Résultats de recherche

Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Les représentations de l’île Maurice dans l’imaginaire littéraire franco‑mauricien

Katarzyna Wiśniewska-Szaran

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

Mauritius is a small island in the Indian Ocean, whose population approximates to that of Warsaw. Since its discovery, the island was ruled by several governments: Dutch, French, and English, before it finally became independent in 1968. On this piece of land of about 2,000 m2 live direct descendants of the inhabitants of three continents: Europe, Africa and Asia. The history of the island and the Mauritian people create its specificity.

Undoubtedly, the fact that Mauritius is an island largely influences the Mauritian society. In my article, I will study how this impacts on the society, including its writers. I will seek to define the nature of their relationships. I will try to describe the various representations of the island in Franco‑Mauritian literary fiction at the turn of the twentieth and twenty‑first centuries. Since this topos is in dichotomy of good and evil, I will consider the island as a synonym of a half‑paradise and a half‑prison. Subsequently, I will analyse it as a character of its own. Finally, I will argue that Mauritius can be seen as a reflection of the world, a miniature model. In summary, after
examining the various images of Mauritius, I will try to demonstrate its special status in the Mauritian society, especially in literature.


Key words: Mauritian society, insularity, Franco‑Mauritian literary fiction



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

La desviación en la poesía de Leopoldo María Panero

Ewa Śmiłek

Langue: ES | Date de publication: | Résumé

Leopoldo María Panero is a modern Spanish poet and a member of the Novísimos group. Critics have often labeled him insane, transgressive and cursed. His mental illness, schizophrenia, makes him one of the most controversial Spanish poets and grants him a unique vision of reality. Culture and society generate and develop rules, limits and prohibitions which every member of a given society is obligated to obey. In Panero’s writing morality is likened to a constraint which the poet transgresses. This article concentrates on one of the most important issues in Panero’s writing, namely, transgressive sexuality (with its socially unacceptable forms, such as incest or necrophilia). What is more, by using the most significant ideas of Georges Bataille, Sigmund Freud or Antoni Kępiński, this paper ponders on whether madness is enough to

Key words: Leopoldo María Panero, modern Spanish poetry, sexuality, schizophrenia, transgression.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

In vis polemica con il mondo: Brucia la città di Giuseppe Culicchia come espressione di dialogo e scontro interculturale

Małgorzata Puto

Langue: IT | Date de publication: | Résumé

Giuseppe Culicchia’s novel is an example of a literary polemic between the society and the individual who is, at least to a certain extent, a rebel. On the one hand, in Culicchia’s story, this might denote a person who stands up for their own personal opinions regardless of what anyone else says. On the other hand, however, a rebel may actually stand up against what is right, and may lose himself in drug and alcohol abuse. All in all, the novel focuses on being an individual and refusing to follow the crowd that forces you to think the same way they do even if it means becoming an outcast to the society. The novel is also a polemic, and polemics are not only a vehicle for the exchange of opinions, cultures, knowledge and ideas, but they also are the most significant sign of our times.


Key words: Literary polemics, society vs. individual, rebel, culture.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Une Révolution tranquille : l’évolution de l’image du père dans la dramaturgie québécoise

Renata Jakubczuk

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

In spite of the implications of its name, the Quiet Revolution in Quebec seems to be rather tempestuous at the family level. The conflict between generations, set in a historic context, puts into question the functioning of the entire society, especially the dominant role of the father. The objective of this article, therefore, is to analyze the position of the father in the social context. Thus, I discuss various types of fathers: a farmer father, the patriarch who leaves the household chores to the wife; a worker father, subservient to both his wife at home and to his boss at the factory; a bourgeois father who works for himself; and finally, an immigrant father who seeks his place within the new society.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Sacro e profano: rituali trasgressivi in Camere separate di Pier Vittorio Tondelli

Joanna Janusz

Langue: IT | Date de publication: | Résumé

In the last book by Pier Vittorio Tondelli, Camere separate, the ritual motif appears in its two essential aspects: sacrum — as a relation between the main protagonist and the religious‑mystic sphere; and profanum as a relation between the main protagonist and society. Both traditional aspects of ritual are negated and distorted. The first, the religious‑mystic sphere, is negated by the protagonist himself. He rejects Catholic dogmatics and rituals because he finds no place for them alongside his homosexuality. This rejection prompts him to work out his own individual religiousness in which contact with God does not require any rituals. In terms of the social aspect, the protagonist is excluded from the society in which he lives. Social norms preclude him from participating in rituals such as marriage or mourning for the dead. This negative confrontation with ritual and social custom allows the protagonist to develop a new, more mature self‑awareness which allow him to accept the imminence of suffering and death.


Key words: Tondelli, ritual, transgression, initiation, mourning



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Il nomadismo tra lingue e culture raccontato da Cristina Ali Farah nel romanzo Madre piccola

Aneta Chmiel

Langue: IT | Date de publication: | Résumé

The present article offers an analysis of Cristina Ali Farah’s novel, Madre piccola. Even though it is generally believed that postcolonial novels have only been written in English, Farah’s book can definitely be classified as such, as it examines the specificity of the Italian post-colonial period, as well as the situation of women and other minority groups. Madre piccola portrays the lives of four women living on the border of two cultures. The nomadic society presented in the text-marked by temporariness, moving from one place to another-is not perceived as “local” anymore, but is presented in a more global context. The title Madre piccola means “mother’s aunt” in the Somalian language, and is an example of a word-for-word translation. Importantly, the world of women and immigrants as depicted by Farah has not been known in Europe so far. That world is far more emancipated and modern than one could expect. Ali Farah’s writing tackles not only the nature-and preservation-of what is local, but also the development of the global culture.


