The author makes an attempt to show that a drama of rejection, being a frequent phenomenon in biographies of great Romanticists, was also one of the main motifs of Juliusz Słowacki’s writings. He himself was also convinced that he was “structuring drama” with his life. The sphere of Romantic eroticism is largely extended in his biography. A personal drama of a poet-Romantic was completed by his desire of fame rejected by the contemporaries. It even took on the form of a failed battle with Stanisław Ropelewski. The drama of rejection, however, was far from the truth, when reading a description of Słowacki’s writings in a critical article (Kilka słów…), and a private correspondence with Zygmunt Krasiński.

The author of the article discusses the structure, aspects, usage and role of the time category of futurum in Juliusz Słowacki’s works against the background of a Romantic philosophy of time and artistic solutions in this field. He refers this futurum particularly to the Romantic cult of the past, absorbtion of the present, reflection on eternity and time defragmentation into separated and mutually isolated moments (the very phenomenon is known in the literature of the subject as Momentanisierung der Zeit). He explains the presence and up-to-dateness of futurum in Słowacki by means of four main factors: a) anticipation of reception, b) heterotelic orientation of writing wishing to change the reality, and, thus interest in its shape in the future, c) autobiographic (existential) situation of the poet confronted with a prospect of forthcoming death, d) historiosophic vision exposing a necessary extermination of existing forms, and a must to form new ones. Słowacki shared August Cieszkowski’s opinion, who considered the future as “an integral part of the history presenting a fulfillment of human fate”, but radicalized him because he replaced a cumulative vision of “the end of history” as a synthesis of everything that humanity achieved in the course of its development with a substitute vision, namely a vision of a “progress on the piles of the corps”. The end of the history equaled the extermination of old forms and constitutes their new and better opening.

The subject of the article is an interpretation style of Juliusz Słowacki’s works worked out as late as in the 19th century, and retained in the 20th century in outstanding readings by Juliusz Kleiner. The very style pays little attention to such phenomena in Słowacki’s poetics as irony, sarcasm, inter-textualism, and grotesque, The author of the article suggests a reintroduction of an ironic reading of Słowacki’s dramas and poems different form a serious and idealistic interpretation of writings by Adam Mickiewicz.

Pamiętnik 1817–1832 is a realization of a theological concept (when referring to autobiography explained by among others John Sturrock). It was written by Słowacki “from the end” as a document and evidence proving the choice of his life-path. The very choice was considered by the poet (and this is a statement he stack to) as the ultimate, mainly he made a conscious decision to become a poet, not only in a creative and artistic sense, but also in a professional one, which was connected with many life consequences concerning him, his relatives and the evaluation of facts from the past. Apart from a theoretical-literary frame of the article (the poet’s theological attitude to life experiences) there is also a historio-literary frame – an interpretation of Pamiętnik as an example of a draft (diary) work. The author distinguishes a separate place for this type of works, introduces the notion of a draft (diary) Romanticism covering a large portion of various types of texts which, because of decisions made by their authors, were not published in the epoch, but remained in drafts, diaries, pieces of paper or other manuscripts. A draft Romanticism is a different proposal of interpretation of epoch texts than the “open” Romanticism, that is, an interpretation based on texts published in the epoch. The third part of the study is an attempt to make a detailed analysis, according to theoretical assumptions of a draft reading, of a Sonnet written down by Słowacki in Pamiętnik about 1832 in a different form than the canonic version from 1827. The author does not treat the Sonnet included in Pamiętnik as a text edition from 1827, but as a meaningfully different (separate) literary work.

The article presents an anthropological and existential conception of world and man creation in early works by Juliusz Słowacki. The most characteristic feature of this conception is searching an identity of homo sapiens. What is shown here constitutes above all the convictions concerning the nature of man and the fate of the world, and their individual as well as individually-marked dimension typical of Słowacki’s works representative of the whole epoch.

The very sketch entitled To see a friend. Słowacki about Krasiński makes an attempt to answer the question how Słowacki perceived Krasiński and his writing. The documentation in question shows that Słowacki treated Krasiński as a friend, a soulmate, a friendly and sensitive critic of his own works. The opinion of the author of Irydion was of great importance for Słowacki, and infrequently quoted by him. The relationship bonds did not eliminate the differences between both of them. As they often agreed when it comes to poetics and aesthetics of their works, some controversies were observed at an ideological level. In spite of that, Słowacki, predicting death, perceived Krasiński as his continuator and a great man who is strong enough to bear the burden “of millions of people” to some extent.

