The author compares the role of money as a medium of communication in post-capitalist culture with the category of authenticity, which became a vital field of valuating Holocaust literature. Referring to Anthony Giddens, Fredric Jameson or Jochen Hörisch on the one side, and on the other to texts of culture, such as disputes recurring every couple of decades over the works of Tadeusz Borowski and the place of the author in events he recounts, Lidia Ostałowska’s attempts to determine the ownership of paintings made in Auschwitz by Dina Gottlieb (crucial from the point of view of the Sinti community to consider Roma victims as subjects, not objects of these paintings) or intertextual contaminations of presentations of Holocaust and popcultural texts in such works as Survivor’s Dance on YouTube, the author specifies the common denominator of both discourses as a simulacrization of the presented reality, similar to the renouncement of the monetary gold standard, which thus becomes its own reference. This assignment allows to understand, how the authenticity category (often ethically valorized, under the guise of “appropriateness” for example) conditions the Holocaust discourse, thus changing into a separate convention with its own topoi.

This text is an attempt to touch on the theme of madness in literature. While recalling an interpretation of the first modern novel (Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Don Quixote), the author refers us to a Cartesian attempt of bypassing the madman position. This moment, described in Meditations on First Philosophy, becomes the starting point for musings on the nature of language and the contemporary state of literary research, erroneously seeking a basis in legal and economical sciences. The main subject here remains a rigorous analysis of Nikolai Gogol’s Diary of a Madman. In the course of the lecture, the nature of madness is revealed in front of the reader, the economy of “insane” writing, which jeopardizes any positivity of sense, and with it – the achievements of traditional metaphysics. A comparative dimension of interpretation also reveals historically fluid borders between a sane and insane subject.

The works of Marek Hłasko are the most interesting example of the struggles of a member of the ’56 generation for breaking the socialist realism pattern in literature. The effects of moving from the Marxist philosophy to existentialism in Hłasko’s prose are best illustrated by his two works: Baza Sokołowska (1954) and Następny do raju (1957). The first one is an ideologically involved story presenting labor as a man’s heroic effort towards self-fulfillment. The second work is a novel polemical towards communist Poland, depicting daily grind with no perspectives. A comparison of these texts indicates that overcoming the myth of literature’s instrumental function in the service of economy takes place through reversing the earlier pattern. Utopia turns into anti-utopia. Only the model protagonist remains the same person (although different inside) – Marek Hłasko himself.

The author of the article compares two post-modern models of symbolic economy – those of Jean Baudrillard and Jean-Joseph Goux, while confronting them with Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalysis agains the backdrop of philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre and sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. This juxtaposition allows to designate the differences between alternative modes of valuating present in culture, and at the same time to reconstruct their mutual deep structure as a fetishization of impulsive partial objects (breasts, voice, excrements, and gaze). The structure probes to be a derivative of psycho-symbolic relations between sexes, albeit distorting these relations significantly.

The author focuses on connections between literature and celebrities. The text opens with recalling the problem of absence of literature in the media and the popularity of celebrity-written books. Subsequently, the author recalls examples of writer attempts to appear in the media by assuming functions of a columnist or a celebrity. She explains the celebrity mechanism (quoting texts by Przemysław Czapliński, Dariusz Nowacki, and Wiesław Godzic) and points to celebrity aspirations of some writers, who aim to increase the popularity of their books. Later, she focuses on books written by celebrities, their memoirs and guides; she analyzes and interprets self-help books by Krzysztof Ibisz and Katarzyna Cichopek. While utilizing theories by Pierre Bourdieu, media experts and conclusions drawn from the analysis of these texts, she determines that celebrity books feature short sales cycles and tabloid content. It is important to relate to the author’s personal experiences, and the goal of these books is to constantly remind the readers of themselves in order to remain in the public sphere. A book becomes a kind of a fetish – it’s not the content that counts, but the mere fact of existing, which causes the celebrity to become a writer, thus sanctioning their presence in the media and increasing the sales of a product (which is the celebrity himself). A perfect example of this phenomenon is Ilona Felicjańska and her book Wszystkie odcienie czerni, which was to change the model’s image and prove her talent. This publication and its reception is the subject of an analysis, which shows that readers are not eager to accept such changes, and an aspiring writer becomes a Girard-esque scapegoat.