Key words: Post-colonial Italian women’s literature, immigrants, nomadic society.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

La quête identitaire dans l’œuvre romanesque d’Ananda Devi

Anna Szkonter-Bochniak

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

This article examines three novels by Ananda Devi, a well‑known francophone novelist from Mauritius, the author of many novels, short stories and poetry books. In her novels, theauthor portrays the lives of women, the roles and norms that have been imposed on them, as well as their place in the conservative and patriarchal society in Mauritius and in India.

The protagonists of Pagli, Le Voile de Draupadi and Indian tango, whilst searching for their identity, rebel against the society, their families and religion which marginalise them and deny their right to make decisions about their own lives. The protagonists of Devi’s novels by objecting to such a lifestyle, by violating the social norms and breaching bans, discover their identity. Pagli symbolically rediscovers her true name, Anjali freedom and Subhadra her body/sexuality.

Key words: Ananda Devi, francophone novel, woman, identity, freedom, violation of social, religious and moral norms




Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Recuerdos de Filipinas: las islas vistas por el periodista y escritor español Francisco Cañamaque (1851—1891)

Lorena Valera Villalba

Langue: ES | Date de publication: | Résumé

Spanish journalist, politician and writer, Francisco Cañamaque, worked for nine months in 1873 in the Spanish Philippines as a member of the Spanish government. During this period, he wrote down his impressions about the islands and their society, and then published Recuerdos de Filipinas (1877). His book is divided into two different parts: in the first one, he describes satirically the society of the islands, and in the second one, he proposes some reforms to improve the social situation in the colony and to make the metropolis obtain more benefit from it. Although some writers heavily criticized the satire, the cruel, exaggerated, description of the islands might be an important part of the strategy used by Cañamaque to make the government take a more active role in the administration of the islands.


Key words: Spanish Philippines, Francisco Cañamaque, Francisco Entrala, Patricio de la Escosura, Spanish colonies, Recuerdos de Filipinas.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

“La historia que nos ha sido arrebatada”: crisis de representación de la memoria y la historia en Entrada libre de Carlos Monsiváis

Alejandro Ramírez Méndez

Langue: ES | Date de publication: 29-06-2023 | Résumé | p. 1-12

In Entrada libre (1987), Carlos Monsiváis, ruminates about the importance of civil resistance in Mexico after decades of political instability, corruption, and violence. The cruel actions of the ‘dirty war’ left an unstable democratic system and an absent-minded population, which was still trying to understand the violent repression against left-wing groups. Under these conditions, Monsiváis questions the role of civil society in the production of mechanisms of resistance and reconciliation against a large history of abusive treatments and misuses that generated crisis in the country. This essay rethinks the representation of memory and history in the chronicles of Carlos Monsiváis. This project analyzes how the depiction of an the everyday life becomes an alternative method of expression for the a society in resistance, as well as a reevaluation of the
meaning behind “historia nacional” and memory as the foundation of the perspective of time in Mexican society.

2023-06-29



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Alda Merini: la scelta della follia, la salvezza della parola

Stefano Redaelli

Langue: IT | Date de publication: | Résumé

Alda Merini: The Choice of Madness, the Rescue of the Word

Alda Merini’s early vocation to poetry produced a twofold clash with society: as a woman and as a poet. Madness was for her both a choice of otherness (as the choice of living homeless) and diagnosis: a sentence by society to her disadvantage. Through and notwithstanding the experience of mental illness, of imprisonment in a psychiatric hospital, and of the consequent stigma, Alda Merini was able to build up her identity. Against the power mechanisms of psychiatry and against social exclusion, she grabbed the sword of writing. Thanks to writing (which is therapy and singing) Alda Merini did not let the hell experience of the psychiatric hospital and the stigma of illness overcome her. She was able, in this way, to realize her vocation as woman and poet.


Key words: poetry, madness, woman, vocation, identity.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

La norme et ses transgressions : polysémie de l’espace urbain (Fès / Tanger) dans le romanesque de Tahar Ben Jelloun (1973—2008)

Magdalena Zdrada-Cok

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

The article analyses the representations of Fez and Tanger in the fiction by Tahar Ben Jelloun. It proves that the contrast between these two cities, presented in his many works, illustrates antagonisms in the Moroccan society after 1956. The autobiographical thread of the way from Fez (the city of Norm) to Tanger (the city of Transgression), which emerges in such works as Harrouda (1973), L’Écrivain public (1983), Jour de silence à Tanger (1990), La Nuit de l’Erreur (1997), Sur ma Mère (2008), includes the issue of the writer’s political engagement and his objection to anachronistic social and moral norms. Tahar Ben Jelloun’s fiction, which is concentrated on the antinomy Fez — Tanger, becomes the area of difficult experience of freedom based on the symbolic breaking off with the father who symbolises restrictive tradition.