On the example of Blanche by Walerian Borowczyk (1971) and Mazepa by Gustaw Holoubek (1975), the author of the article presents two different proposals of reading a drama by Juliusz Słowacki. As Holoubek’s work seems to be an attempt to look at person relationships presented in Mazepa from the angle of the categories close to psychoanalysis, Borowczyk’s film is dominated by a quasi-religious discourse. What plays an important role in the article is considerations on a different status of drama characters (especially that of Amelia and Blanche) in his adaptations and movie means by means of which the directors created their visions. Substantially different ways of reading Słowacki’s work point to two different adaptation strategies: where Borowczyk chooses a creative interpretation, Holoubek seems to look for hidden senses of drama.

Hanna Sieja-Skrzypulec makes a comparative interpretation of the drama and its Kraków staging from 2009 directed by Maciej Sobociński (a premiere in The Juliusz Słowacki Theatre) making the notions of re-creation and repetition, as well as a teatrum mundi topos the key words. The author points to a consciously emphasized “mirror” structure of drama in staging, reinforced on the stage by multimedia. The text concentrates on the image (face) of Beatrix (painting reproductions, movies, theatrical staging), hence her identity and dignity had to be defended in the patriarchal world.

To see literary “paintings” and understand painting “texts”, thus, to pierce the mystery of works, the character of which is a Renaissance murderer (Béatrice Cenci) is the aim of this article. Romantic fascinations with the person in question are reflected in works by such great authors as Shelley, Stendhal, Hawthorne and Słowacki. The book Beatrix Cenci, written by the last of the authors mentioned constitutes a research point of culmination: it completes the stage of an installed character this time in a universe of a Romantic drama.

When the historian of the Polish literature thinks of Romanticists’ tears, he momentarily remembers a „tear-poem” by Adam Mickiewicz , five verses on an incipit Polały się łzy me czyste, rzęsiste…, around which an extremely rich literature of the subject has been created. Yet, Słowacki has his own poem which should impose itself in this context and require interpretation. This is a lyrical miniature, an elusive fragment on the disillusion of words: Bo to jest wieszcza najjaśniejsza chwała… (the very poem has been interpreted only once within the studies conducted). On a closer look, it appears that the motif of tears is frequent in Słowacki’s works as he did not leave tears in his real biography be it at home or in his books for children and youth. A full realization of the project on Słowacki’s tears would make a thick book, while in this article just a reconnaissance.

The evolution concerning what Słowacki thought about Towiański and Towianism ranged from a sincere affirmation, and even a deep identification with master’s point of view, to strong criticism and withdrawal from Koło Sprawy Bożej. The poet’s opinion on Towianism followers turned spontaneously and rapidly into a negative direction when he started noticing narcissist and pro-Russian attitudes in his brothers. The text fragments testifying to betrayal and disgrace reflect this radical change concerning the author’s attitude to the organization most visibly. The vision of a spiritual church was dominated by Słowacki’s belief that Koło changes into a sect subject to tradition and moral rigors imposed on by Towiański.

The article presents a new approach to the language and style of Słowacki’s biggest work in terms of quantity (two volumes of inedits and separately printed first rhapsody of King-Ghost). The very sketch shows shaping and transformations of selected poem octaves, their masterpiece rhymes, any rhetoric pen moves in the sphere of syntax (a preference for sophisticated zeugma or surprising word clashes), hidden and camouflaged semantic play (references to a real or poetic etymology of particular words, perseverance of “stars” and “starwomen”. Also, the issues of editing mystic works by Słowacki intriguing the reader by an enigma of the “philological non-soluble” have been touched upon.

The article On Dante’s migration of King-Ghost is an attempt to describe Dante’s foundations of the structure of the poem by Juliusz Słowacki. The very attempt is preceded by a characteristic of a complicated and multi-voice subject of King-Ghost whose particular aspects also manifest the traces of inspiration with The Divine Comedy. A fictional structure of the Romantic poem is dominated by the areas of Dante’s inspirations, covering not only the way of creating the characters, but also the principles governing the world presented.

Conversation with Andrzej Bart, Polish contemporary writer.

The author of the article discusses Feministyczna krytyka literacka by K. Kłosińska. The reviewer reconstructs the most important difficulties and methodological solutions to be found in the book, points to selected, though essential for considerations of the Silesian researcher, conceptions of the feminist text/reading, and formulates questions concerning the relations between feminist criticism and social theories of the literature.

Aleksander Nawarecki investigates the life space of Upper Silesia: starting from the objects of everyday use to poetic texts in a micrologic way. The main figure of Nawarecki’s Silesian phenomenology is “lajerman”, that is, a lyrist because Upper Silesia in essays written by the author of Lajerman, equals music and a beautiful effort of life affirmation.

