The purpose of this article is to present the reception of the roots of European culture in selected poems of Alda Merini (1931–2009) on the example of motifs of St. Francis’ religiosity, referred to by the poet. The author presents a variety of forms and functions the motifs perform in poems of the Italian artist. Speaking about Merini’s writing, we cannot forget about the autobiographical nature of her works and the interlacing of eroticism and mysticism

This paper focuses on the problem of ethnic coexistence as presented in some of Korczak’s literary and dramatic works, from his earlier humorous short stories to the play The Senate of Madmen. Like many Polish writers, Korczak perceived literature as a space of freedom, but, unlike other Jews writing in Polish, he always stressed his Jewishness and his firm belief in an equal and double identity (Jewish and Polish). In his long literary career Korczak never practiced ethnic agnosticism: on the contrary, he brought the tradition of Ashkenazi humor and Yiddish literary topics (szmonces, schlemiel and nudnik, the shtetl) into Polish culture, converting these symbols of Jewish identity into universal cultural elements.

The article is devoted to poems by Kazimierz Wierzyński written during World War I, and published in the volume The Great Bear, 1923. During the war the poet served in the Austrian army and was taken prisoner by the Russians; in 1915–1918 he stayed in a POW camp in Ryazan. There he met Yelena Maslova, who he fell unhappily in love with. In  this unhappy love the author of the article tries to find the key to understanding the analyzed poems. They were created at the same time as the vitalistic verses from the volume Spring and Wine, but are kept in a completely different, pessimistic tone. In his detailed analysis of poems “A Letter Home” and “To My Mother,” the author uses  anthropological works concerning home (Mircea Eliade, Gaston Bachelard, Martin Heidegger) and findings of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, and thus, on the basis of the biographical context, he demonstrates that the unrequited love of the young poet was related to the lack of maternal love in early childhood.

Few authors of the 20th century have had such a remarkable influence on the literature of other writers as Jorge Luis Borges. The impact of his works can be appreciated in all important national literatures; many writers have recognized his expertise and influence, some of them openly imitating him. In this respect, literature written in Serbo- Croatian is a special case, with a huge reception of his literature. The Borges “wave” arrived late to Yugoslavia, but with increased strength, and from the 1970s on the Argentinean author has remained one of the favourite writers amongst young readers. Local writers quickly absorbed all the aesthetic and conceptual developments of the author of  Ficciones, even giving birth to a new trend called “Borgesian prose” which has given the world such remarkable authors as Milorad Pavić. Although not considered strictly a borgesist, Danilo Kiš, one of the internationally best known Serbian authors, deserves special attention. Much of his work is marked in many ways by Borgesian stylistic and thematic influences. Numerous intertextualities make some of his texts a genuine dialogue with the Argentinean master. However, the high quality, originality and diversity of Kiš’s work distinguish the Serbian author from the rest of the Balkan Borges’ followers. The present paper reviews the influences, references, allusions, appropriations and other intertextual links to Borges’ literature that can be found in works by Kiš, from his first novels, where the influence is more subdued, through numerous references in A tomb for Boris Davidovich, to the already clearly Borgesian stories of The Encyclopaedia of the Dead.

The impulse to write this article came with the recognition that among the various ways to define and characterize advertising the ones which emphasize – either intentionally or unintentionally – the variously understood (para)literary nature of the phenomenon occupy a prominent position. The belief that advertising can be regarded as a variety or specific manifestations of literature reveals itself on various occasions and in a wide variety of sources (not necessarily oriented towards literary studies): in academic research, literary criticism, essay and column writing, journalism and popular publications. The author does not seek to determine whether and under what conditions advertising complies with the requirements of a literary work, but rather adopts a reconstructive attitude and looks for an answer to the question, due to what properties and factors advertising is sometimes viewed in literary (or, more broadly, artistic) terms, and what arguments are used in support of this thesis, as well as what results from this type of beliefs for literary art itself, its condition, cultural rank and status quo.

This article is an attempt to determine the source of the immense popularity of serial narratives, which can be observed in recent years, as well as to present mechanisms underlying the attractiveness of the TV series to their audiences. The purpose of the text is to identify common elements between literature and episodic television production, leading to a conclusion that there is an overlapping in the functions of both types of cultural texts.