Polish Readings of Byron’s Epitaph on Boatswain

The Inscription on the Monument of a Newfoundland Dog, which Byron had engraved on the memorial to his dog Boatswain in the grounds of Newstead Abbey, has been one of the most often reprinted and translated poems by Byron. In her book Kindred Brutes Christine Kenyon--Jones has thoroughly examined the genealogy of the poem and pointed to its potential for manifold interpretations and to its role in establishing the image of Byron as ‘a misanthropic dog-lover’. The Polish reception of the poem confirms both its ideological and political potential and its role in the creation of one of the stereotypical images of Byron.
This paper examines Polish translations of Byron’s Inscription, pointing to the role of the poet’s lives, particularly L. Belloc’s French biography, in the formation of the myth of the Byron and in the transmission of the knowledge of his works. It also traces literary allusions to the poem in the works of Polish writers. In the Russian-controlled Congress Kingdom of Poland the banning of the poem on the grounds of a theological error marked one of the first noted interventions of preventive censorship in 1825. Nonetheless, the Polish translations were published first in the Austrian-controlled Lviv in 1825, and then in the Russian-controlled Vilnius in 1834, both exploring the poem’s political potential. On the other hand, in his drama Fantazy Juliusz Słowacki used ironic references to the poem to criticize the Byronic stance.
 

The Man Booker Prize and the Emerging Canon of Contemporary British Fiction

The article sets out to consider the tentative shape of the canon of contemporary British fiction and to examine the extent to which it has been influenced by the most prestigious of British literary prizes – the Booker. An overview of the Prize’s history and a summary of its rules and regulations (eligibility, the jury, the selection process) is followed by an assessment of its legacy, positive and negative, in promoting literary fiction in Britain. The second part of the article investigates the problematic nature of the notion of “contemporary British fiction” and considers several aspects of canonicity as well as the essential factors involved in the formation of the canon. The last part provides some empirical data arranged into four tables. It juxtaposes the results of two surveys on the teaching canon of contemporary British fiction (carried out by Bentley, and by Tew and Addis) with the information about the recognition which the canonical authors and novels have received from the Booker juries. Two of the tables seek to illustrate the prominence of British writers in critical surveys of contemporary literature and on the shortlists of the Booker. The conclusions point to the Prize’s greater potential for influencing the critical rather than the teaching canon, while conceding that there are numerous examples of authors and texts that have their place in either canon despite their lack of any Booker success.
 

The Postsecular Thought in Slavic Studies. A Brief Overlook

The paper is an introduction into the issue of postsecular thought. First, it presents the assumptions, practical manifestations and modifications of the notion of postsecular thought in philosophy (of religion), as well as in sociology and political science. In the second part the paper shows how the notion can be adapted in literature and culture studies, in order to indicate its usefulness in Slavic studies. In the end, it is suggested that the postsecular thought may be particularly productive in researching modern Slavic cultures due to the specific context of their development, i.e. their significant relationship to the West (Western Europe), from which there emerge problems of modernization and the place of religion in the process of adapting the (post)Enlightenment patterns.
 

Disgust and Fear of the Body. Feminism and Hysteria in Carina Rydberg’s Nattens amnesti. Det somatiska samhället och dess litteratur

Sociological analysis reveals an increasing role of the body in both private and political spheres of contemporary Western society, hereinafter, the somatic society. The phenomenon called ‘skräckellitteratur’ is a result and reaction towards the somatic society. Skräckellitteratur was a characteristic trend in the Swedish literature of the 90’s, where elements of fear and disgust presented the body as a basic medium of violence. In this paper the phenomenon of skräckellitteratur is discussed on the basis of the analysis of the protagonist’s hysterical behavior in Carina Rydberg’s novel, Nattens amnesti (1994). According to Elaine Showalter’s theory, hysterization of a person is the result of cultural violence which degrades the person to the body level and enables relieving the violence only in the somatic manner. This paper reconstructs the hysteria process, its source and the way a hysterical woman endeavors to suppress progressive somatization. The analysis of historical discourse in the novel Nattens amnesti emphasizes its significant relations with the feminist reinterpretation of the hysteria theory. This relation is noticed among others in the source of the hysteria which comes as a result of sexual abuse in early childhood and progressive sexual activity in adulthood. The hysterical woman with her non-culturally formed body becomes a rebellious patriarchal daughter who jeopardizes not only herself but also the whole system which degraded her to the body level. The hysterical symptoms presented in Rydberg’s prose confirm Hélène Cixous’ and Elaine Showalter’s views, who, contrary to psychiatry and psychoanalyses of the death of hysteria, claim hysteria to be a still existing, though modified, phenomenon.
 

The Czech Dream about Structuralism II (after the year 1948)

The study concerns the problem of Czech structuralism viewed as one of the “Czech dreams” (Vladimír Macura’s term which, in general, means a national myth). The article describes the Czech structural theory as part of the national identity and national imagery in the second half of the 20th century. The author focuses specifically on the process of semiosis of structuralism in the post-war Czechoslovakia, especially on its evaluation in the communist propaganda and its relation to the Marxist theory. The problem of its connection to the post-structural literary theory is also undertaken. The paper ends with a description of the role, position and evaluation of structuralism in the Czech literary theory after the year 1989.
 

The Contemporary Images of ‘Raskoł’ and Heresy from the Perspective of the Serbian-Montenegrin Cultural Relations

The article addresses problems concerning the contemporary forms of ‘raskoł’ and heresy within the Serbian-Montenegrin cultural sphere, ranging from misunderstandings with respect to the definitions of the notions in question, up to specific instances (often of an exclusively political nature) of conflicts between the canonically recognized and non-recognized Orthodox Churches. Acts of transferring both terms from the domain of religion onto the phenomena of the sociocultural and political spheres, happening very often but at the same time unjustified, characterize the contemporary discourse of intellectuals and clergymen that artificially reinforces antagonisms in the Serbian-Montenegrin relations.