Starting from Thoreau’s division into knowledge understood as a dictionary and biography, a discussion of a book Ujmować. Henry David Thoreau i wspólnota świata by Tadeusz Sławek places it in the context of deconstruction and a poststructuralist turn of the theory. At the same time, however, it shows that Sławek’s easily-recognizable and consistent style is not a result of a simple recapturing of categories worked out by J. Derrida (e.g. a margin, a responsible answer, a varying repetition, and, above all, friendship), but their far-reaching interpretation, as a result of which they take on a new community-creative character, going beyond a deconstructivist self-referentiality and the so called ethic criticism inscribing into the current.

The book, conceived of as a shock, unrest and provocation will certainly not cause an intellectual earthquake. Only one sentence will be remembered: “Yes to Europe, but together with our dead people” instead of a more serious wondering, a no-nonsense discussion, a breakthrough in our self-perception, our history, instead of thinking about a painful loss of our own mythology, instead of making conclusions from the neighbourhood and an “inappropriate” (or irreversible) baptism.

The book by Agata Zawiszewska, a researcher from Szczecin, fully devoted to the columnist-writing of Irena Krzywicka, a well-known inter-war writer and activist, is a perfect compendium of knowledge about the changes of traditions of the Second Republic of Poland. The author of a thick book concentrates above all on a discontinued Polish feminist thought, and places Krzywicka’s works on a map of female writing. Życie świadome. O nowoczesnej prozie intelektualnej Ireny Krzywickiej is a large-scale project worthy of a feminist conception of ginocriticism, the nature of which is above all the woman, her works, action and life conscious of the inter-war period.

The elements of the world contrasted in a novel by Ubertowski do not wonder at each other for the first time, making a surprisingly coherent composition, from which a story about an everyman entangled in the history emerges. It turns out that a talking stork, Mołotow, a pig walking on the beach and Trocki have a lot in common… Bigos, a composition made of leftovers, makes an unusually sublime and harmonious dish after all.

The centre of attention of the author’s review of Balladyny i romanse is a narrative strategy, the main feature of which is avoiding the effect of subordination of any sending authority. Karpowicz, by means of numerous parables, presents a series of opinions on the collapse of the modern culture functioning within the frame of today’s discourse, and, at the same time, introduces the tools allowing for a critical reception of the very points of view to the text. In effect, the novel combines the values of an interesting plot and a philosophical-sociological study, which proves its high quality, an ironically oriented metaprose.

The text constitutes a discussion of several books that have been published in France recently. These are works in political studies La Nouvelle raison du monde. Essai sur la société néolibérale by Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval – an outstanding Marxist criticism of neoliberalism pointing out all dangers deriving from this political system), philosophy (a thorough historical analysis of the phenomenon of Raymond Boudon’s rationality or a great essay by Jean-Luc Nancy devoted to drawing) and cultural studies (an essay by Pascal Bruckner) on masochism in the culture of the West, and an outstanding work by Jacques Ranciere’ flourishly written constituting a thorough analysis of the world artistic modernism).

Report from the scientific conference 'Reaktywacja klasyki w szkole: wiek XIX+' (Katowice 2011).

Memory of profesor Adam Karpiński.

The article is an analysis of several philosophical-aesthetic categories important for Andrzej Bart’s writing. The subject of interest is the past, history, memory, possibilities of representation and a presentative nature of existence. Bart is shown as an ironist writer, confabulator whose element is a probabilistic history. In his works, he plays with memory consisting in a destabilization of culturally-reinforced images. His characters, on the other hand, participate in life which is most often perceived as a type of mystification. This is a consequence of the conception of reality accepted by the writer. Here, reality is illusoric in nature, forces to taking on different roles and accumulating illusion.

Apart from discussing Andrzej Bart’s prose (from Człowiek, na którego nie szczekały psy to Rewers) Marta Cuber makes a detailed analysis of several selected motifs which, according to her, are important for understanding the phenomenon of popularity the very literature experiences. Except for bringing a critical-literary reception of the first books of the author of Pociąg do podróży closer, Marta Cuber places considerations on the reasons of an increased interest with Bart after publishing Fabryka muchołapek, verifies critical opinions on Rien ne va plus, relates popularity of Fabryka muchołapek to a change that happened in Polish collective awareness after the release of Sąsiedzi by Jan Tomasz Gross. The author reads Bart’s next novel, i.e. Rewers, differently. She is interested in relations that prose has with the aesthetics of retro and vintage, as well as the movie based on Bart’s novel directed by Borys Lankosz. Instead of conclusions, Marta Cuber proposes a synthesis of motifs particularly often exposed by the writer. The case in point is food consumed by the characters, menu, culinary recipes and dishes. Basically, Marta Cuber pays attention to relations between Andrzej Bart’s works and the past, and their aesthetic-factographic value.