E. Bartos, D. K. Chwolik, P. Majerski, K. Niesporek (red.), "Literatura popularna. T. 2, Fantastyczne kreacje światów" (S. 15-28). Katowice : Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego, 2014
In contemporary Polish terminology, the term “ fantastyka naukowa” [“the scientific fantasy”], wh... more In contemporary Polish terminology, the term “ fantastyka naukowa” [“the scientific fantasy”], which is considered the equivalent of “science fiction”, associates this type of prose with the broadly understood genre of literary fantasy. The author emphasizes the fact that the roots of science fiction are different, with its origins in traditions of realism (and its idea of a writer studying and describing social life). In its entertainment variant, science fiction refers to the tradition of the “adventure romance,” and in this sense it can be linked with the “romance” category, in opposition to the category of “the novel.” It is, however, the only area where SF works may deviate from the probability principle, understood as a rule allowing for the rapport with readers, and for the authentication of the world represented in a novel – also when writers only feign references to science or scientific theories. Such feigning, however, is a key element of the convention and it serves to reinforce the vraisemblance [“likelihood”] of the work.
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"Spór o poezję" [Poetry Debate, 1977] is a manifesto of the young poets from the Kontekst group. The group consisted of: Włodzimierz Paźniewski (b. 1942), Stanisław Piskor (b. 1944), Tadeusz Sławek (b. 1946), and Andrzej Szuba (b. 1949). Their programme was based on inspirations taken from the artistic avant-garde, the American and English poetry of the time (New York school, pop-poetry), and, in particular, the idea of television moisaic as a new way of perceiving the world, derived from the writings of Marshall McLuhan. However, while creating the neo-avant-garde concept of poetry, the writers from the Kontekst group were not fully consistent. They maintained a clear distinction between the plan of the representation and the artistic structure which was to be its equivalent. In their discussions, they themselves maintained a distinction between theoretical arguments and the artistic practice, they contrasted innovative art with popular art, etc. Thus, the neo-avant-garde fascinations were put here within the framework of traditional, high-modernist thinking of art.
The paper talks about literary career of Jerzy Pilch (b. 1952) who achieved its peak after publishing his novel "Pod Mocnym Aniołem" (2000). The first-person narrator introduced himself as a textual alter ego of the writer, creating an illusion of the autobiographical testimony but also providing autoreflection toward his own earlier literary output. Within the frames of the game played with the public, initiated by means of highest-circulation press, the writer willingly assumed the role of his own alter ego (an alcoholic rescued by love), but he also warned of naive identification of literature with life. Despite this ambiguity, he eventually turned out to be a victim of his own image and became unpopular among literary critics who were discouraged by the attitude to follow - and simultaneously go beyond - the rules of mass communication ended with a failure. It resulted in forcing reluctant critics to remain faithful to the traditional (for modernism) model of literary communication which takes for a granted a conflict between the author and the public. Consequently, certain innovative aspects of Pilch's fiction essentially related with the idea of literature based on the principle of ironic repetition (pastiche) have never been recognized.
The author reviews two literary criticism book from the 80's, which were published outside of the government-sanctioned censorship: "Widziałem wolność w Warszawie" of Jerzy Malewski (kickname of Włodzimierz Bolecki) and "Zostaje kantyczka" by Tadeusz Komendant. He finds in them two totally different views on literary and public discourse, which stem from and recall the same source experience. Malewski writes about discourse, which sanctions the experience of the common ground between the postion and value. Komendant describes the experience of difference, the "positional aspect of truth" and literature as a "linguistic gesture'. Instead of sharing the common ground, Komendant advocates the participation in a varied social practice and taking responsibility for its shape and direction. The difference between the positions of these two critics heralds characteristic for the Polish public scene of the 90's split into 'communionistic' and 'liberal' factions. During that period both Bolecki and Komendant participated in the controversial dispute about postmodernism in Poland, regarding it as non-existent problem, one that does not reflect Polish historical experiences, and as a mere linguistic proposition, which may be useful potentially to express those experiences.