The article deals with a metaphor of resurrection, used by Francis Bacon to describe the desire of bringing back the Literary Spirit (genius literarius) of former ages. An attempt to revive a literary work by the historian is compared to the story of Lazarus, brought back to life by Christ four days after laying his body to the grave. Although it is impossible for a literary scientist to assume the position of God, he – despite his limited abilities – recovers the work from the non-existence of time and memory, waking it up from a long slumber. The article touches on issues of specificity of revival language, authority over literature, as well as the existence of its limits, as is the case with the relation “dead – alive”. The context of the biblical narrative on Lazarus’ existence are poems of Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz. The purpose of the article is undertaking a possible history of literature project, using the resurrected as an example. It is also an attempt of deliberating over the permanence of literature.

The author diagnoses the situation that “history of literature” found itself in as a subdiscipline of literary science in first decades of the 21st century. He sees the reasons for its weakened status in a methodological differentiation, resulting in multiplication of interpretational practices in postmodernism; emergence of a new field of literature, described by J. Culler as “theory”; theoretical, and historical and literary self-awareness of writers, increased in late modernism questioning the ability to write an objective history (H. White); the dawn of “great narratives” (J.-F. Lyotard); finally, superseding history of literature from school textbooks. In the opinion of the author, other sources of disturbing the status of history of literature are practices in the field of literary history, which excessively deal with often artificial breakthroughs and divisions in history of literature, radically questioned by an increasingly widespread belief in “long-lasting” modernist formation, as well as a crisis of the University institution and its authority, which began around the year 1968 (already commented on by W. Gombrowicz in his Diary). In conclusion, the author of the sketch seeks a chance for history of literature – after a “cultural shift” in literary research – in “new historicism”. It is important however for literature scientists to stop being “ashamed” (as S. Szymutko put it) of the object of their studies. Having said that, even though writing a new history of Polish literature seems necessary, such objective history will never emerge and one should rather expect many subjective histories.

The author of the article poses a thesis on an end of the model of national literature, which dominated in the People’s Republic of Poland, and replacing narratives aimed at creating a stiff national discourse by the so-called “small canons” and “small narratives”. The article consists of a theoretical and a practical parts. In the first one, the author describes a shift from great narratives, consolidating a nation, to small narratives, supported by pan-national, humanistic, and comparative literary canons. In the practical part, Mikołajec interprets Ondraszek by Gustaw Morcinek, poems by Paweł Kubisz, and Pierwsza polka by Horst Bienek. He indicates that the foundation for opening a perspective of a new community in these books – an open community – is a paradoxical, universalist thinking, built upon Marxist and Hegelian understanding of history, and Christian ethics.

The author examines creative principles of writings on literary history by Czesław Miłosz. Historia literatury polskiej is a bridge between traditional thinking about history of literature and redefining this issue. His proposition mirrors the creator’s loose thinking about central and secondary issues and becomes in a way a post-modern textbook for foreigners. Miłosz’s method, also utilized in his books Mój wiek XX and Wyprawa w Dwudziestolecie is based on specific, individual solutions; however, in order to see them, one must analyze the writer’s historical and creative method – suspending the discourse between literacy and orality. The history of literature described by Miłosz is clearly not a finite, complete synthesis, but rather – as H.R. Jauss put it – a provocation towards further research.

The author looks at metaphors and comparisons used by researchers to describe a literature historian, utilizing a cognitivist approach – that in cognizance, metaphors serve a function analogous to our senses and like masks, they expose some features of an item. In the article, she emphasizes a multitude of masks a literature historian must wear, often forced by current paradigms, and thus – she points to a variety of the historian’s roles, which results in a blurred identity.

