The article describes the multilingual (Latin, Old Church Slavic, Polish, Ruthenian) literary output of authors such as Łazarz Baranowicz (1617‒1693), Symeon Połocki (1629‒1680), Joanicjusz Galatowski (circa 1620‒1688), St. Dymitr Rostowski (1651‒1709), Stefan Jaworski (1658‒1722), Teofan Prokopowicz (1681‒1736), interpreting it as an indication of a once-existing cultural community crossing the present-day national boundaries.
 

The studies in multilingualism in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were devoted primarily to the ‘everyday’ dimension of the phenomenon. Hence, the languages the scholars focused on were Polish, Byelorussian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, and Russian. Taking into consideration the cultural and scientific significance of Vilnius University, its international staff as well as the students’ drive for advancement, its multilingual reality deserves more reflection.
From 1803 to 1832, Vilnius University was the educational centre for western gubernyas of the Russian Empire. Its education and science policy was Western-oriented and rooted in the Enlightenment project of knowledge exchange. Languages of instruction and academic communication were Latin, French and Polish. In the 1820s, German and Russian gained in importance. The University fostered the mobility of gifted early career researchers and excellent students by promoting study stays abroad. Some students were enthusiastic about French, English and German literature and philosophy. In addition, the majority of them and younger scholars had at least a passive knowledge of Byelorussian, Lithuanian or Ukrainian.
The impressive development of Vilnius University in both the scientific and educational fields was to a great extent due to this multilingualism, although obviously there were differences in language competence, including receptive and mediated multilingualism. The article draws on the new research in the area of multilingualism and focuses on the role and the teaching and learning possibilities of the different languages, starting with Latin. Subsequently, three modern languages (French, German and English) are subject to analysis. Special attention is paid to the significant shift in the relationships between Polish and Russian and between the various vernacular languages, for in the 1820s political pressure grew on the University, and vernacular languages also became politicized. This is illustrated with the example of Byelorussian. Finally, the author demonstrates the two-fold advantages of multilingualism on the example of the Philomaths who were exiled to inner Russia in 1824. Firstly, multilingualism was seen by them as a means to accelerate cultural transfer and, thus, to educate the Polish public. Secondly, it facilitated individual successes in Russian provinces. It also allowed students and graduates from Vilnius to save, at least partly, their inner freedom and integrity.
 

The article discusses Andrzej Busza’s poetry from a bilingual and bicultural perspective. Such a rare mode of artistic writing grew out of the poet’s political exile and his professional involvement with English culture and literature. Two linguistic periods in Busza’s poetical biography are distinguished and the parallel use of two literary traditions is underscored in the article to describe Busza’s poetry as an original contemporary example of cultural universalism.
 

The main issue of the article are the forms and functions of multilingualism (or textual hybridization) in contemporary Czech and Polish novel. The multilingualism of Drach by Szczepan Twardoch and Obyčejné věci by Jan Vrak is interpreted in terms of the former multiculturalism of Central and Eastern Europe. Finally, the problem of translation of multilingual texts is discussed.
 

The article presents a synthetic outlook on the phenomena of the Polish-Hebrew literary bilingualism, based on the examples from the Polish language environment in Israel. Many of the Polish-Israeli writers wrote exclusively in Polish, using this language as a tool in their literary work, whereas others wrote in two languages. This latter group is characterized by a twofold tendency in their multilingual literary endeavours: after the initial period of working in Polish, they then created in Hebrew, only to return to Polish again and to remain firmly intertwined with the tradition of Polish literature. The second, less frequent option was to abandon Polish after a brief writing period and switch into Hebrew, thus transcending the borders of extra-territoriality and merging with the literary tradition of the acquired language. There were numerous reasons that made the writers choose a particular language as the means of their work – from the feeling of being incompetent in a given language to the sense that the language was not supple enough as an ideological, psychological or artistic medium.
 

This article discusses the evolution of the concept of borderland within social and cultural anthropology, highlighting the shift from classical studies of nation-states’ frontiers and ethnic groups’ interactions towards a postmodern understanding of borderlands as “ubiquitous” realms. In so doing, it reflects on the meaningfulness of the concept and interrogates its validity as an analytical tool. The author links the discussion of different theoretical approaches with her own research experience in the Polish “borderlands”, arguing both about some Poland-specific dilemmas inscribed into the borderland studies, as well as some wider issues, important for anthropology and humanities at large.
 

The review discusses the book by Edyta Sołtys-Lewandowska O „ocalającej nieporządek rzeczy” polskiej poezji metafizycznej i religijnej drugiej połowy XX wieku i początków XXI wieku, which is aimed at describing contemporary Polish poetry in terms of its religious/metaphysical quests. Sołtys-Lewandowska distinguishes two types of poetry, namely, religious and metaphysical. The first type refers to the poems which depict a personal relationship with God; the second implies a premonition of an outer reality which transcends the limits of human cognition. Sołtys-Lewandowska interprets a variety of poems. She analyzes what she calls the “sacralization” and the “desacralization” effects, describes the figures of God (especially the figure of Father and Lord) and argues that contemporary Polish poetry may be interpreted as an expression of a “return of religion”. The reviewer appreciates the original idea of the book but criticizes the too broad scope of the project which results in very general conclusions. He also disagrees with some typological concepts which don’t seem to be really consistent and helpful.
 

The author analyses Anna Janus-Sitarz’s book – W poszukiwaniu czytelnika. Diagnozy, inspiracje, rekomendacje, emphasising its importance for the contemporary education and academic cuture. The book’s special value is seen not only in its multi-layered diagnosis related to the deepening crisis of reading, but also in its endeavour to seek the various sources of inspiration, which would stop such a process, as well as the collection of suggestions and projects, which bring hope that we are not doomed to the non-reading “culture”.