"Literatura małych ojczyzn" [Heimatliteratur, literature of locality] of the 1980s and 1990s in Poland was usually considered a counterbalance to postmodernism. Discussing two books, "Weiser Dawidek" (1987) by Pawel Huelle and "Opowieści galicyjskie" (The Galicia Tales, 1995) by Andrzej Stasiuk, I try to show that the narrative conception of identity comes to mind in that two works, and the narration serves to construct the myth (not update it). So I think that literature of locality is one of the postmodern trends.
Departing from the critical reception of Piotr Szewc's novel "Zmierzchy i poranki" [Dusks and Downs, 2000), the author tries to trace back the ideological factors that conditioned the enormous success achieved, in the 1990s, by "literatura małych ojczyzn" (Homeland Literature) - here belongs the works of S. Chwin, P. Huelle, O. Tokarczuk and others. In practice, this literary current was recognised as an artistic representation of the liberal-conservative discourse.This was happened at the cost of an aestheticization of the key category "homeland", which functions as a phantasm. Further on, while referring to the anti-modernist crusade launched by Daniel Bell in his "The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism", the author has noticed that Bell's project, on the local Polish scale, has been carried out, unconsciously, by the groups of conservative liberals.The said project was at first directed mainly against the avant-garde wing of modernism, but later was used against other intellectual and artistic currents perceived as extreme, radical or destructive. All this means that the favoured kind of literature was the one that stemmed from the mythographic wing of modernism, or, to be more precise, stylised as mythographic.
"Spór o poezję" [Poetry Debate, 1977] is a manifesto of the young poets from the Kontekst group. The group consisted of: Włodzimierz Paźniewski (b. 1942), Stanisław Piskor (b. 1944), Tadeusz Sławek (b. 1946), and Andrzej Szuba (b. 1949). Their programme was based on inspirations taken from the artistic avant-garde, the American and English poetry of the time (New York school, pop-poetry), and, in particular, the idea of television moisaic as a new way of perceiving the world, derived from the writings of Marshall McLuhan. However, while creating the neo-avant-garde concept of poetry, the writers from the Kontekst group were not fully consistent. They maintained a clear distinction between the plan of the representation and the artistic structure which was to be its equivalent. In their discussions, they themselves maintained a distinction between theoretical arguments and the artistic practice, they contrasted innovative art with popular art, etc. Thus, the neo-avant-garde fascinations were put here within the framework of traditional, high-modernist thinking of art.
The paper talks about literary career of Jerzy Pilch (b. 1952) who achieved its peak after publishing his novel "Pod Mocnym Aniołem" (2000). The first-person narrator introduced himself as a textual alter ego of the writer, creating an illusion of the autobiographical testimony but also providing autoreflection toward his own earlier literary output. Within the frames of the game played with the public, initiated by means of highest-circulation press, the writer willingly assumed the role of his own alter ego (an alcoholic rescued by love), but he also warned of naive identification of literature with life. Despite this ambiguity, he eventually turned out to be a victim of his own image and became unpopular among literary critics who were discouraged by the attitude to follow - and simultaneously go beyond - the rules of mass communication ended with a failure. It resulted in forcing reluctant critics to remain faithful to the traditional (for modernism) model of literary communication which takes for a granted a conflict between the author and the public. Consequently, certain innovative aspects of Pilch's fiction essentially related with the idea of literature based on the principle of ironic repetition (pastiche) have never been recognized.
The author reviews two literary criticism book from the 80's, which were published outside of the government-sanctioned censorship: "Widziałem wolność w Warszawie" of Jerzy Malewski (kickname of Włodzimierz Bolecki) and "Zostaje kantyczka" by Tadeusz Komendant. He finds in them two totally different views on literary and public discourse, which stem from and recall the same source experience. Malewski writes about discourse, which sanctions the experience of the common ground between the postion and value. Komendant describes the experience of difference, the "positional aspect of truth" and literature as a "linguistic gesture'. Instead of sharing the common ground, Komendant advocates the participation in a varied social practice and taking responsibility for its shape and direction. The difference between the positions of these two critics heralds characteristic for the Polish public scene of the 90's split into 'communionistic' and 'liberal' factions. During that period both Bolecki and Komendant participated in the controversial dispute about postmodernism in Poland, regarding it as non-existent problem, one that does not reflect Polish historical experiences, and as a mere linguistic proposition, which may be useful potentially to express those experiences.
