On Authenticity and Popular Culture

In the review the author analyses Ewa Mazierska’s book Polish Popular Music on Screen (2020), which investigates the mutually entangled histories of Polish politics, cinema, TV, and music. Although it focuses on the Polish context, the general and theoretical observations that emerge from Mazierska’s analysis relate also to the broader former socialist Europe. Departing from Mazierska’s work, the author tackles the question of “(in)authenticity” in relation to popular culture. The word “authenticity” often appears in the text to express the critics’ opinions of cultural products, but it is not clearly defined. The review of Mazierska’s research starts with a preliminary analysis of the concept, which enables a transversal discussion of the data presented in the text. Then the author draws some conclusions about the current state of research on Eastern European culture by highlighting the limits and the potentials of the field.

Polish-Soviet War in Film and Cinema: A New Perspective Based on the Films For You, O Poland (1920) and Miracle on the Vistula (1921)

The Polish-Soviet War, particularly the Battle of Warsaw (13–25 August 1920), soon became a subject of legend and myth. Irrespective of its fundamental political significance, the defeat of the Red Army was glorified as salvation for both Poland and Europe in military, ideological and metaphysical terms. Conducted beyond academia, the narrative was forged mainly by veterans, the Catholic Church and various forms of literature and art. Due to government subsidies, documentary and feature films also conveyed a normative notion of these dramatic events and their participants. This article focuses on cinematic works like Dla Ciebie, Polsko [For You, o Poland, PL 1920], and Cud nad Wisłą [The Miracle on the Vistula, PL 1921] produced in order to commemorate the war between the Poles and the Bolsheviks. Taking the iconic turn, this article scrutinises the cinematic self-portrait of the Polish nation that had already been ‘imagined’ as a bulwark of European culture in the East by earlier literary works. Spotlighting protagonists who were given a place in the pantheon of national heroes, it also asks about those who were denigrated or marginalised like women and Jews. Finally, using quantitative methods and Geographical Information System (QGIS) as a tool, the article juxtaposes the maledominated, ethnically and confessional homogeneous ‘imagined nation’ with the film entrepreneurs and actual cinema audiences characterised by their diversity.

The Paradigm of Finnish Reviews of "Without Dogma" by Henryk Sienkiewicz: Observations on the Issue of Intercultural Communication and the Functioning of Common Motifs of European Culture

The Paradigm of Finnish Reviews of Without Dogma by Henryk Sienkiewicz: Observations on the Issue of Intercultural Communication and the Functioning of Common Motifs of European CultureThe translation of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s novel Without Dogma into Finnish, entitled Anielka (1913), generated considerable interest in the Finnish press, evidenced by as many as twelve reviews of the work. The article analyses these reviews, describes them in terms of a paradigm and presents their functioning on the book market. Taking into account cultural distance between Poles and Finns, the reviews are approached as a testimony to intercultural communication, which was enabled thanks to community – the paradigm of European culture and its common motifs, such as the mal du siècle or l’improductivite slave, the latter highlighted by Sienkiewicz and particularly interesting for Finnish reviewers. Cultural distance turns out to be a factor that reveals new aspects of interpretation of Without Dogma and, more broadly, the specificity of Finnish thinking about Poland. Paradygmat fińskich recenzji Bez dogmatu Henryka Sienkiewicza. Obserwacje dotyczące kwestii komunikacji międzykulturowej i funkcjonowania wspólnych motywów kultury europejskiejPrzekład powieści Henryka Sienkiewicza Bez dogmatu na język fiński pod tytułem Anielka (1913) spotkał się z widocznym zainteresowaniem prasy fińskiej, czego poświadczeniem jest aż 12 recenzji tego dzieła. Przedmiotem zainteresowania autora artykułu są te właśnie recenzje, które poddał analizie i opisał w ramach paradygmatu oraz przedstawił ich funkcjonowanie na rynku księgarskim. Biorąc pod uwagę odległość kulturową Polaków i Finów, autor opracowania potraktował te recenzje jako świadectwo komunikowania międzykulturowego, umożliwionego przez wspólnotę, jaką stanowi paradygmat kultury europejskiej i jego obiegowe motywy, jak motyw choroby wieku czy wyeksponowany przez Sienkiewicza motyw l’improductivite slave, szczególnie interesujący dla recenzentów fińskich. Odległość kulturowa okazała się czynnikiem odsłaniającym nowe aspekty interpretacji Bez dogmatu i – szerzej – specyfikę fińskiego myślenia o Polsce.

CHARACTERISTIC ASPECTS OF GERMAN PHILOSOPHICAL LYRICS OF ХХI CENTURY

This article examines the features of explication of modern German philosophical lyrics represented by the transnational genres of haiku and tanka. The author focuses on the problem of definition of the term “philosophical lyrics”, observes the process of formation and representation of haiku and tanka as syncretic genres in German poetry, conducts a comparative analysis of these genres. The universal features of haiku as well as features peculiar to European culture are summarized and described. The article also analyzes the concept of the connection between haiku and painting and describes the haiga genre as a symbiosis of poetry, calligraphy and painting. The research is based on the haiku and tanka of modern German authors: I Kunshke, H. Tum, M. Bagdan, M. Berner, S. Kempen, F. Ditrich. The applied methods of linguistic-stylistic and literary analysis are aimed at identifying the linguistic means of German haiku and tanka poetry, giving insight into formation of the philosophical worldview of the Western European society.