Key words: The Moroccan society in 1950—1970, socio-political contestation, autobiographical literature, Fez, Tanger.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Les personnages marginalisés dans les romans d’Ananda Devi

Katarzyna Wiśniewska

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

Ananda Devi’s family island, Mauritius, constitutes the background for her novels. Mauritius is a multiethnic society whose population is approximate to that of Warsaw, with four main religions and seventeen or eighteen languages (depending on a source), of which eight are used every day. However, this socio-cultural variety which we can find practically everywhere (in common life, beliefs as well as in literature), still remains taboo. The problem of social exclusion is one of the main threads in Devi’s novels. She describes people whose beliefs, convictions, behaviours and external appearance differ from what is commonly accepted by the society. She gives a voice to socially excluded individuals, giving them a chance to speak for themselves. The author concentrates on marginalization and rejection of women who are “different” due to appearance, deformation of the body, or bad karma.


Key words: Ananda Devi, Mauritius, social exclusion, women.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Dignità dello straniero. Da Sharmin a Walid: due immagini dell’immigrato in Italia a confronto

Małgorzata Puto

Langue: IT | Date de publication: | Résumé

The analyzed texts are definitely challenging borders and limits, including those of immigration, that means the exploration of the marginalized aspects of life and marginalized elements of society. They put a great emphasis on the human as physical beings in a physical world, the human that try to live their lives in the meaningful and conscious way. They struggle against a world in which they are emarginated. The stories of the immigrants could be seen as the reconceptualization of the Italian society, its history that in this case refers to postcolonial consequences and the cultural constructs. The immigrants in Italy should no longer look for a pattern of life, they’d rather celebrate its specificity and try to be moral creatures, replacing stereotypes with their genuine experiences.


Key words: Challenging borders, limits, immigration, conscious life.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Mauritius — the Paradise Island?

Marta Oracz

Langue: EN | Date de publication: | Résumé

The article interprets the novel There is a Tide by Lindsey Collen against the background of her article “Another Side of Paradise” and in the perspective of the political history of Mauritius. Both in the article and in the novel the central image is that of Mauritius as a paradise island, There is a Tide evoking the edenic imagery of Bernardin de Saint‑Pierres’s novel Paul and Virginia. In Saint‑Pierre’s utopian society there are neither ethnic nor class antagonisms. The idea of Mauritius as a Paradise island, where neither class nor ethnic struggles disrupt the ideal harmony, is questioned by Lindsey Collen. Mauritius, as it is presented to the reader of There is a Tide, turns out to be a place where people are divided along ethnic lines and along class lines, both divisions making the image of the island state in Collen’s novel contradict the view of Mauritius presented in de Saint‑Pierre’s Paul and Virginia.


Key words: Mauritius, paradise island, ethnicity, class, antagonisms



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

L’hybridité dans L’Écrivain public et L’Enfant de sable de Tahar Ben Jelloun

Magdalena Zdrada-Cok

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

The article aims to analyze L’Écrivain public and L’Enfant de sable by Tahar Ben Jelloun, focusing on the issue of hybrydity which is discussed from the postcolonial and postmodern perspective (Bhabha, De Toro). The analysis concentrates on the oriental tale which deconstructs the paradigm of the novel and the autobiography. However, the article also depicts that Tahar Ben Jelloun derives his ideas from the oral tradition so as to, similarly as Jorge Luis Borges, give his works an intertextual and intercultural dimension. Through the nomadic structure of the tale, which is present both in the novel and in the autobiography, the writer rejects the idea of a conservative and monolithic Moroccan society and opposes stereotypes.


Key words: Hybridity, tale, postmodern autobiography, Moroccan novel in French.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

“La sposa non conta”. Il matrimonio islamico tradizionale secondo Oriana Fallaci

Ewa Tichoniuk-Wawrowicz

Langue: IT | Date de publication: | Résumé

Marriage is one of the most important rites of passage and has a very rich rituality. The wedding ceremony is treated as a necessary consecration besides a formalization (legal, social and/or economic and financial) of a relationship between two people and then the legitimation of offspring born into this union. The wedding then becomes also a prerequisite for sexual intercourse. The sacred aspect of marriage is evident in the fact that it is treated as the fulfillment of a divine precept. The married life in Islam is viewed as a religious obligation as well. However, it is not a religious rite, nor a sacrament, but a contract between families that expect the creation of a new social group and the perservation of the bloodline, and which recognizes the man as the head of the family. The hierophany of that passage disappears in the mercantile context, in which the bride just has to be a mother of sons and — if she is not — she can be repudiated. The negative and dehumanizing view of Islamic marriage, seen as a monoandric, polygynous institution, is particularly emphasized by Oriana Fallaci in her various texts, starting with her second book, The Useless Sex: Voyage around the Woman (1961), and ending at the penultimate collection of her famous interviews, Interviews with Power (2009). Fallaci highlights the reification of Muslim
women, the violence against them, their submission and dependence on men, their questionable condition in the family and society, the problem of child brides, infibulation, and the obligation of the full veil.


Key words: Fallaci, Islam, child bride, marriage, rites of passage



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Las voces del ahogo y el desahogo: poesía feminista guatemalteca contemporánea en la obra de Ana María Rodas y Luz Méndez de la Vega

Weronika Mehlbauer

Langue: ES | Date de publication: | Résumé

Voices of the Opression and Solace: Contemporary Guatemalan Feminist Poetry in the Works of Ana María Rodas and Luz Méndez de la Vega

Guatemala, a country with a long patriarchal history, has always been a place of marginalization for its women. Nowadays, the works of the female writers are still being underestimated and rarely appear next to their male colleagues in the national anthologies. There are two principal aims of the present work. The first one is to analyse the poems of the two most prominent female representatives of the Guatemalan feminist poetry: Ana María Rodas and Luz Méndez de la Vega, in order to reclaim their legitimate place in the canon of the Guatemalan literature. The second one it to expose a difficult situation of the contemporary Guatemalan women, and their literary struggle for the right to have their own voice, to reexpress themselves and to break with the traditional roles imposed by the patriarchal society.