"Literatura małych ojczyzn" [Heimatliteratur, literature of locality] of the 1980s and 1990s in Poland was usually considered a counterbalance to postmodernism. Discussing two books, "Weiser Dawidek" (1987) by Pawel Huelle and "Opowieści galicyjskie" (The Galicia Tales, 1995) by Andrzej Stasiuk, I try to show that the narrative conception of identity comes to mind in that two works, and the narration serves to construct the myth (not update it). So I think that literature of locality is one of the postmodern trends.
Departing from the critical reception of Piotr Szewc's novel "Zmierzchy i poranki" [Dusks and Downs, 2000), the author tries to trace back the ideological factors that conditioned the enormous success achieved, in the 1990s, by "literatura małych ojczyzn" (Homeland Literature) - here belongs the works of S. Chwin, P. Huelle, O. Tokarczuk and others. In practice, this literary current was recognised as an artistic representation of the liberal-conservative discourse.This was happened at the cost of an aestheticization of the key category "homeland", which functions as a phantasm. Further on, while referring to the anti-modernist crusade launched by Daniel Bell in his "The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism", the author has noticed that Bell's project, on the local Polish scale, has been carried out, unconsciously, by the groups of conservative liberals.The said project was at first directed mainly against the avant-garde wing of modernism, but later was used against other intellectual and artistic currents perceived as extreme, radical or destructive. All this means that the favoured kind of literature was the one that stemmed from the mythographic wing of modernism, or, to be more precise, stylised as mythographic.
BIBLIOGRAFIA
a/ literatura podmiotu
Anna Brzezińska, Żmijowa harfa, Warszawa 2000.
Anna Brzezińska, Plewy na wietrze, Warszawa 2006.
Anna Brzezińska, Letni deszcz. Kielich, Warszawa 2004.
Anna Brzezińska, Letni deszcz. Sztylet, Warszawa 2009.
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Ogniem i mieczem, Warszawa 1969, t.1-2.
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Potop, Warszawa 1973, t. 1-3.
b/ literatura przedmiotu
Katarzyna Kaczor, Bogactwo polskich światów fantasy. Od braku nadziei do eukata-strophe, [w:] Anatomia wyobraźni, red. Sebastian Jan Konefał, Gdańsk 2014.
Kinga Kasperek, Amazonek już nie ma. Postfemizizm i „Saga o zbóju Twardokęsku”, „FA-art” 2012, nr 3.
Ryszard Koziołek: Śmiech Zagłoby, [w:] tegoż: Ciała Sienkiewicza. Studia o płci i przemocy, Katowice 2009.
Andrzej Stoff: „Zagłoba sum!”. Studium postaci literackiej, Toruń 2006.
Shadowmage [wł. Tymoteusz Wronka], [rec. Plewów na wietrze A. Brzezińskiej], „Katedra” [portal internetowy] – www.katedra.nast.pl/artykul/1911/Brzezinska-Anna-Plewy-na-wietrze.
c/ inne
Jacek Banaszkiewicz, Wątek „ujarzmienia kobiet” jako składnik tradycji o narodzi-nach społeczności cywilizowanej. Przekazy „słowiańskie” wcześniejszego średnio-wiecza, [w:] tegoż, Takie sobie średniowieczne bajeczki, Kraków 2012.
Kosmasa kronika Czechów, tłum. i oprac. Marta Wojciechowska, Wodzisław Śl. 2012.