Szekspirowskie przywołania w polskiej literaturze kryminalnej (rekonesans)

Taking into consideration the variety of Shakespearean elements both in world and Polish literature, it is hard to resist the impression that it is the phenomenon without which European culture would be impossible to imagine. At the same time, the writer — whose works not only constitute an important part of Western culture and determine its canon, but also have an influence on current, globalised culture — is perceived as a “dangerous trap”. The above-mentioned danger seems to derive, paradoxically, from the ubiquity of Shakespeare’s works, which are used as a point of reference for modern stories and sometimes treated instrumentally as the “culture brand”. However, it is important to determine if the reception of Shakespeare — present in the socio-cultural aesthetics as well as in the area of paratheatrical avant-garde — among Polish audience is followed by the pop-cultural assimilation of his works. The success on the market of crime fiction whose authors relate to Shakespeare’s works implies the reductio ad absurdum question: how much of Shakespeare remains in these Shakespearean inspirations? Are they really inspirations or is Shakespeare only the brand-author who, due to his name, elevates a given text on the cultural level? If that was the case, we would be experiencing the branding after the pattern of culturally imposed stereotypes. They are in turn assimilated by the popular culture and have a significant impact on the everyday behaviours of the readers — including their attitude towards the past. Thus, tracking the Shakespearean traces within this cultural circuit usually remains a “wishful thinking”, while countless Polish stories (or the ones that the readers know from translations into the Polish language) about “crime and punishment” are the exceptions that prove the rule.

Ukrainian Romanticism in the Context of European Culture of the 19th – early 20th Centuries: Interdisciplinary Historiographical Analysis

The article presents the interdisciplinary approach to analyse Ukrainian Romanticism as a national version of the European romantic style of the 19th – early 20th centuries. This approach is based on the comparison of the aesthetic and artistic foundations of the romantic style with its fundamental principles in West and East European countries in different cultural fields such as philosophy, literature, and music. Generalisations in the article are derived from the analysis of the creative heritage of Ukrainian and European Romantics, as well as a consideration of Ukrainian Romanticism in the in the humanities studies. Basing on the historical, historical-cultural, historical-comparative scholarly methods, and the method of modelling, the dynamics of Ukrainian Romanticism under the influence of the aesthetical principle and creativity of the European romantics of the 19th-early 20 centuries is traced. It is demonstrated that Ukrainian Romanticism evolution has 3 stages (early, folklore, and neoromantic) that embody typological traits of the European Romanticism and national peculiarities of Ukrainian Romanticism. The author concludes that the style authenticity of Ukrainian Romanticism is preconditioned by the character of the European and national tendencies’ connection. The research results widen the interdisciplinary discourse of the Romanticism. Moreover, the analytical generalizations of Ukrainian Romanticism enrich the context of the Romanticism examination as a multicultural artistic-aesthetic system.

Pygmalion or the Poetics of Fiction

The story of Pygmalion, the artist who carves a statue of a perfect woman with whom he falls in love, and thanks to Venus sees her transforming into a living woman, celebrates the triumph of the artistic illusionism, and has become for European culture a symbol of the creative power of art. The myth, which has many analogies with that of Narcissus (Pygmalion falls in love with a work that is a projection of himself), explores the relationship between art and nature, a theme at the heart of Ovid’s innovative anti-mimetic poetics. For him art is independent of reality, not its mirror: it is a model for nature (the poem everywhere thematizes viewing, and appeals to artworks) and its space is fiction. Similarly, every literary text is made up of other texts: literature has in intertextuality its very essence and condition of existence.

The Cemetery of the March Revolution in Berlin. A key site in the history of European democracy

El presente artículo aborda el Cementerio de la Revolución de Marzo desde su fundación en la Revolución Europea de 1848-49 hasta la actualidad. Durante la revolución de 1918-19, el cementerio fue ampliado y, a lo largo del tiempo, se ha ido transformando repetidamente según los diferentes sistemas políticos. Desde el principio, el Cementerio de la Revolución de Marzo ha sido un lugar que ha cumplido dos propósitos: ser espacio del luto personal de los familiares de los fallecidos y escenario de manifestaciones masivas y actos políticos conmemorativos para promover los derechos civiles y humanos. Los lugares de recuerdo de la historia de la democracia europea, como el Cementerio de la Revolución de Marzo, contribuyen a reforzar nuestras raíces culturales y políticas comunes y a establecer una cultura europea del recuerdo. This essay presents the cemetery of the March Fallen from its foundation in the European Revolution of 1848-49 to the present. During the revolution of 1918-19 the cemetery was expanded and over time it was repeatedly transformed in the different political systems. Right from the start, the Cemetery of the March Revolution has always been a place for two purposes: the personal grief of relatives of the dead, and mass demonstrations and political commemorative events to promote civil and human rights. Sites of remembrance for the history of European democracy such as the cemetery of the March Revolution help strengthen our shared cultural and political roots and help to establish a European culture of remembrance.

FLORENSKY’S PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS AND THE THEORY OF SETS OF CANTOR

The article considers the role of the idea of actual infinity in the works of Florensky. The introduction briefly traces the history of ideas about the actual infinity in European culture to the works of George Cantor. The reaction of European scientists and religious figures to the emergence of the “naïve” theory of Cantor sets is characterized. A detailed analysis of the connection between Florensky and George Cantor’s ideas is given. Many quotations from the 1904 work on the symbols of Infinity are given, which illustrate the influence of Cantor’s works on Florensky. The presentation of Florensky’s religious and philosophical ideas of Cantor about the actual infinity is given. Emphasized understanding Florensky transfinite numbers Cantor as symbols.