Vol 14 Issue 1 Year 2017

2017

Publication date: 15.09.2017

Description

Volume Editor: Dorota Siwor

Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Editorial team

Editor-in-Chief Stanisław Gawliński

Issue editor Dorota Siwor

Issue content

On Old and Modern Literature

Utopijne światy Ignacego Krasickiego w kontekście filozofii społecznej oświecenia

Kamila Żukowska

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 14 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 1 - 12

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.17.001.7266

The essay presents an analysis of the philosophical and anthropological context of the utopia presented by Ignacy Krasicki in his novel Przypadki Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego (The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom). The utopia of Nipu is treated as a literary example of the Enlightenment society, in which there occurs a clash of human values. This conflict resists the irreconcilable, traditional axiology of the author and the Western system social philosophy of the times. That is why Krasicki’s utopia constitutes a unique vision of a world which – contrary to the logic of the Enlightenment – cannot be rational and harmonious.

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Niemcewicz’s Kosciuszko: Honor, Self-Reflection and Self-Justification

Joel J. Janicki

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 14 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 13 - 41

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.17.002.7267

The intriguing and mystifying relationship between Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1858–1841) and Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746–1817) extended through some of the most dramatic and devastating years in Polish history, 1794–1798. Niemcewicz served as Kosciuszko’s aide-de-camp during the doomed 1794 Uprising. Both were wounded and captured at the Battle of Maciejowice and transported to St. Petersburg where they remained as prisoners-of-war until their release by Paul I (1754–1801) at the end of 1796. Forced to make a humiliating vow of loyalty to Paul, the two traveled together to the United States, arriving in Philadelphia in August, 1797. The relationship came to an abrupt end in May, 1798 when Kosciuszko, to Niemcewicz’s surprise and anguish, returned to France leaving his faithful adjutant and companion behind through the assistance of then Vice-President Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) to ease Franco-American tensions and seek French support in the continued struggle for Polish independence.

The present study is an attempt to arrive at a composite “portrait” of Kosciuszko made by Niemcewicz as gleaned from his journals and memoirs; his prison memoirs for the years 1794–1796; a poem written as an appeal to Kosciuszko from 1813 in the aftermath of the defeat of Napoleon and finally his Pochwała Kościuszki or Praise of Kosciuszko from 1821, a belated epitaph after the death of the Commander in 1817. Memoir and journal writings are notoriously subjective, at times self-serving and susceptible to self-censorship. Niemcewicz’s situation as a highly patriotic writer of extremely politically charged subject matter was impacted by the Russian censor as well as the real threat of retribution by Russian authorities.

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Artyści modernistyczni jako mniejszość

Gabriela Matuszek-Stec

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 14 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 42 - 54

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.17.003.7268

The authors tries to apply the category of minority to artistic groups, focusing primarily on the situation of Early Modernism artists, regarded in broader contexts. She shows that artistic milieus often find themselves in a “minority situation,” even though such a minority conforms only to some elements of the “hard” definition. A significant role is here played by the psychological dimension: the subjective feeling of “being a minority” and the expression of separateness. The bonding factors include recognizing the world in crisis, alienation and (self)exclusion, as well as anthropological similarity (theories concerning the higher level of evolutionary development).

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Toto, we are in the Soviet Union. Jaka Kraina Oz istnieje w Związku Radzieckim?

Marcin Kosman

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 14 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 55 - 69

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.17.004.7269

The essay compares Alexander Volkov’s Wizard of the Emerald City with L. Frank Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz as regards the differences conditioned culturally and those determined by the diverse stylistic dominants. Being an adaptation of Baum’s book, Volkov’s novel contains certain elements characteristic of the Soviet socialist realist writing, but also numerous allusions to Russian folklore. The author of the essay discusses the changes introduced in the translation and provides a psychological and cultural justification.

