Na kopule miliony gwiazd Juwenilia Joanny Pollakówny

The article is focused on the earliest published poems of Joanna Pollakówna (1938—2002) — a poet and an esseyist. I present three poems, in which Pollakówna refers to cosmic and infi nity: Podróż,Alchemia and Kataklizm o zmierzchu (the last one is a text published only in a journal; it didn’t appear in Wiersze Zebrane) and I point out her humor and courage. Such an image of Pollakówna’spoetry doesn’t fit the well-established opinion about her work (considered to be confessional, meditative). In the second part of the article, I recall Camille Flammarion, the astronomer and philosopherwho inspired the poet in her youth. The belief in the relationship between the knowable (earthly) and the unknowable (heavenly or mystical) reality, expressed in his works, seems to be an importantcontext not only for Pollakówna’s juveniles, but also for her mature works.

Widmo Chopina krąży po Warszawie

Pejzaż myśli. Warszawa Chopina i początek polskiej nowoczesności [A landscape of thoughts: Chopin’s Warsaw and the beginning of Polish modernity] by Michał Kuziak is a book combining the values of a scholarly work and a work whose main task is to popularise knowledge both about Frédéric Chopin himself and about the world that surrounded him and that shaped him. The dissertation is not only the context for the composer’s life; it is also part of a broader stream of research on the beginnings of Polish modernity. The book is therefore about Warsaw understood not only as the place where young Frédéric grew up, but also as the area where the foundations of Polish modernity were laid. Chopin functioned in a kind of intellectual melting pot within which there was a conflict between tradition and modernity, between progress and conservatism. The author precisely delineates the chronological framework within which he moves. These are the years 1810–1830, that is, the first 20 years of the composer’s life. However, the book does not only focus on the person of Chopin, so it is not “Chopin-centric.” The work consists of three parts, each of them marked with a significant title: 1. “City and people”; 2. “Institutions and people”; 3. “Thoughts and people.” This arrangement is a good example of the author’s main idea: to show Chopin among people, and also people within the city, municipal institutions and the thoughts that developed there. For the author of the book, Warsaw was a crucible and a cosmos of thoughts: on the one hand, there is a constant offensive of scientifi c and technical thought related to the Enlightenment tradition, and on the other, the birth of the world of spirit and religion. Polish modernity is an eclectic mixture in which there are still remnants of the noble world, but the foundations of the bourgeois world are also being laid. Kuziak, drawing an image of Warsaw at that time, emphasises the importance of key cultural institutions, such as literary salons and cafés. For Chopin, cafés, where he met with representatives of the contemporary world of literature and poetry, were of particular importance. Warsaw’s intellectual climate, inspired by the French Enlightenment, was giving way more and more to the influences of German culture associated with Romanticism. Kuziak writes that the modernity of the Romantic type was shaped by German culture. He regards the considerations of Kazimierz Brodziński and Maurycy Mochnacki as the two largest projects of modern Polish identity. Importantly, both of these authors were closely associated with the Polish musical culture which the young Chopin absorbed. The author of the book makes a reservation that it is difficult to conclusively confi rm what influence the institutional and intellectual shape of Warsaw at that time had on Chopin. He states with certainty that Chopin’s trips outside the city, and thus getting to know Masovian folklore, had a decisive impact on his imagination. The book does not, however, determine how the then Warsaw shaped the composer’s later life. The author brilliantly reconstructed the background on which Chopin’s shadow moved, but he chose not to answer the most important question: did the city, people, institutions and intellectual climate ultimately form the composer’s modern world view? This question remains open.

