Ritual kollektiven Erinnerns oder diskurspolitisches Instrument? Struktur, Funktion, Wandel und kulturelle Bedeutung von TV-Jahres- und Jahrhundertrückblicken

Author(s): Michael Klemm / Language(s): German Issue: 9/2016

The paper analyses the structure, function, change and cultural relevance of televised year- or century-in-reviews as prominent resources for our cultural memory. Using by several case studies, it shows that these reviews are worth analysing within culture-analytic media linguistics. For instance, such studies may seek to apply discourse analysis, cultural history or cultural comparisons to explore how multimodal memory components are adapted semiotically, framed strategically or exploited in a sense of memory politics and which social discourses are / should be linked with them.

Metaphor Scenario Analysis as Part of Cultural Linguistics

Author(s): Andreas Musolff / Language(s): English Issue: 9/2016

The study of metaphor as part of Cultural Linguistics highlights the culture-specific aspects of figurative language. This study focuses on the reception and interpretation aspect and reviews cross-cultural metaphor interpretation as well as presents new data from a survey of differential understanding of the nation-as-body metaphor. It is based on a questionnaire survey, administered in 10 countries to students who were given the task of applying the metaphor of the “body politic” to their home nation. The results show systematic variation between four main interpretations, i.e. nation as geobody, as functional whole, as part of self and as part of global structure, as well as evidence of further pragmatic and polemical elaboration. The two dominant versions, i.e. nation as geobody and nation as functional whole, were represented across all cohorts but showed opposite frequency patterns for Chinese vs. Western cohorts, which can be linked to culture specific discourse and traditional cultural conceptualisations. This finding contributes to a constructivist, non-essentialising definition of cultural cognition as a central issue of Cultural Linguistics.

Nuty smutku wśród uroków natury. Pan w trzcinie Arnolda Böcklina i Zofii Gordziałkowskiej

Author(s): Grzegorz Igliński / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

Two works: the painting by Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin and the poem by the Young Poland poet Zofia Gordziałkowska inspired by that painting are the subject of considerations. Both works have the same title - Pan Amongst the Reeds. Comparative analysis allowed determining to what extent the poetic version of the subject is true to the painted original - do we deal with a description of the painting, a lyric comment to it and an attempt at reading it ormaybe it was just the reason for developing a king of reflection going far beyond the work by Böcklin. The poem, treating the subject presented in the painting (the mythological Pan) asa synonym of an artist complaining and hankering after something unspecified, leads to theconclusion that arts hinder enjoying life. On the other hand, treating the subject as a representative of the nature or personification of life reduces that life to using it, to the sensual intoxication. The originality of the poet is represented by deviation from convention in understanding the landscape functioning in symbolism. She processes the subject undertakenby Böcklin in the way aiming at highlighting not only the value of the art but, first, the value of life.

K pozdní tvorbě Bohumila Hrabala

Author(s): Libor Martinek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 4/2016

The author in article "The late works of Bohumil Hrabal" deals with the late work of Bohumil Hrabal, especially correspondence with the American student of bohemistic (Czech studies) April Gifford, which the writer called Dubenka. This imaginary correspondence was not conducted on the axis writer (Hrabal) - addressee (Gifford), but the author (Hrabal) - texts for readers of publishing house Pražská imaginace (Prague imagination) in Prague, which were later collected in a book Dopisy Dubence (Letters for Dubenka) in 1995. The author of this article analyzed Hrabal late literary work with a heroine Dubenka and reminds some intertextual (inter-literary) relations with the former European cultural codes and topoi in literature (Ariadne and Theseus, Minnesang, Dante and Beatrice, Goethe and Ulrika, Rilke).

