Archiwum

The article discusses selected categories of the Polish plebeian comedy in the 16th and 17th century, such as carnivalisation, masquerade, buffoonery, iconoclasm, parody, grotesque realism, as well as motifs of play (including play on words) and vanitas.

Echo is the genre of Old Polish poetry which appeared in the first decade of 16th century. Its structure is based on the element commonly used in literature, namely: the acoustic phenomenon of repeating the sounds reflected by an obstacle. In poems the order of the rhymed elements functioned as this obstacle. Three variants of this genre have been distinguished so far, including the one neglected by the scholars. The existence of these variants confirms the fact that echo is a kind of conceptual poetry in which folk element is of utmost importance and is meant to underline the satirical or critical overtone of the poem. The article deals with all the works, available in print both in Polish and Latin, which belong to this genre. Due to its usefulness, echo was frequently applied. It was noticed that echo had been useful and therefore was often practiced in political poetry. The use of this genre was a good method to compromise the opponents as it would indicate their craftiness, bad intentions and immorality. At the same time it protected the ideological allies by evoking the readers' sympathy towards them. It was also a manifestation of baroque poetry with the use of puns and surprising changes of meaning.

The first Polish encyclopedia - Nowe Ateny composed by Father Benedict Chmielowski contains a lot of biographical information meticulously arranged by the author into the six cycles put in alphabetical order. The author of the compendium created the chronologically ordered biographical dictionary of the Roman and German emperors, compiled the catalogue of the scholars and the catalogue of the popes, the catalogues of Polish bishops as well as the dictionaries Series and Sukcesyja explaining the order of ascending the throne by Polish sovereigns and princes. He also prepared a comprehensive hagiographical catalogue entitled Specyfizacyja wielu świętych pańskich as well as a typical biographical dictionary entitled Abrys żywy nieżywych…. Each time the encyclopedist had a clear didactic purpose, which was to popularize academic knowledge. The majority of the entries are very eruditely arranged. On the basis of many works by different authors, the scholar with great effort depicted the figures of eminent people who are both admirable and exemplary. The author of Nowe Ateny turned out to be a meticulous historian studying either the biographies of the persons described in the catalogues or, in the case of hagiography, holy relicts. Biographical writings in the first Polish encyclopedia are copiously represented. Among the literary genres present in Nowe Ateny, at least three may be distinguished, namely: biographical dictionary, biographical catalogue, and hagiography in the form of an alphabetically arranged biographical dictionary. In each of the described examples the author of the encyclopedia presented himself as a well-read historian with great competence, who tends to use criticism and rationalism while evaluating the facts and events he reported. The author was guided by utilitarism and practicalism. At the same time, taking particular care of the ludic aspect of his work, he often used wit, homophones, pun, and anecdotes. He also applied etymological disquisition and dramatization of the text, created an illusion of eye witnessing, as if painting the portraits of particular people with words.

It was Wacław Borowy who pointed to the abundance of proverbial expressions in Franciszek Zabłocki's literary output. "There are plenty of idiomatic and proverbial expressions in Franciszek Zabłocki's lyric comedies", he claimed. This article provides numerous examples of Franciszek Zabłocki's first drafts in the field of literary arrangements of both proverbial and idiomatic expressions. More than 100 examples of such practice can be found in "Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne". A lot of paraphrases, allusions, literal quotations will be discussed here, along with the expressions coined due to Franciszek Zabłocki's vivid poetic imagination.

The article deals with problem of editing Anna Mostowska's prose. Mostowska's novels had no edition since their first publication in the first decade of 19th century. For years her literary output was ignored and depreciated. Undoubtedly, in spite of some flaws, Mostowska's literary output is characterized by didactic value and the innovativeness of the literary trends and tendencies she introduces. Mostowska, who was one of the first Polish women writers, actively participated in the cultural and literary life and watched over the publication of her novels. Hence, her literary works deserve more extensive research and the need arises for a critical edition of her texts. The article discusses the problems related to this edition.

