The post-partition period of the Polish literature is characterized by a diversity of forms and styles of literary expression. In this period, one can observe a distinct correlation of Classicist and Sentimentalist elements (often within a single work) or even a tendency of crowding out the former by the latter, which would lead straight to development of a new era in the history of Polish literature, namely, romanticism. For many years, literary history studies defi ned the entire literary output of late 18th and the first two decades of the 19th century as preromanticism (as a separate literary period). This article attempts to prove that some early-romanticist tendencies did function, but only in the form of literary phenomena manifesting themselves within the assumptions of late sentimentalism. Unquestionably, many studies of sentimentalism of King Stanisław’s era have already been written, and the works of outstanding representatives of this movement have been subject to multiple analyses and interpretations. However, the literature of late sentimentalism remains a poorly studied area, requiring in-depth literary-history studies. It is the problems around the issues connected with the post-partition sentimentalism which become the subject of inquiries by the author of the article.

The article discusses the subject matter of filiations of literature and music. In Sonata by Jan August Kisielewski, they are revealed in the field of thematization. Andrzej Hejmej customarily defines this plane as Type II musicality. The main carrier of meanings in the drama becomes the title. It generates the significance of the work and emphasizes its interdisciplinary nature. It also indicates the occurrence of a specifi c musical structure in the text. It is a sonata form, constituting a composition model of the drama and determining the axis of its construction. The presence of musical connotations in Kisielewski’s Sonata is indicated on many levels, including: through an artistic motif, a clear reference to the Song of Songs, the auditive layer of the work

The article discusses a book by Hans Graf von Lehndorff (1910–1987), famous in the West (especially in the German-speaking world), Ostpreußisches Tagebuch. Aufzeichnungen eines Arztes aus den Jahren 1945–1947. In the People’s Republic of Poland, this book was most strictly prohibited by the communist censorship due to its depictions of atrocities of Red Army soldiers to civilian population, especially to women raped by the Soviets on a mass scale.

Lehndorff was born into the Prussian aristocracy whose links with East Prussia went back approx. 600 years. Brought up in the chivalrous spirit since his youth, he secretly opposed Hitler’s rule and was involved to some extent in the assassination attempt of 1944. An opponent of National Socialism since its beginning, he became – like almost all inhabitants of East Prussia – a victim of Hitler’s political folly.

The analysis emphasizes the multidimensional character of inner life. Lehndorff appears in the text primarily as a surgeon providing help to suffering people – regardless of any political, racial or territorial divisions. In his practice, he acts with the greatest dedication attainable by a human, particularly during the Soviet siege of the Königsberg fortress (January–December 1945). He rejects violence, even in defense of himself or his close ones. Many times, he miraculously escapes sudden death, also surviving many arrests, detention in a concentration camp, an escape on foot from Königsberg to his native Ermland, and fi nally, departure from Poland to Germany.

Lehndorff developed his inner life consciously, joining in his youth – as a worshipper of Reformed Christianity – the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche) which opposed National Socialism in Nazi Germany. The surgeon’s constant practice was everyday prayer, reading of the Bible, meditation. In his evangelical radicalism, he even resorted to conducting service to  worshippers (due to a lack of pastors) both in Königsberg and after the war, in Ermland, where he was hiding at his friends’ or relatives’ houses. He used to be arrested by the NKVD and the Polish UB (Office of Security) for “religious propaganda”. Since he treated his persecutors (Russians, Poles) as well, in critical moments he would escape death. For a reader in our century, he is a model of a heroic Christian striving for reconciliation of nations and forgiveness of guilt. Lehndorff’s atonement is service to suffering people, uniting people of goodwill and constituting an evangelical sign of Christ’s presence.

The goal of this article is to present the critical reception of the biography and works of Joseph Conrad in Poland in 1897–1945. Special emphasis is put on the political, social, cultural and aesthetic factors conditioning this process. The reception originated in the era of partitions, whereas Conrad’s relative popularity among the intellectual and artistic elite started only in the interwar period. A special role in promotion of Conrad was played by Stefan Żeromski and the poets associated with the “Skamander” group. In later years, Conrad became the object of fascination of many representatives of the generation of 1910, who were highly infl uenced by Józef Ujejski, author of the monograph O Konradzie Korzeniowskim [On Konrad Korzeniowski]. Conrad’s works played a special role during World War II – they provided moral support to many people struggling against the Nazi and Stalinist

One of the American myths, currently obsolete and mostly forgotten, is a vision of America as an Arcadia where the perennial human dream of personal freedom could come true thanks to the idealistic concept of life which is supposedly possible in the pre-industrial, pre-corporation and nonovercrowded society in the context of unspoiled, wild nature. Such vision had a powerful personal and intellectual impact on a famous 19th-century American writer, Henry David Thoreau. The author of the article thoroughly analyses this myth of the American Arcadia on the basis of all major publications of the writer, in particular, the essays Walking and Civil Disobedience, as well as the book Walden.

In the article, I discuss novels by ideologists and activists of the inter-war nationalist movement. Popular literature played a significant role in propagation of nationalist ideas. When looking at female characters in novels by Roman Dmowski, Stanisław Piasecki, Władysław Jan Grabski, Adam Doboszyński and Jędrzej Giertych, I indicate the role of stereotype as well as the presence of patriarchal and anti-Semitic discourse in these novels. In works of the young generation of nationalists, one may find more diversified portraits of women, which is connected with progressing emancipation of women in the inter-war period, as well as beginnings of their activity in the nationalist movement. I show the hazards connected with focusing on the feminist discourse without the context of the ideology propagated by these works. Therefore, I pay attention to relationships between the ideological assumptions of the National Radical Camp (ONR) and creation of the presented world in the works under discussion.

The present article deals with the issue of text and textuality in such „unstable” and not-so-easy-to-grasp forms as advertising campaigns. The main contention of the article is that we need to reformulate the classical concept of text based on verbal transmission, and enhance it by taking into account visual elements as well as such formally indefinite phenomena as presuppositions and inferences. This is also implied by the necessity to reformulate the concept of intention and by the assumption that the text is always „text for a receiver”, or something that is contituted by the latter’s intention.

Suddenly the Mazowian landscape reared, it swerved askew from its logical angle and absolutely refused to straighten out no matter how much mental effort put into it doing so. The gray curtain of clouds was perforated. Blue sky, always present here at these altitudes, brushed against the pupils of my eyes. By now a cozy calm smoothness reigned beneath the wing. Cotton candy spread out over the spacious sky. I am free from rain, torrential storms, inundation and all sorts of excesses of nature, I am getting a rest from myself. In a state of suspension I belong nowhere. At the controls is an important surrogate for God.
During the last seven years I obstinately stuck to the earth. This dearth of take offs would have lasted longer were it not for Józef Wittlin...

Review: Literatura gorszego Boga? Antologia polskiego reportażu XX wieku red. M. Szczygieł, Wołowiec 2014, t. 1, ss. 872, t. 2, ss. 960