Published: 2025-12-30

Old Age Spaces in the Newest Polish Realistic Prose

Agnieszka Trześniewska-Nowak Logo ORCID

Abstract

Old age, marginalized in popular culture due to the cult of youth and consumerism, is appearing in the latest realistic prose of the younger generation (in the works of Sylwia Chutnik, Barbara Klic­ka, Maria Karpińska, Ignacy Karpowicz, and Zyta Rudzka). In this article, based on Barbara Klicka’s Zdrój (2019) and Zyta Rudzka’s Ślicznotka doktora Josepha (2006), two spaces stereotypically associated with seniors – the sanatorium and the retirement home – are analyzed. In Zdrój, seniors enjoy life, and the treatments they receive serve both health and entertainment purposes; their stay is temporary. In Ślicznotka doktora Josepha, old age is depicted in a drastic light – the abandoned characters spend the rest of their lives in a retirement home, reminiscing about their lost youth; Rudzka breaks a taboo by describing the physiological process of aging. Zdrój is set in Ciechocinek, while in Rudzka’s novel, the lack of topographical landmarks makes the retirement home a metaphor for social exclusion.

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Trześniewska-Nowak, A. (2025). Old Age Spaces in the Newest Polish Realistic Prose. Z Teorii I Praktyki Dydaktycznej Języka Polskiego, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.31261/TPDJP.2025.34.11

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Domyślna okładka

2025
Published: 2021-11-25


ISSN: 0208-5011
eISSN: 2353-9577
Ikona DOI 10.31261/TPDJP

Publisher
Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego | University of Silesia Press

Licence CC Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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