The article aims at analyzing the idyll Adda by Alessandro Manzoni, one of the greatest representatives of the Italian Romanticism. The Adda is one of the early, neoclassical works of Manzoni. The young author presents the monologue of the nymph Adda, the goddess of the river of the same name, who invites to her humble kingdom the poet Vincenzo Monti, born on the banks of the great Po. The rivers Adda and Po are presented in the Manzoni’s idyll as the places of the literary memory.

Using August Wilhelm Schlegel’s definition of the short story and Tvetan Todorov’s concept of the fantastic, the essay presents three Romantic fantasy short stories. The author focuses on the representation of the body and corporeality. The works analyzed attempt to challenge the post-Enlightenment materialistic perspective and redefine the body and soul dichotomy. The essay discusses three models of presenting the body in the selected short stories. The first model, in Życie po śmierci [Life after Death] by J. I. Kraszewski, follows the logics of the grotesque and presents the body as not only the object, but also the vehicle of narration. The second model, in Lekarz magnetyczny [The Magnetic Doctor] by Józef Dzierzkowski, indicates the physiognomical understanding of the body as a sign, a call for interpretation. The third model, in Dentysta [The Dentist] by Henryk Rzewuski, involves the process of a radical suspension of the body and soul dichotomy: the body is conceived as pure surface. 

Zbigniew Herbert (one of the greatest poets in the twentieth century) graduated from the Trade School (now the Cracow University of Economics). The fact can be seen in his work. In Herbert’s essays we find not only a wide range of economic problems, but the real passion with which the author describes the economic base of any civilization. Essayist takes care of micro-and macroeconomics. From the economic point of view, one of the most interesting essays is dedicated to sketch the phenomenon of the speculative bubble in 17th century Holland (“Tulips smell bitter volume”). This paper is a fragment of the work in print: Józef Maria Ruszar, The Worn Profile of Roman Coins: Economy as a Literary Subject in the Works of Zbigniew Herbert (Wytarty profil rzymskich monet. Ekonomia jako temat literacki w twórczości Zbigniewa Herberta), JMR Transatlantyk, “Biblioteka Pana Cogito”, Kraków 2016.

The analyzed texts by Bernhard Schlink present male characters on the threshold of adulthood. The construction of these adolescences is set in the German reality of the post-war society of the 1950s and 1960s. The representation of the conditions of life and growing-up process of the male protagonists emphasizes the leading temporal and social categories, such as the class hierarchy of society, conservative upbringing, stable relations and traditional family roles. Moreover, the leading character constellations, which make the protagonists recall the past of the previous generation, are also significant for their biography and identity. The most important question in the analysis concerns the nature and aim of the participation of the members of the succeeding generation in the events and atrocities of the Nazi era of World War II, and the way those events influence the socio-cultural context of their adolescence and identity.

Sylwester Chęciński is famous polish director. He made three great films: “Sami swoi” (1967), “Nie ma mocnych” (1974), “Kochaj albo rzuć” (1967). This is trilogy about Pawlaks and Karguls, two family from little village from West Poland. Their history is a part of polish history. Films about Pawlaks and Karguls became a polish national myth.