Polish-AngloSaxon Studies, vol. 22, 2025

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10593/28273

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    A Polish Gaze at the Northern Irish Conflict and Its Social Aftermaths in Aleksandra Łojek's Belfast. 99 ścian pokoju (Belfast. 99 Peace Walls)
    (2025) Frątczak-Dąbrowska, Marta; Jarząb-Napierała, Joanna
    The following article scrutinizes the situation of Polish immigrants in Northern Ireland with regard to the ongoing denominational local conflicts and the official policy of the peace process. As a literary point of reference, the article is based on a reportage written by a Polish immigrant Aleksandra Łojek – Belfast. 99 ścian pokoju (Belfast. 99 Peace Walls) (2015). The publication well illustrates the process of immigrant assimilation on an individual level, showing how the author undergoes a transformation from a tourist to a member of the local community as well as how other Polish immigrants face the same problem after having moved to Belfast. The initial lack of knowledge about the denominational division of the city’s space, and the complexity of the social relations in the Northern Irish capital, allows Łojek to make interesting observations, which even the journalists well-acquainted with the issue often fail to notice. Thus, Łojek provides a fresh look at the ongoing social conflict between Loyalists and Republicans, challenges many stereotypes associated with Belfast and Northern Ireland as well as gives voice to the Polish diaspora trying to (re)build their lives in this part of the UK.
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    Front Matter
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    Contents
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    The Portrayal of Stanisław August Poniatowski in Diaries and Memoirs
    (2025) Nieroda, Łukasz
    The purpose of the following article is to describe the portrayal of Stanisław August Poniatowski in diaries and memoirs written by British travellers who visited Poland-Lithuania during his reign (1764-1795). The travellers point out the king’s openness and affability as well as his vast knowledge concerning English history and culture. He is seen as an Anglophile and is usually portrayed in a favorable light as a benevolent monarch trying to enact auspicious reforms with an intention of strengthening the state. His failures are blamed on turbulent nobility and intrigues of the neighboring powers striving to preserve Poland-Lithuania in a state of stagnant subjugation. Even the king’s cooperation with Russia is defended and presented as a concession which was inevitable under the given circumstances. The one dissenting diarist is Nathaniel Wraxall, whose depiction is critical of what he saw as weakness as well as excessive prodigality and profligacy. It is also conspicuous for the travellers that it was Russia that controlled the machinery of the Commonwealth, not the king.
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    The Language of Waterborne Transport Used in Sygurd Wiśniowski's Dziesięć lat w Australii (Ten Years in Australia)
    (2025) Vorbrich, Krzysztof Konstanty
    This article presents translations and paraphrases of fragments of Sygurd Wiśniowski’s eighteenth-century Polish memoir Dziesięć lat w Australii (Ten Years in Australia) that deal with sea voyages and trips on inland waters. Interestingly, these relatively short subplots, which serve to illustrate the wide spectrum of Wiśniowski’s talents, share certain distinctive attributes: not poetic means of expression, but rather Wiśniowski’s ability to use everyday language and to appeal to readers who are not well-versed in travel on water. Wiśniowski strove to portray scenes connected with waterborne travel as unusual for the European reader yet at the same time as ordinary for the white settlers involved. In short, despite writing in Polish and hailing from a land without longstanding maritime traditions, Wiśniowski’s prose in Dziesięć lat w Australii (Ten Years in Australia) consistently demonstrates a clear, easy and knowledgeable command of maritime language.
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    "Let's All Do the Poznań": Manchester versus Poland both on and off the Pitch
    (2025) Newsham, Paul
    The story of the Manchester football clubs’ encounters with Poland begins in 1968 with Manchester United facing Górnik Zabrze in the quarter final of their ultimately successful European Cup campaign and ends with Manchester City fans learning to “do the Poznań” in a 2010 UEFA Europa League group match. This article will discuss those encounters which took place during the Cold War and its immediate aftermath from the perspectives of the players, fans and officials involved. During this period, matches between Manchester and Polish clubs were trips into the unknown, whether that meant crossing the Iron Curtain in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the first and until very recently the only experience of a major European final for both Manchester City and Górnik Zabrze in 1970, or the first away days in Europe for English fans after a five-year ban, in 1991. The aim of the article is to show how sport, and particularly the travelling and crossing of borders involved in international competition, can affect our attitudes towards and opinions on formerly unknown, sometimes mysterious places. This process appears to be largely positive and the article will also propose that the experiences involved with Manchester football clubs meeting Polish opponents are examples of sport as cultural diplomacy, in other words, football diplomacy. The sources consulted will include Polish and English newspaper reports as well as first-hand accounts of players, fans and officials travelling in both directions.
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    "Uplifting the Nation": Karola Gajda's Are My Roots Showing? as a Modified Practice of "the New Behalfism"
    (2025) Bartnik, Ryszard
    Along with Benedict Anderson’s formulation of the concept of ‘imagined communities’, a new interest in questions concerning representations of national identities could be observed. An important notion to be addressed is how/to what degree various representatives of a specific literary field were/are willing to contribute to that kind of debates. Of some interest, in the above context, would be to observe the inscriptions and imagery used by the novelists of referential fiction that run parallel to certain ‘mythmaking’ projections of a given nationhood, constructed often at the expense of more adequate depictions of national identity. With this in mind, the following paper presents a socio-cultural critique of one such writer, namely Karola Gajda. Studying her novel Are My Roots Showing?, I examine how adequate her reasoning and the ways she [re]imagined contemporary Poland as well as its collective mindset are.