The article is an attempt to find a formula, which would allow to look at the “history of literature” category through a new perspective – based on incongruence of current paradigms with challenges of modern literature science. The author, while not undermining the hitherto achievements in this area, attempts to show that it is still possible to construct a positive project, which would allow to describe the history of literature. In order to do so, she presents the works of Walter Muschg, a German-speaking researcher, especially his epochal Tragische Literaturgeschichte, in order to deliberate on the possibility of using the “tragedy” category in works on history of literature by replacing the widespread chronological order with a spiritual one, which would function above history.

Essay by Justyna Bargielska, Polish contemporary poetess.

Conversation with Justyna Bargielska, Polish contemporary poetess.

In his review of Poetyka doświadczenia. Teoria – nowoczesność – literatura by Ryszard Nycz, the author discusses the contents of the author’s research propositions in relation to earlier postulates of this Polish language scholar from Kraków. He points to the consequence of the development of the conceptual apparatus and posits questions on the scope of applicability of proposed solutions in scientific and didactic practice of Polish studies.

The review is a polemic with the scrutiny of a Positivist paradigm by Marian Płachecki in his Wojny domowe. Szkice z antropologii słowa publicznego w dobie zaborów (1800– 1880). Płachecki states that there was no Positivism. Krzysztof Kłosiński is critical towards this thesis, pointing to a crucial error by the monograph author – using experience as a substitute for “what any given civilization thinks and how it works”, something that has been laboriously and successfully established by researchers building the “paradigm of Polish Positivism after the January Uprising”.

In the review of a book Goliwość tłumacza. Przekład poetycki w twórczości Czesława Miłosza (Kraków, 2013) by Magda Heydel, the author finds an example of great application of the latest in translation studies theories. Miłosz’s translator activity turned out to be a very graceful subject for deliberation, since the poet as a translator did not see his role as a neutral intermediary, but rather executed his own literary project – an idea of a modern silva rerum, crossing genre, stylistic, and cultural boundaries.

In the review of a book Mesjański logos Europy. Mariana Zdziechowskiego i Stanisława Brzozowskiego dyskursy o kulturze Zachodu (Częstochowa, 2012) by Artur Żywiołek, the author presents the monograph as a dissertation in the trend of post-secular thought. The idea of messianism is crucial here (in connection with essayist works of Marian Zdziechowski), as well as the “messianic” category, used to describe texts by Stanisław Brzozowski. In the case of Brzozowski, “messianism” does not describe an idea stance, but turns out to be a mood of critical thought, aimed at overcoming modernity. The author believes that introducing the messianic category is the monograph’s advantage, but also points to paradoxes in the attitude of Artur Żywiołek, who clearly favored these intellectual pursuits within a widely understood modernity, which revalued the community category, the sense-making logos, and sought a way to metaphysically establish the historical experience.

According to the author of the review of a book by Jacek Hajduk entitled Parnicki, Malewska i długie trwanie (Kraków, 2014), the book successfully presented the transformations of the metaphor of “dawn and fall of Rome” in Polish historical prose of the 20th century. These transformations have undermined the hitherto functioning cultural myth on the downfall of a corrupt pagan civilization, replaced by a new, Christian civilization. In the novel Przemija postać świata, Hanna Malewska rehabilitated the “last Romans” (bestowing on them political qualities), and Teodor Parnicki has worked out a formula for a novelized study of a historical moment, understood as a dynamic, open set of circumstances.

In the review of the book W cieniu białego drzewa. Powieść fantasy w XX wieku by Tomasz Z. Majkowski, the author argues its theses, indicating at significant shortcomings of the publication. At the same time, he presents his own ideas on fantasy convention research. He points to important categories of research of novels written in this style, not included by Majkowski: the relation to mythologies and the necessity of utilizing the history of ideas, should one want to create its historical and literary compendium.