Key words: Ana María Rodas, Luz Méndez de la Vega, feminism, Guatemala, poetry.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Contre-figures du mal et transgression de l’imaginaire De William Snelgrave à Mary Prince

Buata B. Malela

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

This article proposes to study the theme of moral transgressions in the 18th century slave narratives by such authors as William Snelgrave, Olaudah Equiano, Gabriel Mailhol and Mary Prince. Specifically, it focuses on how these authors take a stand on the theme of evil, understood as both physical and symbolic violence inscribed in the concept of slavery. In the narratives discussed, the slaves become the figures of misfortune (and the victims of the evil), which allows the authors to re-launch the debate on the position of the Other in the French society of the Enlightenment.


Key words: Slave narrative, colonialism of power, (auto)biography, slave trade, postcolonial studies.




Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Relire les rites dans Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique de Michel Tournier dans le contexte de la décolonisation

Damian Masłowski

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the extraliterary function of the rites performed on Speranza Island by Robinson Crusoe — a colonizer — and by Friday who represents the Third World. Such investigation is relevant because Michel Tournier’s Friday, or, The Other Island is a postcolonial transvalorization of the classic Robinsonade, in which the author inverts the classic story first published in 1719. In Tournier’s case, owing to the repetitiveness and cyclicity of everyday activities, it is possible to read the rites as an allegoric image of crucial processes — such as language teaching or getting married — taking place in the colonial and postcolonial world of Algeria. The rites in Tournier’s novel are also considered to be a symbolic attempt to establish new relationships between French colonizers and African colonized society, who both witnessed the process of decolonization in the twentieth century.

Key words: Robinson Crusoe, Friday, colonialism, postcolonialism, rite, Algeria, decolonization



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Hushed Bodies, Screaming Narratives: The Construction of Trans-Identity in 19th- and 20th-Century French Literature

C.J. Gomolka

Langue: EN | Date de publication: | Résumé

Michel Foucault described 19th-century France as a period of intense sexual scrutiny as well as a watershed moment that gave birth to the formal recognition, evolution, and study of “deviant” sexual identities. While this may be true, modern French studies still idle in examining the epistemological effect of this operative change in French ideology, society, and more specifically literature. If studies into 19th- and 20th-century French gay and lesbian literatures and ideologies have begun to flourish in some academic francophone circles, trans-literature has been overlooked. Moreover, this critical oversight inadvertently highlights the all too often modern omission of the “T” in the LGBT community. This article will place the works of five French authors spanning the 19th and 20th centuries in communication with contemporary queer theory in an attempt to examine the nascent evolution of what today might be considered transgender identity, as well as analyse the meaning attached to queer identities during this period in French and francophone literatures.


Key words: transgender, queer theory, 19th century, 20th century, France, narrative.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

L’amour et la révolte dans Le couteau sur la table, roman de Jacques Godbout

Natalie Mojžíšová

Langue: FR | Date de publication: 28-12-2020 | Résumé | p. 61-72

The novel depicts the relationship of a young couple living in Montreal. The poetics of the text not only provides the reader with an unusual aesthetic experience but also reveals interesting details about life in Canada in the 1960s. We will introduce the main characters of the novel and focus on some of its aspects, especially those moments where the political situation, whether historically distant or recent, is reflected in the life of modern society. The sixties of the twentieth century were imbued with a desire to resist authority which was lived collectively and also as an individual issue. In the novel, the theme of revolt is portrayed on both these levels, but it shows that it is not always easy to realize one’s ideas in practice.
The structure of the novel which refers to the influence of nouveau roman is composed of fragmentary narrative, repetitive allusions and unfinished sentences. Using all these techniques Jacques Godbout has created a captivating text, fascinating especially by its disquieting dynamics.

2020-12-28



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Videogame che legge nel pensiero

Małgorzata Puto

Langue: PL | Date de publication: | Résumé

Alessandro Militi, by means of his protagonist, who plays the videogame called Fuffa, presents his vision of the society overwhelmed by technological progress, and in consequences deprived of real moral values. The author presents the existing sociocultural phenomena in a very realistic-mimetic and reliable way, expressing his reluctance towards the objects suppressing human sensitivity and the need to communicate with other people not only by means of internet and mobile phone. Economic development, improving of the conditions of living, bigger selection of goods entail negative aspects. A man distances himself from spiritual values and becomes a handicapped and indifferent creature. The coexistance of the elements of virtual and real is plain and clear; a man being between these opposing poles cannot fully free himself from the artificial. The only way out from this situation appears when the game is over.


Key words: Videogame, virtual, real, mimesis.




Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Los jóvenes escritores hispanoamericanos : literatura y cultura de masas

Ewelina Szymoniak

Langue: PL | Date de publication: | Résumé

The presence of materials and structures derived from mass culture is considered one of the distinctive features for South American literature in the post period. However, while more experienced writers (that is those associated with the boom) had been clearly denoting the inferior character of mass culture in comparison to high culture (literature), this distinction started to vanish gradually over the 1990s. This paper is to demonstrate that the dexterity of young South American novelists in exploring the fast culture world (Paz Soldán) can be explained in the light of the theory of literary generations by Kazimierz Wyka. It transpires that the so-called period of rooting in society (Spranger), overlapping the 1970s and 1980s, coincided with a rapid development of mass media in South America. Being the fundamental source of mediated experiences (Giddens), mass media have become a looking glass for the perception of reality and an individual’s identity. This is reflected in the writing of young authors: in Por favor, rebobinar (1994), Alberto Fuguet represents the life of young generation Chileans connected with the mass media world, using its diverse discourses.


Key words: South American literature, mass culture, young generation writers.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Dinamiche identitarie nel contesto coloniale ne L’abbandono. Una storia eritrea di Erminia Dell’Oro

Wiesława Kłosek

Langue: IT | Date de publication: | Résumé

The main goal of the present analysis is to show the formation of four characters’ identity in the colonial times. The analyzed novel is set in an Italian colony called Eritrea. There are four main characters: Carlo from Italy, Sellas from Eritrea, and their children Marianna and Gianfranco. They are all interpreted with reference to the three concepts related to the notion of belonging, namely, “I,” “we,” and “others.” The changes which take place in their personal and social identities are examined, as the characters form bonds with one another and with the society. They are examined as representing the following identity models: “individual identity,” “social identity,” “balanced identity” and “lack of identity.” These forms of identity, however, are never definitive because the shaping of identity is always a dynamic process, and thus every social or cultural context may require that identities be reformulated. The novel may be interpreted not only as the memoirs of the colonial times, but also as a tribute paid to the colonists, the colonised, and specifically to the Métis people who had to take up the challenge of redefining themselves. The author also encourages the reader to reflect on today’s nomadic, multiethnic, postmodern societies.


Key words: Italian postcolonialism, identity dilemmas, Italian literature of migration, Erminia Dell’Oro.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Tra storia e mistificazione. La polemica contro il mito garibaldino nel romanzo di Vincenzo Consolo Il sorriso dell’ignoto marinaio alla luce di recenti studi

Aneta Chmiel

Langue: IT | Date de publication: | Résumé

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the myth of uprisings provoked by Garibaldie, and its diversified perception in the Italian society. Not only does Vincenzo Consolo discuss the myth of the Grabaldie’s uprisings, but he also describes the betrayed poor community of Sicilian tyrannized villagers who join Garbaldie so as to improve their difficult living conditions in the countryside. The main plot is set in the 1860s, which does not correspond with the facts but is the metaphor for the present time. The author builds the climax of the plot by using a historical narrative. What is more, it should be underlined that the narration is a mixture of various idiomatic expressions and registers, so that the community’s tragedy, which is deprived of any rights, could be expressed.


Key words: Garibaldie’s myth, the present time metaphor, memory, history, a betrayed character.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Políticas de género en El beso de mujer araña de Manuel Puig

Katarzyna Soboniak

Langue: ES | Date de publication: | Résumé

Gender politics in The Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig

The objective of the present work is to study the constructions of sexual identities that are found in The Kiss of the Spider Woman by Manuel Puig. In order to clarify this concept, it is important to contextualize the book in its period, its area of political conflicts that were present in Argentina in the 70s, as well as in the significantly phallic-centered society. Subsequently, through the use of dichotomies, the text will analyze the problem of the rigidity of the binary logic and, at the same time, will present new forms of gender-sexual constructions. Finally, this article will investigate the notion of homosexuality as a transgressive practice that questions the hegemonic discourse of heterosexuality seen and understood as the only legitimate orientation.


Key words: Manuel Puig, gender, sexuality, heterosexual hegemony, politics.




Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Sociologie des relations ethniques entre descendants des Africains et des coolies dans la littérature mauricienne à l’époque coloniale et postcoloniale

Vikram Ramharai

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

This article uses Mauritian fiction in French language to analyse the relationship between the slave descendants, the Creoles, and those of the Indian community. Slaves were brought in Mauritius by the French between 1715 and 1810 and the Indians by the British between 1810 and 1925. The interaction (or the absence of interaction) between these two ethnic groups provides fresh insight into the social history of Mauritius and how these two groups (Creoles and Indians) did not mingle with each other. In fact, such interaction could bring a change in the mindset of the people and chaos in society. Colonial novelists’ display of both the Creoles and the Indo‑Mauritians justifies the colonial ideology, whereas that of the postcolonial writers questions this ideology in their writings.

Key words: Mauritius, colonial literature, postcolonial literature, Creoles, Indian immigrants



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Crainte, jalousie, indignation, espoir… ou le chemin vers la reconnaissance des écrivains immigrants au Québec

Tina Mouneimné

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

This article aims at browsing the reasons why French-speaking authors of ethnic origin had to “fight” for their place in the Quebec literary pantheon and how they have succeeded in doing it. The battle for the recognition of the immigrant writer has proceeded in parallel to the battle fought in the name of recognition of the immigrant himself in the society. It was, in fact, due not only to the outstanding quality of some of these francophone authors’ works, but also to the socio-political circumstances related to the changes occurring in Quebec since the 1960’s. However, as it has been underlined through the “Affaire LaRue”, the only criteria of recognition of anyone’s text should be the quality of their work, otherwise, we fall into other, endless discourses concerning identity, immigration policies, etc. that take us away from literature.