The purpose of the article is to discuss the most important problems connected with Próżny, one of the less known comedies among the dramatic works of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz. The author presents researchers' positions as regards the sociopolitical character of the comedy, and discusses the opinions concerning the causes of a faint interest in the work and its classification. She also examines the techniques employed in the comedy to construct the protagonist along with the names and surnames of particular characters serving as means of characterization. Another issue discussed by the author is the career of the vanity motif in the literary works of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz.

In his critical essay the author presents the relations between Eliza Orzeszkowa, one of the most important Polish writers, and her editors, arguing that literature must be understood not in a vacuum but in the context of different institutions (editors, censorship, public).

The article is an attempt to characterize Maria Konopnicka's attitude to socialism and Polish socialists. The author points to the elements linking the poet with the Left (e.g. sensitivity to the social injustice and poverty of the lower classes, anticlericalism, criticism of the social role of the Church, and the subversive character of some of her poems). The author discusses the reception of Konopnicka's literary works as well as her attitude and views in 1905-1907. He points out that, in contrast to other positivists, the poet did not falter in her support for revolutionary activities till the very end.

The article focuses on the beginnings of Polish labour-camp literature. First Polish texts - reportages and memoirs - concerning German concentration camps were published before World War II. Polish works are presented in both historical and foreign (mostly German) pre-war labour-camp literature context.

The article is concerned with the influence exerted by the events of 1956 on the perception of Norwid's literary work after World War II (the discussion is complemented with the description of the anniversary ceremonies that took place in 1958). The main objective of the author was to show the impact of the changes in political, social and cultural reality on the fate of Cyprian Norwid's literary output.

The article presents an interpretation of the micronovel Piotruś by Leo Lipski. Two basic layers of interpretation are marked out: the autobiographic one and the intertextual one. Autobiographism which situates fiction in the experience of an individual is the material of Lipski's prose. The artistic layer stems directly from the expressionistic tradition and is close to the poetic model of prose. Irony, pastiche, grotesque - so visible in Piotruś - are used to provoke aesthetically and break the realistic convention. They also aid building the aesthetic distance towards the subject undertaken by the writer, illustrating the existential drama of an individual afflicted with the trauma of war.

The author discusses the characteristic features of Julia Hartwig's poems, including the order of images based on the rhythm of a dream, reference to concrete things and moderation. In the first part of the text the genre the borderliness is combined with the choice of the cognitive attitude of the lyrical "I'". It is defined by the continuous cognitive activity and the knowledge of the moral spectrum. The lyrical "I" has an open formula, it expresses the need for a myth restoration and for the contact with the archetypal sphere of humanity. The second part of the text depicts the issues addressed in the poems, which are characterized by presenting borderline situations, combining the opposites, the existential reflection and the vertical movement.

This article presents an analysis and interpretation of the poem kaspar by Piotr Cielesz, going beyond the immanent understanding of this text and attempting to provide a comparative comment. The work of this poet is compared with other works which also include the motif of Kaspar Hauser, that is with a novel by Jakub Wassermann, a drama by Peter Handke, with poems by Paul Verlaine, George Trakl and Hans Arp, and with one of Grzegorz Ciechowski's lyrics. The methodological basis of the present study is formed by the conviction that it is necessary to highlight several relations between tradition (here: the emerging motif of Kaspar in the Romanticism) and the present day. These relations are important to determine and explain the ontological status of the icon of Hauser in the 20th century literature. These are relations such as: copy (chronicle records, self-presentation), repetition, reinterpretation, reply (polemical attitude towards the prototype) and "restructuring". The analysis and interpretation of kaspar can be carried out from a few perspectives: 1) from the perspective of the psychological theory of Stanisław Grof (the presentation of Hauser in the context of "oppressive matrix"; 2) from the perspective of genealogy (see: the genealogical matrix of a "replica poem"; 3) from the perspective of texts throwing doubt on the elevated ways of presentation of a romantic topic in the later periods (see: the "parodic replica" of H. Arp); 4) from the ideological perspective (see: the drama by P. Handke on the indoctrination of an individual).