The destabilisation of the geopolitical, economic and socio-cultural order due to socialist modernisation in People’s Republic of Poland is one of the key themes in Polish peasant literature. The questions posed in this article concern the attitude of this literary strand towards modernity, as understood in this sense, and how it perceived the impact of this change on peasant identity – both individual and collective. To answer this question, the article describes peasant literature as a phenomenon closely tied to the “leap into modernity,” referencing post-war debates over “peasantness” in Poland to show that the discussion about the “leap into modernity” that took place during the communist period was framed by the conflict between “tradition” and “modernity.” As an example of a book that deconstructs this traditional representation while assessing the impact of socialist modernisation on peasant identity I examine Edward Redliński’s 1973 novel Konopielka.

This article is a case study of Artur Domosławski’s book Kapuściński Non-Fiction [translated into English by Antonia Lloyd-Jones as Ryszard Kapuściński: A Life] as a perlocutionary act aimed at criticising the established narratives in the story of Polish communism and initiating a reconsolidation of the memory of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL). The analysis focuses on the narrative patterns described in the biography, questioning their relevance since they fail to reflect the experiences of most citizens under the PRL. Domosławski therefore calls for a reconsolidation of the memory of the Polish People’s Republic, remodelling it not solely as a time of lost sovereignty, but also as a period of economic modernisation and radical changes to the social structure. In this way, Ryszard Kapuściński’s experiences as a correspondent for the Polish Press Agency can be placed in the appropriate context of the relationship between Eastern Europe and so-called Third World countries during the time of decolonisation.

An article devoted to a discussion of several poems by contemporary Polish poets (Marcin Świetlicki and Robert Tekieli) that engage clearly with avant-garde and neo-avant-garde traditions. The author challenges the overly hasty association of the poetry of the two writers born in the 1960s with the paradigm of lyrical expression, as well as the tendency to burden their artistic endeavours with the revolutionary pressures often imposed on literary attempts to renew the avant-garde in contemporary Polish poetry. Świetlicki and Tekieli are ultimately presented as the authors of this socially engaged poetry.

This paper outlines the basic assumptions, as well as dilemmas, related to analysing the rhetoric of sexual violence in literature, and specifically in contemporary Polish prose. To establish a methodological basis for discussing the selected fictional works, the author draws on concepts from both literary studies and other disciplines. The second part of the paper features an illustrative reading of the portrayal of sexual abuse in two novels by Andrzej Stasiuk.

Adam Mickiewicz’s Crimean Sonnets (1826) have repeatedly been interpreted through the lens of postcolonial studies, with several researchers (Roman Koropeckyj, Dariusz Skórczewski, Danuta Zawadzka, Magdalena Siwiec) arguing that the cycle is deeply embedded in Russia’s colonial discourse. This article reconstructs the imperial logos connected with the production of knowledge about Crimea in the years from 1783 to 1825, taking the example of one sonnet (View of the Mountains from the Kozlov Steppes) to illustrate how Mickiewicz manages to evade it. A poetological, somatic and intertextual analysis of the poem reveals the strategies to confront the discourse of power that are contained in the text. The voice of the author’s l’énonciateur-scripteur has been read as a phonen: a supra-legal detonator of imposed logos, a means of protest that overrules legal conditions, a form of rebellion against the established order. Mickiewicz’s phonen subjugates herself discursive rules of colonial authority. The language of the Sonnets liberates itself from the domination of Russian logos.

The purpose of this article is to discuss two travelogues: Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck and In America: Travels with John Steinbeck by Geert Mak. The comparative analysis method was used to examine the intertextual references between the two books, highlighting the similarities and differences between the way both reporters present their journeys around the USA. The findings suggest that intertextual references blur genre boundaries, and that they can serve both as a tool for connecting with the past and also as a means of challenging factual narratives.

This article explores the themes of reading, corporality and the literary canon in Kafka’s Diaries, one of the most important paratexts surrounding the works of the Prague-born author. The subject of corporality and the connection of bodily experiences – primarily diseases – with literary creation runs through the entirety of the diaries. In the article, I argue that while writing about pain and disease, Kafka, on the one hand, fits into the conventional picture, typical for the turn of the century, of a nervous and hypersensitive middle-class male writer; yet on the other hand, he constantly experiences genuine pain and suffering associated primarily with tuberculosis. The article also highlights the various modes of reading that appear in The Diaries (such as reading aloud and co-reading) and describes how Kafka formed his own personal and eccentric literary canon.

This article is a review of Agnieszka Mrozik’s monograph titled Female Architects of the People’s Republic of Poland: Communist Women, Literature and Women’s Emancipation in Post-War Poland, published in 2023. Consisting of an introduction and seven chapters, each constituting independent wholes linked by a common theme, Mrozik’s work aims to discuss the participation of Polish women of leftist origin and worldview in shaping the political and social reality of the Polish People’s Republic, while also exploring attempts to silence or devalue their activities and achievements in the current Polish discourse on women’s history. The reviewer connects these themes with the experiences of both her own and her parents’ generation, thus drawing on Stuart Tannock’s idea of “nostalgia critique.”

This article is a polemical response to Marian Bielecki’s review of Pau Freixa Terradas’ book Witoldo Imagined: The Reception of Witold Gombrowicz’s Works in Argentina and the Image of the Writer in the Argentine Cultural Imagination. Tischner argues that Bielecki’s main criticisms of Terradas are unjustified, and claims that the Catalan’s book remains a reliable and indispensable source of information on Gombrowicz’s reception in Argentina.