Key words: Literature, Quebec, immigrant, LaRue, recognition.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Stéréotypes et identité narrative des personnages dans Au commencement était la mer, de Maïssa Bey

Salah Ait Challal

Langue: FR | Date de publication: 31-03-2021 | Résumé | p. 253-261

In this contribution, we try to show how Maissa Bey tells, through stereotypical linguistic and narrative categories, the experience of emblematic characters carrying narrative identities contradictory, in an Algerian society in crisis. These identities reveal conflicts dealing with the underestimation of the female gender.

2021-03-31



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Représentations stéréotypées de la femme célibataire chez Leïla Marouane et Kaouther Adimi

Magdalena Malinowska

Langue: FR | Date de publication: 31-03-2021 | Résumé | p. 239-252

In this paper, the author analyzes the stereotypical representations of single woman from two French-language Algerian novels: Les Pierres dans ma poche by Kaouther Adimi and La fille de la Casbah by Leïla Marouane. By using different literary techniques, the chosen writers formulate a severe criticism of contemporary Algerian society which, despite the hard-won liberties of the second sex, maintains the status quo by enclosing women in stereotypical social
roles and by stigmatizing those who do not do not conform to societal standards.

2021-03-31



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Les états de femme et la construction de la féminité dans la fiction durassienne

Anna Ledwina

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

The Condition of Woman and Modelling of Femininity in the Novels of Marguerite Duras

Marguerite Duras’s writings are a part of a broadly defined discourse on the condition and role of women in a patriarchal society. The author criticises the fact that women are excluded from the public sphere and deprived of the right to self-determination and choice. Consequently, her heroines rebel against the existing mores and are determined to break with their current existence. By shaking off motherly supervision, the protagonists are capable of achieving their own aspirations and of transgressing to independence even against public opinion. The hidden and suppressed longings of the heroines manifest Duras’s own experiences. Through an image of a strong and courageous woman, the author shows a representative of her own gender — a multi-dimensional character, capable of self-discovery, defying reality, and expressing her own sexuality. The search for love, one of the leitmotifs of Duras’s works, reflects the author’s desire to discover and name her own female identity.

Key words: woman, identity, freedom, desire, rebellion, transgression.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Lo real y el coro: ¿parodia o juego con una convención?

Ewelina Szymoniak

Langue: ES | Date de publication: | Résumé

In Lo real (2001) by Belén Gopegui, a novel treating of relations between an individual and the capitalist society, a special character is revived, namely the chorus. While confronting the role it plays in the Spanish novel under analysis using the theories of the functions of the chorus as a constitutent of ancient tragedy, we answer the question whether the writer’s act of introducing this collective character to a comtemporary prose work should be treated as a parody or as playing with a commonly known literary convention, aimed to achieve specific objectives. The discussion touches on, for instance, the concept of the chorus as an interlude, a rightful participant in the plot, ethical authority, a literary “extension” of the author, an ideal reader etc.


Key words: Contemporary Spanish prose, Greek tragedy, chorus, Belén Gopegui.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

La circoncision, le tatouage, les rituels du hammam dans la littérature marocaine d’expression française : Abdelkébir Khatibi et Tahar Ben Jelloun

Magdalena Zdrada-Cok

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

This article compares the functions of rituals in the novels of Abdelkebir Khatibi and Tahar Ben Jelloun (La mémoire tatouée, Harrouda, L’Enfant de sable, La Nuit sacrée). The aim of the study is to show that Abdelkebir Khatibi and Tahar Ben Jelloun represent the traditional rituals of the body as elements of a hybrid language (corpslangue). This “language tattooed on the body” expresses the plurality of the North African culture and the contradictions of Moroccan society. It shows the Moroccan individual torn between the loyalty to tradition and the need for transgression.


Key words: Moroccan culture, rituals, tradition, transgression



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Buovo d’Antona fra originale veneziano e suo adattamento yiddish: la narrazione cavalleresca veicolo delle ideologie

Davide Artico

Langue: IT | Date de publication: 29-06-2020 | Résumé | p. 43-54

The paper contains some partial findings of a comparative research on the chivalry romance Buovo d’Antona as printed in Bologna and in Venice in the 1480s in a number of different, yet quite similar one to another, incunables; and its ottava rima adaptation in yiddish-taytsh, made by Elye Bokher (Elia Levita) in Padua around 1507, and then published as Bovo-Buch in Isny, Württemberg, as late as 1541. Respectively, the narratives implicitly deliver two different ideologies, meant as consequent sets of socially shared convictions about the good living. In particular, the place of women in society and the family, or better said, the male representation thereof, substantially differs in the Yiddish adaptation compared to the Venetian original.

2020-06-29



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Au nom du Père, contre lui et au‑delà de lui. Père inconnu de Pabé Mongo ou l’odyssée d’une bâtarde en quête d’affection paternelle

Pierre Suzanne Eyenga Onana

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

Using the explicit‑implicit socio‑critical approach systematized by Pierre Barberis, I will endeavour to trace the heuristic itinerary of a pugnacious illegitimate child in quest of her fugitive father. I will focus on textual clues and hermeneutical levers in order to reveal damages resulted in the absence of the father in the conjugal apparatus. In the first part, I will intend to prove that any paternal irresponsibility affects the vital equilibrium which is necessary to development within family and society. The second part, in turn, puts an emphasis on how psychological damages due to failed family life may result in reifying of minorities through the violation of women and children’s rights. Finally, I will endeavour to show that through the inter‑subjective gender approach one may see the project of a new world which fosters social justice for all sexes.