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Recht auf Heimat. Literackie echa górnośląskiej turystyki ojczyźnianej

Katarzyna Kuchowicz

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 14 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 70 - 83

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.17.005.7270

The notion of Recht auf Heimat (right to homeland), popular in the 1950s, was one of the most important postulates of Charta der deutschen Heimatvertriebenen (Charter of the German Expellees). The assumptions of this document have never been fully implemented; first and foremost, the return of the expellees to their native lands has been impossible. Since the re-settlement in the abandoned territories was, for various reasons, out of the question, an attractive, and often the only possible, form of encountering one’s home country, were excursions, which Anna Borne and Andrzej Doliński referred to as “homeland tourism.”

Adopting criteria of a small-scope theory, the article analyzes literary echoes of the Upper-Silesian homeland tourism on the example of memoirs whose authors originated from Gleiwitz: Horst Bieniek, Wolfgang Bittner and Wolfgang Bukowski. The Recht auf Heimat postulate and the poetics of Vertreibungsliteratur provide the context for the considerations. The main objective of the article is to answer the question in what way homeland tourism exerted influence on forcibly repatriated writers and how it shaped the image of the visited places.

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„Jeden przez dwa zostało podzielone”. Kobieta jako „inny” w Jeden Marcina Świetlickiego

Paweł Wiktor Ryś

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 14 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 84 - 96

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.17.006.7271

The article concerns the image of the woman in Marcin Świetlicki’s 2013 volume of poetry entitled Jeden (One), composed of “love stories.” Femininity, for the speaker of the poems being a sort of “otherness” (understood here partly after Paul Ricoeur), presents itself as – on the one hand – a “mirror” for the “I”, and – on the other hand – its indispensable ingredient. This is because Świetlicki’s writing expresses the conviction that identity is as much a “positive” identification as (and maybe even chiefly) an identification done with regard to or through someone or something else. As a result of the constantly recurring necessity and need to distinguishing oneself, the woman seems to be both the condition and determinant of the “I” in Świetlicki’s Jeden.

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Od reportażu społeczno-obyczajowego do opowieści geohistorycznej. Ewolucja prozy Małgorzaty Szejnert

Monika Wiszniowska

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 14 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 97 - 113

https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.17.007.7272

The essay discusses changes in Małgorzata Szejnert’s writing, proposing a thesis that her journalist prose has evolved from social journalism to geohistorical writing. Her four so far, latest books: Czarny ogród (2007), Wyspa klucz (2009), Dom żółwia. Zanzibar (2011) and Usypać góry. Historie z Polesia (2015) are evidence that not until the 21st century has she found her own, original and interesting writing style. A groundbreaking moment consisted in discovering the possibilities offered by exploring histories. Szejnert’s writing became more mature, and finally it managed to combine the historical interest with the focus on the micro-world, the little corners of the globe, and their thorough description. Turning to geohistorical journalism didn’t make Szejnert resign either from the distinct axiological element or from presenting topical issues; on the contrary, it opened much more possibilities to address, more broadly and in diverse contexts, the problems of our times.

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Reviews and Proceedings

Epifanie Joyce’a

Marek Bernacki

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 14 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 114 - 120

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„...ranny osioł krzyczał tak...”

Barbara Czarnecka

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 14 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 121 - 125

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Wędrówki filozofa religii po niespokojnym stuleciu

Adam Workowski

Konteksty Kultury, Volume 14 Issue 1, 2017, pp. 126 - 132

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Noty o autorach PDF Spis treści PDF

Słowa kluczowe: Ignacy Krasicki, utopia, philosophy, society, Enlightenment, Jean Jacques Rousseau, subjectivity, censorship and self-censorship, self-justification, honor, noble despair, artist, Early Modernism, bohemia, minority, exclusiveness of art, Russian literature, Alexander Volkov, L. Frank Baum, children’s literature, American literature, dominant, culturally charged elements in translation, Horst Bienek, Wolfgang Bittner, Wolfgang Bukowski, Upper Silesia, little homeland, forced displacement, World War II, Świetlicki, poetry, Jeden, other, woman, Małgorzata Szejnert, journalism, geohistorical writing

Volume 14 Issue 1

2017 Next

Issue content

On Old and Modern Literature

Reviews and Proceedings

Files to download

2017