Cudzoziemka (The Foreigner) by Maria Kuncewiczowa is a novel inspired by the author’s settlements with the past, an attempt to put in order difficult emotions pushed back into the subconscious. The story of a musical career of Róża Żabczyńska and her daughter Marta constitutes the transposition of the relationship between Maria Kuncewiczowa and her mother. Music is the common denominator combining the biography of Kuncewiczowa and the fate of the eponymous protagonist of the novel. She is one of the main themes of the novel, however, the correspondence between music and literature is also present in the formal level of the work. According to critics, commencing from the first review of the authorship of Bruno Schulz, The Foreigner is inspired by the form of a fugue, in which the subject of Rose’s psyche and the counter-subject of her metamorphosis are realized on two distinct time plans of the novel. The music composition pattern and the plot strictly related to the music, enveloped around two most important works: the Brahms’s violin concerto in D Major and Schumann’s song Ich grolle nicht, constitute two corresponding levels of the senses of the story, being the sign of their semantic compilation, also compared to the multi-faceted structure of a dream or a symphony.

The essay is devoted to an ironic construction of the protagonists in Sól ziemi (Salt of the Earth) by Józef Wittlin. The author discusses the method in which the main characters in the novel were created. He pays utmost attention to three of them: Piotr Niewiadomski, Rudolf Bachmatiukow and the emperor Franciszek Józef. According to Wocław, irony as a specific foundation of the texturing allows Wittlin to say more, write additional senses into the novel’s content. Their co-author is the reader, who – due to the presence of irony – constantly evaluates the characters and events from the world depicted. In such a way, the intensified moralistic dimension of Salt of the Earth is being created.

The article is devoted to the feuilleton work of Stefan Kisielewski (Kisiel), a long-term associate of “Tygodnik Powszechny”. A review of various feuilleton achievements, the archeology of a “feuilleton by Kisiel”, leads to an attempt to put in order the diagnoses of the liberal conservative, and the exposure of certain traits of his way of thinking (nonconformism, humour, antitheticity, etc.). A particular attention is drawn to one of the feuilletons – Świat nie przedstawiony  (The Unpresented World) – written in France, after visiting the Paris exhibition of Polish art Présences polonaises in Centre Pompidou (1983). This text applies directly to the geopolitical situation (East-West), the status of Polish art and a human in the isolated political and cultural space, and finally the situation of the author himself. Hejmej presents arguments for the thesis that Kisiel’s feuilletonism – a specific “journal of soul” – is related not only to public dimension (“Polish Rochefort”) but also, in a particular way, to the privacy zone, with an inner need do be a feuilletonist.

The article contributes to the analysis of angelology in the works of Miron Białoszewski. The author concentrates her attention on defining the meaning of the angel motive in the selected texts of the poet. She reveals the process, typical for this writer, of integrating the biblical and contemporary worlds and introducing on equal rights the elements of the reality known from everyday experience. Białoszewski treats Jewish-Catholic tradition selectively. He refers to images imprinted in the Holy Bible but, at the same time, exceeds stereotype presentations. By depicting angels among earthly realities, he polemises with the Christian concept of their nature and creates a specific quasi-apocryphe based on the holy history. The symbolic ambiguity of angel figure allows to, among others, formulate pars pro toto a vision about the religious provenance. Angels appear as the tools for description of another, spiritual reality and mystical experiences.

The appearance of a humorous current, where the principle of a pure-nonsense dominated, was a significant phenomenon in Polish poetry after the year 1989. It was initiated by Stanisław Barańczak and continued by Wisława Szymborska. The question arises: what caused the humorous creation to occupy a significant place in the newest poetry? What is more, under the pen of the most prominent creators. Obviously, one of the motivations for this type of creative activities is very simple – it is a game, and games have accompanied the poetic life from the beginning of time. The issue is, paradoxically, much more serious. Now, the games of Barańczak and Szymborska result directly from their poetics, especially from their sensitivity to the language, its power and weakness. Both poets in their serious, but also unserious poetry examine the language boundaries: how far does the language reach in its ability to name? The unserious poetry of Barańczak and Szymborska constitutes an integral part and continuation of their creative activity. One can find there all the elements present in their serious poetry. In that sense, it is a manifestation of the modernistic (the twentieth-century) sensitivity to language.

The article provides insight into the subject matter of the functions of a dialogue in the drama entitled Podróż do wnętrza pokoju (Journey to the inside of the room) by Michał Walczak. The author, by employing hermeneutics, indicates the possible intertextual interpretations of the drama. She also analyzes the method of the protagonist’s creation performed with the help of a language and, more widely, a dialogue. Jerzy Skóra – shows – covers and exposes at the same time through the language, he forms further elements creating his illusory image. A separate issue for the author of the article refers to the role of a dialogue in the context of the philosophical thought of Buber, Levinas and Tischner. The constatation is grim: language is a tool of closure for another person and the hero of the generation of the thirty-year-olds cannot and is not willing to enter outside the triviality and apparent intellectuality  of the discourse.