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

La réécriture des modèles français et américains dans Cadavres de François Barcelo

Sylwia Sawicka

Langue: PL | Date de publication: | Résumé

The article presents François Barcelo’s roman noir “Cadavres” as an attempt at deconstructing the conventions of the literary genre. The definition of a “roman noir” is twofold. On one hand it is a gritty novel narrated by the perpetrator, on the other it delineates the dark side of the society. Barcelo’s novel transgresses the traditional model of the genre by the implementation of metafiction and elements of grotesque. Barcelo creates an original Quebecois crime novel by combining these two characteristics. In order to show the maladjustment and alienation of a social group, he creates an inept villain and transforms the setting of the novel, grotesquely turning an edgy metropolis into a boring provincial town. Thus “Cadavres” goes far beyond the existing French and American models of the black novel.

Key words: François Barcelo; roman noir; metafiction; break with conventions



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

L'échec de la quête de la liberté chez une mère et sa fille : Gervaise et Nana dans Les Rougon-Macquart

Shoshana-Rose Marzel

Langue: FR | Date de publication: 31-12-2025 | Résumé | p. 1-13

This article examines the failure of the pursuit of freedom in Les Rougon-Macquart through the parallel destinies of Gervaise and her daughter Nana. It first analyzes how each woman initially succeeds, albeit briefly, in achieving a form of autonomy: Gervaise through hard work and moral integrity, Nana through transgression and seduction. The second part of the article focuses on the subsequent loss of that freedom. Drawing on naturalist principles such as heredity and environment, Zola constructs a deterministic universe in which individual aspirations are ultimately crushed. Gervaise ’ s gradual degradation and Nana ’ s sudden death both reflect not only the weight of social and biological constraints, but also Zola ’ s aesthetic and ideological objectives. The article concludes by placing these fictional trajectories within the historical context of nineteenth-century women ’ s limited social roles, showing how Zola ’ s fiction exposes the tragic dead ends of female emancipation in a patriarchal
society.

2025-12-31



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Et l’Espagne frémit de peur. L’âge d’or du cinéma d’horreur ibérique à la fin du franquisme (1968–1976)

Valentin Guermond

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

In the present article, the author discusses the ideology in some Spanish horror movies made between 1968 and 1976, during the last years of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The Spanish horror production, also called fantaterror, seems to be an indicator of the problematics of Spanish society. Indeed, it seems that the outbreaks of violence and eroticism of these films relate to the double face of the last years of the dictatorship, that of hedonism and of the repression of desires. By examining the specific aesthetic of the fanta‑terror and its narrative duality between Good and Evil, we want to show that behind the apparent entertainment these movies are inherently shaped by Franco’s regime. They deserve to be evaluated in terms of political, economic and cultural conditions in which they were created.


Key words: horror movies, fantasy, Spain, Franco’s dictatorship, ideology in film




Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Le Sari vert, un plaidoyer pour les femmes au-delà de l’océan Indien

Bernadette Rey Mimoso-Ruiz

Langue: FR | Date de publication: 13-06-2022 | Résumé | p. 1-10

Bien que Le Sari vert se présente comme un monologue masculin, il n’en est pas moins un plaidoyer pour les femmes, une illustration de la maltraitance au nom de la virilité dans un contexte que l’on ne peut circonscrire uniquement dans la société mauricienne.

Dans le projet de cette étude, à partir de la problématique centrée sur la monstruosité dans ses manifestations et ses paramètres psychologiques, seront examinées les composantes relevant spécifiquement de la culture et de la société mauricienne, de son héritage indien dans la conception du féminin, de l’influence d’une religion hiérarchisée ainsi que les éléments linguistiques en usage chez Ananda Devi qui leur octroient une dimension ouverte sur l’Occident au service d’une cause tristement universelle.

2022-06-13



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

La peur dans le roman policier français du XIXe siècle : l’angoisse face à la modernité

Virginie Fernandez

Langue: FR | Date de publication: | Résumé

In the nineteenth century, Paris was an uncertain place due to several causes. The middle-class felt a threat to a society which was being redefined in an unexpected way and lost its traditional marks. Paris, as a mythical and symbolic city, offers then an ideal framework to the detective novel from its origins, kind of novels that spreads the insinuation of the danger in the city. Emile Gaboriau, father of the French detective novel, plays on the fear and the anxiety towards this changing world. The capital presents a dark and scary atmosphere convenient to the mystery and crime. Thus, the lower class is seen as wild and dangerous; the city which spreads out presents blurred and disturbing borders; finally, the night strengthens the dark face of Paris exciting the fantasies and emphasizing the fears.


