta Ulicka. It is the first comprehensive study of the achievements of Polish theoretical literary studies since its birth in the 1920s. The edition includes a multi-author monograph, organized according to “cultural themes” (as understood by Opler), to which the author of the article devotes most of her attention,and an extensive selection of texts preceded by factual introductions (two volumes of anthology) representative of the problem blocks discussed in the first part. Without questioning the content of the anthology, and especially the cognitive value of the monograph, which is based on innovative methodological assumptions and proves that modern literary theory was born in Central and Eastern Europe, and Polish works played an important role in its development, the author wishes it included the work of W. Borowy, the pioneer of intertextuality or J. Baudouin de Courtenay’s texts, which foresaw heteroglosia and minus-device

Between the Sureness of Theory and the Folly of Literature. A commentary to the reception of Saussure’s theory of language (from Jakobson to Bagić)

Rather small in number but highly influential works of the Swiss linguist still trigger fierce controversies and heated interpretation disputes. According to some researchers, de Saussure embodies a scientific paradigm and represents what in the humanities is most systematized and scientific while to others, he is an insane scientist secretly studying old poetry in order to discover meanings encoded in poems. The article sums up a hundredyear- old reception of the Genevan’s thought in the literary studies and it explains anagrammatic poems dedicated to Saussure’s theory

Re-Writing of Hamlet. Literature of the second degree versus myths of Hamlet

The article is based on the premise that Hamlet has been functioning throughout ages as a base for contemporary myths. On the basis of conception of myth, introduced by Roland Barthes in Mythologies and its application to considerations upon novel, conducted by Kazimierz Bartoszyński, the author of this article proves mythical status of multitude of Hamlet offshoots. The argument is set in the theoretical context of semiotics, intertextuality, as Heiner Müller in his essay Shakespeare eine Differenz proposes. Myths of Hamlet have been ascribed to ideas of ‘Shakespeare our contemporary’, especially ‘Hamlet our contemporary’ and ‘Polish Hamlet’. Based on this assumption the paper traces the practice of rewriting of Hamlet on two levels. On one hand it traces continuations, ‘supplements’ of Hamlet with special emphasis on Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Po Hamlecie by Jerzy Żurek and Fortynbras się upił by Janusz Głowacki. On the other hand it demonstrates ‘abbreviations’, ‘condensations’ of Hamlet with special emphasis on Müller’s Die Hamletmaschine and Stoppard’s The Fifteen Minute Hamlet. The article also demonstrates the specifically Polish rewritings of Hamlet, starting from Bitwa pod Mozgawą (1827) by Józef Korzeniowski, through Hamlet by Stanisław Wyspianski, Hamlet wtóry by Roman Jaworski, Hamletyzm and other poems by Antoni Słonimski and Hanna Krall’s Hamlet

‘Possessing’ knowledge. Opętanie by Antonia Susan Byatt as a philological campus novel

Opętanie by Antonia Susan Byatt, awarded the Booker Prize in 1990, has been analysed in the context of romance, detective novel and campus novel genres and interpreted as an apology for philology, praise for literary art as well as a longing for the times when it was the foundation of cultural memory. The multidimensional character and multigenre structure of the novel as well as its ‘immense intertextuality’ have been treated as one of the manifestations of the title ‘possession’, which – in turn – has economical, scientific, social, religious and sexual connotations. We have emphasized the cognitive values of the novel, which are connected with the coexistence of two storylines developing in parallel, namely the contemporary and historical ones. The former focuses on two literary scholars who reveal an affair, clandestine in 19th century text, between a fictional writer-polymath and a feminizing poet. In turn, the latter draws the reader’s attention to the Victorian lovers, and thereby a portrait of this period

“An immeasurable intertextuality”, or campus novel between romance and crime novel

University novel fiction operates at the intersection of different literary genres and conventions. Sometimes the entire narrative consists of an amalgam of different text types: student essays, newspaper articles, diaries, letters, poems etc. Rewriting the texts of popular and high culture, authors involve their readers in an ingenious play, positing before them an intricate system of literary and methodological allusions. The aim of this article is to analyse how university novel merges academic fiction with romance and crime novel

Между уверенностью теории и безумием литературы. Комментарий к восприятию теории языка де Соссюра (от Якобсона до Багича)

Rather small in number but highly influential works of the Swiss linguist still trigger fierce controversies and heated interpretation disputes. According to some researchers, de Saussure embodies a scientific paradigm and represents what in the humanities is most systematized and scientific while to others, he is an insane scientist secretly studying old poetry in order to discover meanings encoded in poems. The article sums up a hundredyear- old reception of the Genevan’s thought in the literary studies and it explains anagrammatic poems dedicated to Saussure’s theory.Скромные по объему, но очень влия- тельные достижения швейцарского лингвиста по-прежнему вызывают разногласия и страстные интерпре- тационные споры. Согласно одним исследователям де Соссюр воплоща- ет научную парадигму и является представителем того, что в гумани- тарных науках наиболее системати- зировано и точно, для других – это скорее всего сумасшедший ученый, тайно изучающий древнюю поэзию для того, чтобы раскрыть секрет- ное содержание, зашифрованное в стихотворениях. В статье подводятся итоги столетней рецепции мысли женевца в литературоведении и об- суждаются анаграматические стихи, посвященные теории де Соссюра