In this article the author analyzes the functions of historical allusions in Sapkowski's pentateuch on the adventures of Geralt the Witcher and his companions. The saga is said here to allude to the Second War World, but also to the Germanic invasion of Britain on the fifth and sixth century, including the colonization of North America by Europeans. In addiction, the series is viewed as featuring clear literary references to the historical novels of Henryk Sienkiewicz, Arthurian tradition, or texts based on Indian Wars. All these allusions defy Sapkowski's allotopia and emphasize - just like creative irony of Romanticism - the dependence of allotopian world on the writer's creativity. At the same time, history functions like a prop room with plenty of motives, threads, and figures. From this perspective, fantasy literature confirms Fredric Jameson's thesis that western societies have lost a sense of history. Nevertheless, in the light of peripheral character of the Polish culture, it can also mean freeing from the burden of history, or, to speak more precisely, from phantasmal imaginations. As an author, Sapkowski is conscious that we have lost the historical experience from our perceptive horizon as the most traumatogenic events of the twentieth century did not teach us anything. He further points out that what has been repressed, may always return. And it returns even in the frames of fantastic convention.
ERRATUM: In the first sentence of the text, there was a mistake from my fault: the Kielce pogrom occured on July 4th, 1946, of course. I'm so sorry..
a mainstream and prestigious Wydawnictwo Literackie. The author of the article pays attention to such problematic threads and poetic qualities of Dukaj’s works that correspond to the tendencies in the poetry of the mainstream. At the same time, he underlines the fact that the writer aims at maintaining his own identity both in relation to the circulation of the sf literature, as well as the mainstream.
The article concerns the novel "Zabij Kleopatrę!" (Kill Cleopatra, 1968) by Teodor Parnicki. In Parnicki's literary output, it is a breakthrough novel in which the contemporary formula of historical novel changes into metafiction and the characters become aware that they are fictious figures: they debate on their textual status and consider the dependence on the author. It does not mean, however, that the historical subject matter disappears. I reconstruct the references to Byzantine as it was in the 5th century and I underline - after Stefan Szymutko - that they are significant for the interpretation of the text. Nevertheless, the metafictional plots make me revise Szymutko's statement about the primacy of being over the text because there is no historical being that would precede the text. Every historical plot or case turns out to be textual from the very beginning because it is connected with somebody's intentions and interests, which transforms the critical reflection upon the history into the unending sequence of interpretive sentences.
what happens in fact. Reality, „ungraspable and unembraceable” becomes marked with stereotypical female features, taking on the status of an unapproachable object of desire. At the same time, it is being constantly disciplined by écriture masculine, an institutionalised
discourse of a patriarchal culture while a monstrous SCHOLA AGENTORUM from the Prologue to Parnicki’s novel may successfully be considered a hyperbole of such a discourse. Maksymian, the main protagonist, chooses another discourse which is confronted with a Nietzschean principle of vita femina.
Abstracts in English after every study...
The author comments on the writing stratefy of the fictional narrators of T. Parnicki's epistolary novel, Słowo i ciało (The Word and the Flesh, 1959). The Parthian duke, Khosroes, the author of the letters to Markia (cf. the first part of the book) appears as a textual nomad, who undertakes a never accomplished effort of constructing his own biography and image. His discourse his centred on a criticism of universalist ideologies and theosophies (such as Buddhism, or Christianity) and on incessant referring to numerous situational, cultural, and literary contexts. An utterance becomes a "rhizome" of many equivalent, narrative threads and persistent motifs, or turns of speech. A digressive mode of writing, with constant switching between one topic and another (from the "word-sign" to the "body-sign" and vice versa) is predominant here. Markia, the alleged author of the letters in the second part of the book, is teh source and purpose of Khosroes's writing, since, however, she is most probably long dead, she functions in the novel as a kind of 'aporia', on which the coomunicative game, played here, is based. As a source and purpose of writing, and as a wirter, Markia is an absence veiled in writing, a woman that appears in no other way than from behind the curtain, a curtain behind nothing and nobody is hidden. She is reality of the illusion of the sender's and receiver's presence, of truth and enlightenment. In that novel, which inidactes an important turn in Parnicki's writing career, one may notice a concept of writing that in many ways corresponds to Derrida's grammatology
Szkice interpretacyjne dotyczą między innymi pisarstwa Zofii Kossak, Teodora Parnickiego, Tadeusza Różewicza, a także Joanny Chmielewskiej, Sylwii Chutnik, Szczepana Twardocha, z pisarzy obcych – Briana W. Aldissa, George'a R.R. Martina, Lwa Kassila.