Samotność przemijania. Synteza biograficzna schyłku życia Elizy Orzeszkowej

The article is a study of the melancholic nature of Eliza Orzeszkowa, an attempt to notice Orzeszkowa not as a writer, but an unhappy woman. The main aim is to show the sorrow at different times in her life. Difficult events from her biography were recalled in the article. Paying attention to such issues allows us to better understand the creations of the heroes in her literary works — especially distanced, snippy mothers. Selected works, letters and the diary Dnie were analysed. Orzeszkowa spent almost all her life in the region of her origin. The first painful experiences for her were the remarriage of her mother and then the death of her sister. The arranged marriage with Piotr Orzeszko did not last long. Also, she did not find happiness in her long-term relationship with Stanisław Nahorski. She constantly missed love. Although Orzeszkowa was appreciated as a writer (she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twice), lifelong she felt inferior and sometimes even hated herself. From childhood she experienced states of melancholy. Her house in Grodno (where she was interned) was always full of guests — loved ones, friends, readers, pupils; however, her letters and the diary are the testimony of a deep solitude, and the experience of sadness is in almost all of her works.

Izolacja a obóz koncentracyjny. Prolegomena

Everyone is created to live in a herd, a group of people with whom they build a community. The community may be the family home, friends, acquaintances from work, the backyard or eventhe street. We feel better when we meet other people. When modern man speaks of isolation, he thinks only of closing himself off at home, peace and quiet, lack of contact with his family or going off into the unknown. He does not think of the forced isolation that prevailed among people in wartime. It determined everyday life, changed people’s values and dehumanised them. The worst was the camp isolation, which took people by surprise. No one expected that someone could deprive people of their lives, away from family and friends. Isolation can be divided into sectors: internal and external. With time it is possible to get out of it. A person’s attitude and the presence of other helpful people can help. People in the camp escaped isolation in different ways. The longing for love, the touch of another human being, tenderness and a smile had different faces. One of the themes of camp life was children going to slaughter. They did not realise that they would disappear from the face of the earth together with their parents. Smiling, carefree children were not afraid of anything, they felt no fear or exclusion. International cooperation was the order of the day in many camps. Although the women did not know the language, they used gestures, similar expressions. Each of the women prisoners sensed their fate and therefore needed each other’s help. No matter what country the prisoners came from, no matter what part of Europe, they all fought to survive. For many of them the camp became a home, where relationships proved beneficial. The escape from camp “happiness” was all-day work outside the camp. Prisoners would go out on purpose to do hard work in the fi elds, digging pits, in order not to see what was going on in the camp. The variety of isolation is beyond comparison. It is possible to live in isolation, to have contact with others, but to be well aware that one day normality will return. The people in the camp also had hope, but they knew that this hope could end rather quickly for them — in the crematorium.

Robak i robactwo w twórczości Władysława Syrokomli

The aim of this article is to determine the frequency of occurrence of the terms “worm” and “insects” in the works of Władysław Syrokomla. An assumption is made that these themes have animportant function in the poet’s works, and that their occurrence indicates something of significance. The article considers both the functionality and repeatability criteria, which is the necessary foundationfor recording these items. The conducted analyses indicate that Syrokomla’s insects (regardless of whether they have a literal or metaphorical meaning) in most cases signal something evil. Sometimes it is an ordinary pest (insect) damaging plants, but more frequently the insect refers to the human condition, characterising it in three dimensions: as the worm of death, as the worm of internal suffering or as the worm of insignificance. In other cases, worms or insects represent curses or sin. The diversity of how such zoomorphic connotations are presented and applied deserves attention. Moreover, although the majority of them have long-established cultural and literary traditions, in Syrokomla’s works they gain a new context (for example, historical, folk or social). They indicate sensitivity to injustice and evil. The poet frequently presents the human world by analogy to the world of nature.

Poezja, która stawia opór

The article is a review of the monograph by Aleksandra Zasępa Od surrealizmu do poezji symbolu. Tendencje artystyczne w twórczości poetyckiej Janusza Stycznia published in 2017. The author, recognising the value of the first scholarly study of Styczeń’s work, pays attention to the shortcomings and inaccuracies found in the book, including: expressing judgments that are insufficiently scientifically founded, incorrect methodological approach, leaving the terms used without definitions, gaps in the subject literature. The author states that the reviewed monograph is characterised by relative scientific correctness; however, the statements formulated by the researcher are too superficial.