Key words: detective novel, Paris, nineteenth century, night, crime, border, popular class




Revue: Romanica Silesiana

« Ce corps, finalement, est une oeuvre ». Le vide et le plein des corps chez Devi ou le sens du sacrifice et de la dévoration

Valérie Magdelaine-Andrianjafitrimo

Langue: FR | Date de publication: 13-06-2022 | Résumé | p. 1-13

La représentation des corps maltraités, parfois difformes, des personnages, le plus souvent trop maigres, rarement obèses, est l’un des points les plus saillants de l’écriture de Devi. Nous souhaiterions observer en elle une dialectique du vide et du plein. Jeûne ou boulimie cannibale pourraient en effet ne pas simplement incarner, dans un cas une référence hindoue, dans l’autre, les dérives d’une société de consommation occidentale. En comparant la dissémination des formes de la nourriture dans des œuvres « occidentales » de Devi (Les Jours vivants (2013), Manger l’autre (2018)) et dans des œuvres « indo-mauriciennes » (Le Voile de Draupadi (1993), Le Sari vert (2009)), on pourrait y lire les marques d’une ascèse paradoxale, autosacrificielle. Les œuvres s’inscrivent dans la même poétique puissante et obsessionnelle de la chair — généralement abjecte et pourrissante – ouvrant sur une redéfinition de l’humain et du vivant qu'elle commente dans ses essais Fardo (2020) et Deux malles et une marmite (2021). Les romans « s’alimentent» des imaginaires pluriels de l’écrivaine pour construire un questionnement métatextuel sur la radicalité de la création et la nature du Beau.

2022-06-13



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Narrar la ciudad: Neoliberalismo, consumismo, era digital y novelas de la crisis en la literatura española del siglo XXI

Noelia S. García

Langue: ES | Date de publication: 10-08-2022 | Résumé | p. 1-12

Con la crisis de 2008, se produce un reajuste de las relaciones sociales. Esta reestructuración también se refleja en la ficción a través de una renovación discursiva alternativa a la canónica, a la vez que potencia la construcción ficcional de una nueva realidad como reflejo de la sociedad. Las novelas de la crisis ofrecen una amplia modalidad temática sobre la asimilación de la crisis por parte de los narradores más contemporáneos. En este artículo se analizará El Dorado, de Robert Juan-Cantavella, publicada el mismo año en el que comienza la crisis, presenta el triunfo del neoliberalismo y del consumismo en los años previos a través de la ciudad de vacaciones. Por su parte, La trabajadora, de Elvira Navarro y Cicatriz, de Sara Mesa ofrecen desde una perspectiva realista la repercusión de la crisis sobre las estructuras urbanas y la precariedad laboral derivada de la misma.

2022-08-10



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

L’identité adolescente face à l’Autre dans l’organic fantasy de Nnedi Okorafor

Ewa Drab

Langue: EN | Date de publication: 29-06-2021 | Résumé | p. 129-139

The present paper aims at discussing What Sunny Saw in the Flames by Nnedi Okorafor as a fantasy novel for children and young adults focused upon the question of self-identification. In the framework of fiction for younger audiences, the fantasy mode becomes a tool which allows to examine the topics important to young readers, such as identity and their place within the society, by providing a confrontation with the Other. The example of Nnedi Okorafor’s book, known in the USA as Akata Witch, shows how the instrumentation of a fantasy novel enables an exposition of the process in which the protagonist grows on the intellectual, emotional and cultural levels. In other words, the fantasy mode aids in the exploration of Sunny’s American-Nigerian origin, her albinism, coming of age and the comprehension of her identity. Simultaneously, as additional topics emerge from the analysis, it becomes visible that the question of the Self cannot be separated from the concept of the Other, with the lesson of empathy and respect for what is different.

2021-06-29



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Faat Kiné d’Ousmane Sembène, femme libre dakaroise

Ewa Kalinowska

Langue: FR | Date de publication: 31-12-2025 | Résumé | p. 1-13

Faat Kiné, protagoniste du film éponyme du réalisateur sénégalais, Ousmane Sembène, est une femme forte, indépendante et sûre de ses agissements. Elle représente une incarnation de la  liberté au sein d’une société traditionaliste qui ne donne guère de droits aux femmes. Elle symbolise la modernité : en vivant dans un monde où le patriarchat est fort, elle fait entendre sa voix et atteint ses buts. Sembène met en évidence une figure de femme exceptionnelle qui n’a pas besoin qu’une part quelconque de pouvoir lui soit concédée, elle s‘en empare elle-même. Le film apparaît comme un manifeste vivant et direct du féminisme, ce qui sert de cadre à notre analyse.

 

2025-12-31



Revue: Romanica Silesiana

Les dictionnaires des idées reçues ou les paradoxes de la mise en forme de l’esprit critique sur la société du XIXe siècle et ses discours

Joanna Rachwalska von Rejchwald

Langue: FR | Date de publication: 15-02-2021 | Résumé | p. 105-114

The article problematizes the form of the “para-dictionary” used by the authors of stereotypical collections in the 19th century (Flaubert, Rigaud, Bloy). The meaning of these numerous published collections, the outbreak of the nineteenth neo-encyclopedicism, is not limited to narrowly understood didacticism and bourgeois criticism of “bȇtise”. The form used in them is based on the paradox that determines its uniqueness. The starting point for studying this paradoxical form is the semantic tension between ossification, repetition, symbolized by the stereotype and literary character of these “para-dictionaries”, which through irony, humor, linguistic gloss, original selection are examples of creative transformation “ossified”, which is the opposite of originality and repeated. In the twentieth and twenty-first century, the use of the “para-dictionary” form leads to the redefinition of certain genres, as is the case with Genette’s innovative autobiography.

2021-02-15