Pomiędzy niemieckością i polskością - faza wyłączenia i separacji w prozie autobiograficznej Piotra (Petera) Lachmanna

Author(s): Przemysław Chojnowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

The article discusses various aspects of autobiographical prose (essays) of the bilingual Polish-German author Piotr (Peter) Lachmann. The focus of this paper is on the process of transition of the textual subject from his "Germanness" to "Polishness". The thesis is based on Victor Turner's paradigm of ritual process which extended van Gennep's ideas to describe the process of transition between different states. According to both researchers, there are three stages of the transition. The first one is separation and exclusion. In Lachmann's essays (especially in his collection of essays Wywołane z pamięci, Olsztyn 1999) the separation applies on three different levels: The first one is the interrupted childhood, the second refers to his abandoned house, and the last one results from the isolation from the first language.

Święta Anna - ideał żony i matki w starożytnym i staropolskim piśmiennictwie apokryficznym

Author(s): Małgorzata Wojtowicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

The article consists of the comparative analysis of chosen apocrypha originating from the Modern Era (the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Protevangelium of James) and the Old Polish times (the Life of Saint Anne Jan's from Koszyczek, The History of Saint Anne Mikołaj's of Wilkowieck and some initial fragments from The Przemysl Meditation).The aim of the analysis is the way of the presentation of Saint Anne (the mother of Virgin Mary) in selected literary texts. In the course of the analysis the story of the heroine, which is created from five cited literary works, is also reminded. Great emphasis is put on the family genealogy of the saint and the prefigured behaviour of its individual family members. The goal of the study is to show that Saint Anne plays mainly a moralistic role in the apocrypha. Sheembodies a model of an ideal wife and mother which is particularly recommended in the old Jewish and old Polish communities. In the article there are also many examples of the behaviour of the characters, which are also placed in a historical context and the Bible. What is more, there are some references to hagiographical studies. In the end the conclusions based on the analysis emphasise the role of such presentations for Christian society.

Kobiece doświadczanie drogi: "ja" w podróży. Rozważania na podstawie Wspomnień Anny Dostojewskiej

Author(s): Beata Walęciuk-Dejneka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

The article discusses womens presence in the world and their experience of the journey from 19th century. The concept of the article is based on Heidegger's notion of "being-in-world" but it's used in metaphorical meaning. It was choosen personal notes of Anna Dostojewska to analysis - Memoirs.

"Źle jest, poezjo moja, że jeszcze nie jesteś prosta jak kij". Elementy samokrytyki w twórczości Romana Bratnego, przedstawiciela pokolenia "pryszczatych"

Author(s): Agnieszka Piekarska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

The article presents self-criticism in the works of one of the main representatives of the "the spotty". The author proves that not only older writers strive to settle the past but also young socialist realist poets try to apologise for their weaknesses. The aim of the article is to show the mechanism of self-criticism in the poetry by Roman Bratny - focusing on what made him create pieces of writing of this type and on which "mistakes" he admitted having made. To reach this aim, the author analyses poems by Bratny which were published in the times of social realism. She shows how the poet tries to adapt to the enslaved society, in which self-criticism is a consistent element of literary life.

Wątki psychoanalityczne w prozie polskiej po 1989 roku. Próba rekonesansu

Author(s): Marek Lubański / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

The Polish literature of 1945-1989 - compared to many countries of Europe and America - is characterised by relatively poor use of inspirations arising from the psychoanalytical tradition. After 1989, this situation was partially changed. Devoting a monographic, double issue of "Teksty Drugie" ("Second Texts") to the phenomenon of the Return of psychoanalysis - which was its illustrative subtitle - may be regarded as extremely characteristic for the reception of the idea of Sigmund Freud in new Polish political and cultural reality. In the presented article, several prose texts written in the 1990s (by, among others, Olga Tokarczuk,Małgorzata Saramonowicz or Joanna Bator) were analysed, in which we observe rather clear references to many theses of the author of Introduction to psychoanalysis and his successors. Some of the literary works were interpreted in the context of intersexuality. Frequent - more or less explicit - references to various works of Freud (and of his successors, continuators, revisionists or polemicists) some times take on the character of inter-textual references, with which the analysed prose seems to match the literary trend which was distinctive for the Polish output of the 1990s.