Sposób kreowania postaci Juliusza Słowackiego w przestrzeni internetowej. Rekonesans

The article concerns the ways of creating Juliusz Słowacki’s image online. The problem is discussed based on graphic material (memes, facetiae) and fi lm material (productions in the series“Historia bez cenzury” [History without censorship], “Wielkie konflikty” [Great conflicts]). The authoress briefly discusses the viability of the Romantic paradigm in contemporary Polish cultureand the reminiscence of this presence, which is key in the image of the poet shaped by authors and internet users. Next, the authoress characterises the artist based on the collected research material. In most cases, Słowacki is presented as a negative character — a cowardly, pretentious, conceited man, jealous of the poetic talent of his fellow writers. He is often confronted with AdamMickiewicz, a character depicted much more positively. Summing up, the authoress considers the reasons for this type of simplification of the image of the Polish bard on the internet, and concludes that it is the result of building a schematic image of the world based on stereotypes; this image then begins to function in the collective memory of society.

Życie kobiet — więźniarek w obozie Auschwitz-Birkenau

The book by Halina Rusek Koleżanki z Birkenau. Esej o pamiętaniu [Friends from Birkenau: An essay on remembering] published by the University of Silesia is a kind of diary about the life of women in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The author describes the fate of her mother and her friends confined in one of the most horrific war camps. This publication, apart from descriptions and memories of female prisoners, contains original letters and photographs collected by families, which allows the reader to refer to the past more directly. The book was divided by the author into chapters which intensify the women’s experiences: from pre-war times through the war period to regaining freedom and returning to their family homes. Reading the book, one gets to know the early life of young girls who were unexpectedly captured and transported to the concentration camp. Their fates are intertwined with the struggle for existence, forced labour, camp experiences and the anticipated freedom. Important throughout the book is the documentation collected by the families of the prisoners. Post-war letters, mutual contacts, feelings and family memories make the reader feel close to the characters. The author tries to describe the lives of girls coming from different regions of Poland, whose fates were intertwined with each other. The book shows different ways in which the female prisoners were treated, based on their nationalities. In an attempt to make camp life more real for the reader, the author refers to prison correspondence. Halina Rusek’s publication shows young readers how important it is to remember the past and what concentration camps were.

Sylwiczność „Tajnego dziennika“ Mirona Białoszewskiego

The article is an attempt to prove that Miron Białoszewski’s Secret Diary can be treated as a silva rerum, implementing its genre principles in drafting space, opening the text to the possibility of various content transformations and creative continuation. Open composition, illusiveness, hybridization and disintegration of literary ways of shaping the text, allows Białoszewski’s Secret Diary to be placed between what is literally institutionalized, subjected to the strategy of proper formation of artistic objects, and the sphere of autobiographical-documentary, paraliterary writing, drawing on the colloquial reality of language.

Śmierć odsunięta w nieskończoność. Filozofowanie Edwarda Stachury na temat czasu, śmierci i wieczności

The article Death delayed indefinitely. Edward Stachura philosophizing on time, death and eternity is an attempt to read Stachura from a different side than as a poet, bard and mediocre singer. It is a compilation of the writer’s various texts, but the leading one is a little-known work called Everything is poetry. The story-river (edited by H. Bereza, Z. Fedecki, K. Rutkowski, vol. 4, Warsaw 1984). Stachura transforms into almost a sage, into a philosopher who tries to create ele­mentary definitions of the world, people, time and eternity. He believes that there is no such thing as “nothing” like death, which would mean the definitive end. Thus, he proves that he is not only an “extreme” creator, but one who seeks hope and gaps in describing and understanding the world. The writer attempts to describe eternity, to visualize it, to grasp death as a transition from the „non-our-form-life” to, it seems, a better place. He even changes the forms of talking about eternity — he uses the invented appropriate verb, the infinitive “to be”, which does not take into account the existence of any time . This is the term “perpetual time”. There is no place to distinguish the present, future or past, because eternity is a “measure”, we always find it in the moment of lasting. Therefore, eternity has no beginning or end, unlike time. These concepts of Stachura mainly dictate fear to the end. Thus, he tries to reformulate the common patterns in thinking about death and passing away. Ultimately, it is a study of broadly understood optimism of Stachura, underestimated in his work on a daily basis.