Jadwiga Miękina-Pindur

Bolesław Prus’s friendship with Julian Ochorowicz began in a lyceum in Lublin attended by both of them. The school friends shared common interests, passions and reading. Their classmate was also Aleksander Świętochowski, yet the young men did not get to like each other, and the mutual antagonisms would become even more intense in their adult life, in journalist polemics. Further studies at the Main School had linked Prus and Ochorowicz for two years, after which Głowacki interrupted his study in Warsaw and left for Puławy. All that time he maintained contacts with Ochorowicz, reviewed his articles, visited him; they made plans of joint undertakings, such as lectures and articles as well as larger scholarly works. When Ochorowicz, after a period of travels across Europe, had settled in Wisła, where he built several villas, Prus visited him, but agoraphobia he suffered made him leave Wisła quite quickly. He detested not only wide spaces but also boredom, since Wisła of those days (in early 20th century) was not a spa town as popular as Prus’s beloved Nałęczów. Their friendship had matured through many decades, regardless of different tempers and differences in their perception of reality, which is evidenced by records in Ochorowicz’s Journal and the preserved correspondence.

The article is an attempt to present the previously unknown manuscript lapidary of Zofia Kossak-Szatkowska against the background of her other texts of autobiographic character. The unpublished works of the writer include her notes,unknown to wider audience, from several spring weeks of 1957. These notes mostly describe a journey across Poland, undertaken by the author of The Blaze immediately after her return to Poland from forcedemigration in Cornwall. What comes to the fore are descriptions of meetings with readers as well as observations of people and places she visited. A sharp observer, she watches the monuments of history with the eye of an expert, registers feelingsof people, and in some places, sketches an indirect description of the Polish literary environment. She enjoys Polish landscapes and lush nature in the spring.

Zofia Kossak was immersedin the past for more than half a century, both in her history-oriented literary works and in her memoirs, particularly in those written in hindsight(The Blaze, From the Abyss, Memoirs from Cornwall). She always cared about documenting a moment, which can be seen in the diaristrecords of her lapidary, well aware that what is happening now will come to past in a moment.

The essay is an attempt to analyze an extremely interesting document of the era of positivism – the only part of the journal by Julian Ochorowicz, the theoretician of the positivism, psychologist, inventor and author of diverse texts, published in print. The journal combines many different types of autobiographical texts, of which the most interesting are the following: the travel journal, the notebook of ideas to be implemented in the future, as well as observations and records, and also a number of aphorisms (mainly his own). Furthermore, self-commentaries drawn up by the author from the perspective of a few years, prior to going to press, or references to various texts (scientific, philosophic, fictional, autobiographical – one’s own or somebody else’s) seem rather important. Despite the author’s young age, some observations included in the journal were surprisingly correct and mature (e.g. those concerning the human nature or the customs of residents of the European countries visited by him).

Recent juvenile fiction, like the popular literature, is much more connected with everyday life of young people than appreciated literary works of the past. In her juvenile novels, M. Gutowska-Adamczyk shows in an interesting way the relations between young people and their parents and grandparents (who are often closer to them than the parents, since they introduce them to unknown family secrets and are the keepers of tradition passed from one generation to another). The family identity built in such way is a fundament of such values as: respect, nobleness, devotion, indness, and the presence of the past in the present gives young people the awareness of one’s own “rootedness”. If these novels allow young people for deeper reflection on the surrounding world, for discourse with the characters and to experience authentic emotions, they will fulfill their task.

As it turns out, a grave (often incurable) disease can be a kind of a modern taboo. An attempt to break the silence is made by persons known from the media (especially women) who are suffering from illness or have had a contact with death (their own or of their loved ones). They are often actresses, painters, journalists or writers, sharing their experiences, openly speaking on what they have survived, presenting visual works (painting, photography, films, etc.) dealing with such topics, or publishing autobiographical texts (diaries, memoirs, feature articles, fictionalized prose, etc.) Testimonies of struggle against breast cancer, as analyzed in the article, include texts of autobiographical character by Katarzyna Grochola, Krystyna Kofta and Anna Mazurkiewicz. The writers have recorded a moving depiction of their experiences in an actual diary (K. Kofta), a pseudo-diary (A. Mazurkiewicz) and an autobiographical popular novel (K. Grochola). In case of K. Kofta, the diary account has been additionally supplemented with later drawings by the author. In case of all three writers mentioned above, speaking about disease, suffering and death contributes, to a lesser or greater degree, to breaking of the modern taboo.
In extreme situations, and struggle against a lethal disease can surely be regarded as such, questions on the meaning of life arise inevitably. For many people, death means the end of their world, with no hope for anything after. A modern human has been left on his own and became completely helpless in view of empty heaven, deprived of hope, indifferent to his own fate. Only extreme experiences, extreme situations, sometimes wake him from his  umbness. Amazing statements by authors of the texts under discussion seem to confirm the thesis on their experiences, perceived as experience of the entireness of human nature (Anna Mazurkiewicz), incredible enrichment and awakening of faith (Katarzyna Grochola) or appreciation of what you have got (Krystyna Kofta). Therefore, contrary to what the present, post-modern world might want, they are not just traumatic experiences which should be quickly forgotten and never returned to.