BODY AND LAUGHTER IN GABRIELA ZAPOLSKA’S MORALNOŚĆ PANI DULSKIEJ /THE MORALITY OF MRS. DULSKA/ AND POLISH GENDER STEREOTYPES 
Gabriela Zapolska’s play Moralność pani Dulskiej (1906, The Morality of Mrs. Dulska) is undoubtedly one of her best works and one of the best comedies written in Polish. Its interest lies in the way in which the author satirizes moral philistinism by reversing gender roles in a middle class family. The presentation shows how gender related issues are used in the play to underscore the point that philistine morality is not gender specific, and it analyzes the way in which comic effects are achieved against conventional stereotypes. It then compares the text of the play with two more recent performances, both TV fi lms (one by Andrzej Wajda, and the other by Tomasz Zygadło), in which Zapolska’s originality becomes re-conventionalized in accordance with patriarchal stereotypes. In both instances patriarchal gender expectations are reintroduced and reinforced, but with the loss of the humour of the play in Wajda’s production, and a shift to the more traditional, anti-feminine comedy in Zygadło’s version.

Gabriela Zapolska’s play Moralność pani Dulskiej (1906, The Morality of Mrs. Dulska) is undoubtedly one of her best works and one of the best comedies written in Polish. Its interest lies in the way in which the author satirizes moral philistinism by reversing gender roles in a middle class family. The presentation shows how gender related issues are used in the play to underscore the point that philistine morality is not gender specific, and it analyzes the way in which comic effects are achieved against conventional stereotypes. It then compares the text of the play with two more recent performances, both TV fi lms (one by Andrzej Wajda, and the other by Tomasz Zygadło), in which Zapolska’s originality becomes re-conventionalized in accordance with patriarchal stereotypes. In both instances patriarchal gender expectations are reintroduced and reinforced, but with the loss of the humour of the play in Wajda’s production, and a shift to the more traditional, anti-feminine comedy in Zygadło’s version.