The centre and periphery. “Król w Nieświeżu” by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski and the Polish opera culture of the 18th century

Beginning with the novel Król w Nieświeżu. 1784. Obrazki z przeszłości [The King in Neśwież. 1784. Images of the past] by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, the author of the article focuses on selected aspects of the 18th-century Polish opera culture and its infl uence on shaping the contemporary artistic and social worldview. Embodied by two main characters of the novel, Prince Karol Radziwiłł and King Stanisław August Poniatowski, the contrast between, on the one hand, the centre – the enlightened Warsaw and the vision of a new type of government and culture following Western patterns – and on the other hand, the periphery – the eastern borderline, lawless aristocracy and relics of the Sarmatian culture – allows us to take a closer look at the contemporary Polish opera from these two perspectives. This genre, transplanted as early as in the 17th century from the Italian tradition, and symbolizing the presence of Western infl uences in Poland and the Polish theatre being part of the European culture, becomes, at the end of the 18th century, the nucleus of the national theatre and the dramatic genre – not only in the offi cial, Enlightenment version, practised in the Varsovian centre, but also, due to its popularity, in the peripheral centres of culture of the gentry, including numerous aristocratic courts. The presence of the opera within Radziwiłł’s cultural horizon, as documented in  Kraszewski’s novel (Agatka, czyli przyjazd pana [Agatka, i.e. the Arrival of the Lord], staged on the occasion of the king’s visit), constitutes one of the elements of the dialogue conducted by the two cultural circles and representatives of the antagonistic milieus depicted in the novel. It also turns out that the Polish culture of the epoch, considered from the opera perspective, displays surprising thematic, aesthetic, and ideological similarities between its centre and periphery.

The “noble knave” and “present occurrences,” i.e., romanticism and politics in the musical theatre of the 20th century (around The Death of Klinghoff er by John Adams)

The article analyzes the specifi c character of The Death of Klinghoff er as a collective work with strong political connotations, as well as the controversies around its performances, from the perspective of the evolution of opera theatre poetics. The main reference point is the tradition of the Romantic theatre, with special emphasis on two novelties introduced within that tradition: using contemporary history as material for dramatic elaboration, and giving the voice to negative characters and presenting their arguments as equally important within the dramatic structure. Romanticism, in the name of a right to an individualized vision of the world, held the truth of art beyond the truth of facts, just like it went beyond the traditional axiology and morality in search for a true nobleness of spirit (by e.g. creating the type of a “noble knave”). This, in turn, led to seeing art as a realm of myth, which even if genetically connected to real events, had lost this relation long ago and opened a possibility to interpret them freely and out of context. The case of The Death of Klinghoff er shows that even if such assumptions have already been accepted in theory of drama, the artistic practice still regards them as problematic..
 

Between the “self” and the “other:” The figure of the middleman in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Rocannon’s World and Jarosław Grzędowicz’s The Lord of the Ice Garden

The article presents an analysis of Stephen Greenblatt’s figure of the middleman read through the lenses of Bernhard Waldenfels’s notion of “the third” and attributed to a comparative reading of two science fantasy novels: Ursula K. Le Guin’s Rocannon’s World, considered a hallmark of the genre, and Jarosław Grzędowicz’s tetralogy The Lord of the Ice Garden. In both these works the protagonist engages in the role of a middleman, which allows for pointing at specific similarities in the storytelling, creation of the two worlds, and a symbolic “gate” between them. Nevertheless, it is the identity created within the sphere of the intermundium that remains here the most prominent issue, as it belongs neither to the world abandoned by “the third,” nor to the one where “the third” finally finds him/herself.
 

Vigilance, tenderness

The paper is an attempt to interpret a poem by Julian Kornhauser, usually read as a manifesto of the new poetry rejecting social obligations, so important for the so-called New Wave generation. This interpretation aims to highlight hidden contradictions between the critique of the propagandist manipulation and the need to describe the personal experience. Kornhauser makes here a turn towards aesthetics as aisthesis, understood in its original meaning by Baumgarten and rediscovered in modern philosophy (for example by Mike Dufrenne), and opens up his poem to the sensible world.
 

Wojaczek among the youngest

In the article, the author considers ways in which representatives of the youngest generation of poets refer to the poetry of Rafał Wojaczek, pointing out that, on the one hand, the legend which has grown around this poet’s biography is something tempting and difficult at the same time, and on the other hand, in his poetics the young poets find a way to go beyond irony and towards a non-pathetic sublimity, which has a generational significance for them. According to the author, such effects of reading Wojaczek can be found today in poetry of Konrad Góra and, artistically related to him, Kamil Brewiński or Szymon Domagała-Jakuć. Andrzej Sosnowski is pointed out as an important intermediary who offers a refreshing interpretation of the poetry of the author of Inna bajka.
 

Spectres, ghosts and haunted poems. About Roman Honet’s poetry

The main purpose of this article is to analyze the occurrence of the figure of a spectre in Roman Honet’s poetry. The spectre is described here in various aspects and dimensions. The methodological tools used to analyze this literary trope mainly come from Jacques Derrida’s hauntology and the psychoanalytic presupposition of Nicolas Abraham and Maria Török, which the French philosopher was inspired by when formulating his philosophical project. In her interpretations the author attaches considerable importance to explaining the existential condition of the poems’ entity and the dimension of temporality in which they exist.
 

Disability in Polish children’s literature of the 19th century

The author focuses on representations of disabled protagonists in the Polish children’s literature of the 19th century. She begins with presenting the perspective proposed by Simi Linton. In subsequent paragraphs, she analyzes selected texts of Polish children’s literature. She tries to determine the character of the 19th-century Polish culture from the perspective of the disability studies.
 

Post-blackness as a contemporary attempt at redefining
black identity

This article explores the dynamic changes in ways of perceiving race and identity in the complex, post-modern African-American culture. Gathered under the name of “post-blackness,” some methods of an artistic representation of race were presented against the background of socio-political events of the last few years. The paper reconstructs the formations that allowed for the emergence of this term, such as black nationalism, womanism, as well as theories of race of the 1960’s and 1970’s.