Człowiek stojący przed Rubikonem. O dramacie dojrzałości w Ostatnim rozdaniu Wiesława Myśliwskiego

Author(s): Magdalena Dziugieł-Łaguna / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

Ostatnie rozdanie by W. Myśliwski is a novel that bears a multi-level definition of maturity. The narrator - as in author's many former novels - is not a young person and notices the first symptoms of ageing in himself. It is much more revealed by permanent experiencing of chaos, void of life and death by the man. Therefore making orders in the address book - undertaken from time to time - and constituting an attempt of controlling the chaos ofreality, becomes an act of discovering oneself, an attempt to face the ghosts of remembrance, to enter the furthest recesses of consciousness in order to draw a picture of a rootless man, who in fact is homeless.

Креолизованные тексты в современной русской литературе

Author(s): Tatyana Chigintceva / Language(s): Russian Issue: 4/2016

The article is devoted to analysis of texts of relevant literature, in which verbal and iconic components are integrated into a single narrative space. The creolization of the text is one of the main tendencies of modern literature (A. Bilzho, L. Goralik, A. Ilichevsky, O. Muhina, Andrei Sen-Senkov, S. Spirihin etc.). Thearticle discusses the functions of figurative elements, their relationship with compositional, narrative and language features. The study concluded that the combination of verbal and iconic signs in one semantic space actualizes the performative nature of the modern literature.

„Przyjaciel Moskali”. Daniel Olbrychski wobec Rosji i Rosjan

Author(s): Liliana Kalita / Language(s): Polish Issue: XXII/2017

The text presents the relationship between Daniel Olbrychski (one of the most famous Polish actors in the world) and Russia, as well as his attitude towards the Russians. The author discusses, among others, Olbrychski’s roles in Russian films, and the characters of Russians he created in cinema worldwide. There are also reflections on the actor’s friendship, among others, with Vladimir Vysotzky and Nikita Michalkov, as well as Olbrychski’s attitude towards Vladimir Putin and contemporaryRussian policy.

Drogi Rękopisu znalezionego w Saragossie Jana Potockiego do polskiego czytelnika (wstępne uwagi recepcyjne)

Author(s): Mirosław Słapik / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2016

An article is about count Jan Nepomucen Potocki's famous novel which is one of the most mysterious masterpieces of world literature. It turned out that Edmund Chojecki did quite rough novel's translation from french into polish. However late 2015 is the time of major breakthrough in polish reception of The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. On the count Potocki's 200th anniversary of death a completely new version of the novel was released - based on autographs and copies of particular decamerons, with hand-written Potocki's corrections from 1810 - translated by Anna Wasilewska. Her translation is a great challenge for readers, who knew only Chojecki's version which was known as the right one. Modern translation overcame readers' habits. New version of the novel is not overstyled which perfectly harmonize with modern literary polish language.

„Jak wyprowadzić z ruin ludzi” – o sensie poezji po „Drugiej Apokalipsie”. O kilku utworach Zbigniewa Herberta

Author(s): Magdalena Filipczuk,Michał Filipczuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2017

After the Second World War, discussions erupted concerning the character and legitimacy of art, including poetry. The famous line by Theodore Adorno, saying that writing poetry after Auschwitz is impossible, was frequently debated. However, should the silence of poetry be the answer to genocide? Polish poets also joined this international discussion. The painful paradox was most prominently displayed by the attitude of Tadeusz Różewicz, who simultaneously wrote and emphasized the moral ambiguity of “writing poems after Oświęcim”. He posited that the cultural inheritance did not prevent the moral and material ruin, and if so, then the death of fundamental values should be accompanied by the complete collapse of the higher human activities that are based on these values. Every poem that emerges after this upheaval of the world thus far participates in the creation of falsehood; it is another element upholding the appearances that everything is the same as it once was. This poet of the second half of the twentieth century stood in a morally ambiguous position, allowing himself a voice when so many people had been deprived of their own voice.Tadeusz Różewicz, noting the “death of poetry”, did not put down his pen. Zbigniew Herbert takes a completely different stance on this issue.The purpose of this study is the analysis of works that provide insight into Zbigniew Herbert’s thoughts on the subject of the role of art. This examination focuses on Herbert’s work from the 1950s(his first two collections: Chord of Light and Hermes, Dog and Star).