The principle of probability was in the period of Enlightenment almost entirely accepted, mainly (although not only) within the framework of the aesthetics of classicism. The above is confirmed by a number of aesthetic and literary statements of that age. Probability which evoked all that was general, that could have happened, was considered more important than the truth, which referred to individual facts. It was connected with the possibility of a certain derogation from the truth accepted by the recipients, so that the work could satisfy the didactic function (e.g. by showing the triumph of virtue), or in order to present things not the way they really are, but the way they might be. Fidelity to the probability principle was also supposed to serve the creation of an illusion in the recipients’ awareness. In various genres, this possibility of the truth modification would look different (for example, talking animals were acceptable only in a fairy tale). However, new aesthetic concepts entail the departure from the probability principle, frequently in the direction of the truth understood in a new manner.

The collection of nineteen Powieści wschodnich (Eastern novels) by Ignacy Krasicki constitutes one of the realizations of the genre of a tale in the literature of the Polish Enlightenment. Schematic construction of the world presented in the stories is submitted to extra-aesthetic tasks, mainly ideological and educational. Didacticism appears here as moral recommendations, universal truths and repetitive situations, possessing a universal value, to some extent still contemporary. Krasicki supports the style of life filled with a stoic calm and order, in compliance with the truths of nature, where virtue guarantees common happiness obtained due to the obedience to the will of parents and Providence, diligent work and restriction of desires and passions. Thus, he recommends judiciousness, reasonable decision making, moderation in the pursuit to pleasure and patient bearing of adversities. The author pays attention to the distinction between good deeds towards God and the closest ones, and the appearances, which deludingly seem like philanthropic acts.

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).

The article illustrates a faint presence of the theme of Borderlands in the contemporary media, teaching and awareness of the young Poles. The need to introduce the widely understood borderland subject matter to schools results from: the importance of the Polish, thus West European, cultural and civilizational heritage, the pupils’ and students’ awareness of the diffusion of cultures on the multiethnic territories, the necessity of showing religious tolerance of a number of believers of Christianity (of various rituals), as well as Judaism (Jewish and Karaim) and Mahometanism. Both totalitarianisms led to the destruction of small borderland home countries of the Poles, Ruthenians, Lithuanians, Ormians, Tatars, Karaims and other nations. The future teachers should be particularly sensitive to the necessity of communicating the true history and the critical thinking. It is especially important in the face of limiting the borderland subject matter in media and minimizing the presence of high culture. The proposals of diverse didactic activities included in the article are to help the teachers preserve the memory of the borderland heritage.

Two essays, Ada-Kaleh, Ada-Kaleh by Mircea Cărtărescu and Między magią a zniszczeniem (Between magic and destruction) by Fatos Lubonji are the starting point of the considerations on the decay. People are not the only victims of communist dictators of Romania and Albania. By destroying the old and building the new, they complete the work of destruction of the landscape and, thus, the memory. The oriental island on the Donau river, sunk during the construction of a power plant, is for Cărtărescu the mythological Atlantis, which has survived as a myth against Ceauşescu’s will. Old Albanian villages from Lubonja’s essay survived the times of Hoxha in a damaged form, however now they are threatened by wildly developing capitalism. The author indicates similarities between both essays. They are connected not only by the communist apprehension of the reality but also by the elegiac and melancholic tone of the essayists – people who are aware that the decay is an inevitable consequence of each existence.

The article entitled: Biedni Polacy patrzą na Rwandę (Poor Poles look at Rwanda) is a commentary to the book by Wojciech Tochman: Dzisiaj narysujemy śmierć (Today we shall draw Death). The essay’s author includes in particular the Polish perspective, understood as a convolution of the heritage of the past and contemporary problems. This Polish key allows to extract the universal content from the reportage on genocide in the depth of Africa, and also introduces the history of the slaughter of Tutsis as the context of our national discussions. It is signalled by the title of the essay, which constitutes a paraphrase of the famous statement by Jan Błoński published in “Tygodnik Powszechny” in 1987. Grzegorz Siwor analyzes a series of topics introduced in the text by Tochman. Today we shall draw Death raises issues concerning Pope John Paul II, the role of the Catholic Church in the modern world and its connection to power, the Holocaust trauma, the ethos of a Polish soldier and a priest. The article indicates that the role of Tochman’s book is not limited to transferring information about historical facts.

The essay is an analysis of the language mechanisms and phenomena applied by Stefan Kisielewski and Antoni Słonimski to present particular characters, playing a significant role in the sociopolitical life of our country. It also allows to establish specific features of the idiolect of both publicists. Irony helps them to keep the distance from events or expose seemingly proper behaviours of public persons. However, due to evaluating, expressing opinions, they reveal to the recipient their outlook on the world, relationship towards people, various life problems, social, political and worldview-related matters. The author demonstrates that Słonimski and Kisielewski are people of brilliance and perverse humour, the masters of extremely sharp opinions, who alleviate their biting remarks with an uncommon sense of humour.