The review of The Clerkishness Reloaded is devoted to two literary criticism books by Dariusz Nowacki. His two publications: Kto im dał skrzydła. Uwagi o prozie, dramacie i krytyce (2001–2010) and Ukosem. Szkice o prozie are – according to the author – examples of writing entering the “clerkish critique” tradition. In Nowacki’s critical discourse, it is noticeable that the author distances himself from thematically and politically oriented discourses of popular criticism, present in mainstream media, but also from domineering languages of academic literary writing, based on fashionable philosophical or anthropological theories. Nowacki delineates the field of autonomic reading, the possibility of which is usually questioned on the basis of reading theory. The author of the review also emphasizes the stylistic specificity of Nowacki’s writing, pointing to a vital role of irony in designating the critic’s sphere of intellectual independence, as well as the particularly underlined expressiveness of analyses presented in the books in question. The latter make Nowacki’s writings original and important in the environment of contemporary literary life.

The review is an evaluation of a post-conference tome Nowy regionalizm w badaniach literackich. Badawczy rekonesans i zarys perspektyw, edited by Małgorzata Mikołajczak and Elżbieta Rybicka. The author focuses on theoretical propositions included in the book, situating them in the context of a topographical shift and a revival of interest in regional literature, which cannot be reduced to notions of “small homeland” or “spice literature”. She discusses strategies and interpretations presented in the articles, chiefly devoted to literature on cross-border areas: Western Lands, Podlasie, and Upper Silesia. In the review, the author agrees with the point on the importance of discovering non-canonical literature and the potential of critical “peripheral” writing, but doubts are also expressed, since the status of the new regionalism is in itself problematic.

The text is a result of adjusting to elementary standards of a scientific discourse of the author’s speech during the 7th National Memetic Scientific Workshop, which took place in Szczyrk on March 8th – 10th, 2012, with the motto Powtarzalność i zmienność w kulturze i naturze [Repetition and Changeability in Culture and Nature]. The author (in accordance with the title) attempts to relate his use of a telephone (including cellphones) throughout his life and how a telephone has been used and worn out. In an obvious manner, Michał Noszczyk refers a few lines of thinking (“what isn’t new”), most often recalling the name of Clifford Geertz. It is a deliberate (albeit innocent) provocation.

Z Leśmiana is a text devoid of any provocativeness; it is a short, traditional piece of prose. It has only one nameless female protagonist, because – as is the author’s intent – she reveals the feminine side of his soul. The story is related to a “discursive” text, because Michał Noszczyk – in the case he did not manage to finish his speech for the National Memetic Scientific Workshop – was to read this piece of poetic prose (or at least, suggest reading it to the participants). It seems fitting, inasmuch his – the author’s – main prop (along with the red shoes) is a cellphone.

Report from the scientific conference 'Fantastyczne kreacje światów? Recepcja – metodologia – interpretacja' (Katowice 2013).

Report from the scientific conference 'Strychy/piwnice. Inne przestrzenie' (Katowice 2013).

The article is a result of an affective reading of poetry by Justyna Bargielska. Such analytical practice, amply utilizing tools proposed by theoreticians of the so-called “affective approach”, becomes first and foremost a reconstruction of affective strategies, which found poetic spaces. A feature representative of Bargielska’s works are descriptions of impossible worlds, in which she reveals mechanisms of perception and creation, at the same time exposing normative functions of language and emphasizinh its affective potential. In thusly outlined reading model, the participation of another subject – a reader, following “conceptual entities” along a semiotic trajectory – is also problematized as an experience, which stems from an autonomy of fictionalization awarded to the reader.

The author analyzes the critical reception of the works by Justyna Bargielska, pondering over mechanisms of defense from over-interpretation or critical misuse included in the poet’s books. Using the hypothesis of narrative sources in defense against accusation as a starting point, she researches Bargielska’s writing strategies, especially in the novel Małe lisy, in order to define the role of shame within. Bargielska’s characters refuse to be ashamed of things, which are generally considered shameful. The purpose of this work is to indicate that this phenomenon – called the “shamelessness strategy” – influences the form of text itself; what it allows for, and what it makes a necessity.