Zapomniane miasto zapomnianego autora – wizerunek Chicago w The Stories of the Streets and of the Town George’a Ade

Author(s): Joanna Przeszlakowska-Wasilewska / Language(s): English Issue: 5/2017

Jan Karol Sembrzycki do Michała Kajki (Kayki) (wokół korespondencji dwóch Mazurów pruskich)

Author(s): Zbigniew Chojnowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2017

The article Jan Karol Sembrzycki do Michała Kajki (Kayki) (wokół korespondencji dwóch Mazurów pruskich) [Jan Karol Sembrzycki to Michał Kajka (Kayka) (around the correspondence of two Prussian Masurians)] is a reconstruction of cooperation between the aforementioned persons. They maintained contact from 1884 to 1889. Sembrzycki inspired Kajka to write about local topics and to collect Masurian folklore. What Kajka found in Sembrzycki was mainly support for his writing ambitions. They both promoted the idea of maintaining the ability to read, write and speak Polish in the Masurian community. This article uncovers and comments on the issues related to Masurian literature and culture in 19th century.

Od opowieści do sprawozdania. Reportaże o latach powojennych na Warmii i Mazurach

Author(s): Joanna Chłosta-Zielonka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 5/2017

The aim of this paper is to point to the ways of narrating history in the reportages written after 1945 and concerned with the issues of land disinheritance, culture and language of people living in the Warmia and Masuria region, as well as, in the case of the Masurians, religion after the territorial changes which took place after the Second World War.

Światło ze Wschodu. O Esejach nie całkiem polskich Tokimasy Sekiguchiego

Author(s): Henryk Duda / Language(s): Polish Issue: 12/2017

The article discusses thoroughly the book “Eseje nie całkiem polskie” [Not Entirely Polish Essays] by Tokimasa Sekiguchi, a professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. In his book, the author focuses on the issue of transculturality. The book consists of three parts. The first is mostly about historical and literary contexts. Sekiguchi writes about different aspects of works by Herbert, Miłosz and Szymborska. The second part is actually one essay entitled “Asia Does Not Exist”. Two issues are worthy of attention in this part. On the one hand, we can see Sekiguchi as a precursor of Postcolonial Studies; on the other, we see quite an original take on problems known from such classic works like “Orientalism” by E.W. Said. The third part of Sekiguchi’s book has a slightly different character. The essays here are more personal, and some of them could be read as a semi-literary works. A very thorough study of the essays leads the author of the article to the conclusion that the pivotal aspect of Sekiguchi’s work is a change of perspective: while Sekiguchi looks at Poland’s internal affairs from the outside, he has a lot to say to us, Poles and to other nations as well.

O chińskiej literaturze poszukiwania korzeni

Author(s): Zhao Weiting / Language(s): Polish Issue: 12/2017

In Chinese culture, the idea of “searching for roots” has being created from the beginning of 80’s in 19th century. Along with that, the trend of searching for roots has appeared in the literature. This article will present the genesis of that trend, its main topics and most important authors. That exceptional phenomenon in Chinese literature will be shown from social-historical point of view.

MOTIV (SAMO)ŽRTVOVANJA U ROMANU SLEPI UBICA MARGARET ATVUD

Author(s): Ana Sentov / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 02/2016

The paper deals with the issue of forming and defining one’s identity as one of the crucial themes of Margaret Atwood’s novels. In her critical study Survival (1972), Atwood identifies four ’victim positions’ as stages which her (usually female) protagonists go through on the road to personal development and growth. The Blind Assassin (2000) is a chronicle of the simultaneous rise and fall of a family and a town, as well as of the tumultuous events of the 20th century. All three narrative levels of the novel contain a strong motif of a willing (self) sacrifice for an ideology or a concept. Members of the Chase family have established the pattern of sacrificing their personal wishes for the sake of the family prosperity. The female protagonists, Iris and Laura Chase, follow the same pattern of (self)sacrifice for what they think is right. However, their sacrifice proves to be in vain, turning them into victims of circumstances and social norms.