Piotr Oczko

These Boys from the Golden Age. Remarks on Benjamin B. Roberts’ Sex and Drugs before Rock ’n’ Roll: Youth Culture and Masculinity during Holland’s Golden Age

This article deals with the book Sex and Drugs before Rock ’n’ Roll. Youth Culture and Masculinity during Holland’s Golden Age by Benjamin B. Roberts (Amsterdam University Press 2012), a detailed study of one generation of young Dutchmen who reached their adulthood ca. 1620-1630. The author analyzes their lifestyles and expressions of masculinity, concentrating on phenomena such as grooming, clothing, alcohol consumption, violent behavior, sexual life, tobacco smoking and other types of recreation and leisure. Young men of that time rebelled and broke from the previous social norms and systems of values, e. g. by adopting various military codes of behavior. The book in question constitutes a fairly stereotypical vision of masculinity, leaving little space for individuals thinking and acting outside the box. Roberts’ study is nevertheless a pioneering one, and the author rightly chooses to present a consistent group portrait instead of a random sampling. The life of young men from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the time would provide a useful point of comparison, but unfortunately has not yet been the subject of any detailed research.

This paper deals with the issue of “utopianism” in L.M. Montgomery’s novel Anne of Green Gables (1908), a book which has been translated into Polish many times and has been shaping the worldview and mentality of Polish female readers for over a century. This utopianism is here presented in three separate approaches. Firstly, the study investigates the “translatological utopianism” of the first translation of the novel (by R. Bernstein, published in 1911), which, as a result of the linguistic and stylistic decisions of the translator, has been significantly naturalised and domesticised, as well as adapted to the multiple (genological, social, and cultural) expectations and conceptions of the Polish implied audience. Secondly, attention was drawn to the fact that Avonlea as presented in the novel is a kind of social “matriarchal utopia”, emphasising the issues of women’s solidarity, responsibility, and education, at the same time strongly referring to the Arcadian trend in utopian literature. Thirdly, it was suggested that in Moira Walley-Beckett’s film adaptation Anne of Green Gables (Anne with an E, 2017-2018), the reading “between the lines” of Montgomery’s novel and the application of the hermeneutics of suspicion by the screenwriter made the idyllic utopia of the original resemble a dystopia. 

„Constantijntje, my dear little son...”. Netherlandish writings for children and about children up to the end of the 17th century

The aim of the given paper is to describe the changes that occurred in the Netherlandish (i.e. Dutch and Flemish) juvenile texts from the Middle Ages up to the end of the 17th century. The introductory remarks focus upon the methodological issues, such as defining the child and its age in the past and the questions concerning the ‘identity’ and possible forms of old literature/ writings aimed for children. In the Netherlands, up to the end of the 16th century, children, were mostly the addressees of the numerous schoolbooks, both Latin and vernacular ones. The revolt against the Spanish rule (1555) resulted in the division of the Netherlands into the Catholic South and the Calvinistic-minded North, namely the Dutch Republic. Whereas in the southern provinces the shape and form of the juvenile writings remained practically unchanged, in the North the publishing market for children grew rapidly, greatly stimulated by the rise of the common education in the Republic, spectacular increase of literacy and the social advancement of the country, based upon the Protestant faith and economical progress. Within few decades young Dutch readers from the North, boys and girls alike, were able to choose from a considerable publishing offer, designed not only for instruction but also for pleasure. Finally, the multitude of representations of children in the 17th century Dutch literature and their contexts (emblem books, conventional didactic and vanitas texts, more personal confessions) have been briefly suggested in the paper.

 

“Traditional” or “Modern”? Methodological Dilemmas of the Contemporary Researchers of Old Polish Literature. Part Two: Queer Theory and Gay and Lesbian Studies

The second part of the paper deals with the problems of the history of homosexuality and other non-normative sexualities in the framework of the Old Polish writings. It has been based on the practical experience and dilemmas of the authors who have recently published a book Homoseksualność staropolska. Przyczynek do badań (Old Polish Homosexuality. A Contribution, 2012). Numerous controversies, such as the application of queer theory versus gay and lesbian studies approach, have been discussed taking into consideration their methodological usefulness with regard to the historical Old Polish texts. Preference has been given to traditional gay and lesbian studies, not queer criticism, as the later may lead to numerous misunderstandings and misinterpretations owing to the indefinite, secondary, doubtful and oppressive character of most available original texts in question, which has been fully exemplified.

“Traditional” or “Modern”? Methodological Dilemmas of the Contemporary Researchers of Old Polish Literature. Part One: General Remarks and the Case of Postcolonial Criticism

This paper shows the personal reflection of its authors upon the methodological contexts of cultural and literary studies concerning Old Polish literature. Especially those contexts that eagerly and sophisticatedly – though quite superficially – apply the so called “modern” literary theories to the analyses and interpretations of Old Polish texts and – at the same time – disregard their very historical backgrounds. The authors present a fairly sceptical approach towards the blind and unjustifiable, although fashionable, application of “modern” criticism in the given field of research. Instead they emphasise the contextual, secondary character of the possible modern theoretical implications, as  well as the particular, specific character of Old Polish writings. Moreover, wider social factors influencing the methodological decisions taken by the academic community in question (who undoubtedly still favour the traditional, philological method of research and strongly distances itself from the contemporary theoretical thought) have been discussed in great detail. The enclosed analysis of the recent controversial book Fantomowe ciało króla (The Phantom Body of a King, 2011) by Jan Sowa, which deals with the Old Polish history, society, and culture, strongly influenced by the application of modern criticism, in particular the postcolonial part of it, served both as an example of the authors’ argumentation and, at the same time, a warning.