Porównania, 2007, nr 4
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Przestrzeń miejska i przełom. "Czytadło" Tadeusza Konwickiego i "Aż do trzewi" Christy Wolf(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Kledzik, EmiliaThe article deals with the creation of the urban area of East Berlin and Warsaw in the light of the political breakthrough during the years of 1989-1990. The selection of Tadeusz Konwicki’s works entitled “Czytadło” and Christa Wolf’s “AŜ do trzewi” stems from a similar narrative situation (the characters’ journeys through the changing sceneries of the capitals, similar narrative strategies) which is a monologue said in the form of “boring into” the layers of the speaker’s memory and similarly perceived account taking – by means of bestowing symbolical value to fragments of the city. The Warsaw sceneries do not resemble the East Berlin ones. Insofar as it is seen in the eyes of the narrator of “Czytadło” the Polish capital becomes a place of easternwestern colonization in the transformation times. Yet, Berlin in Wolf’s short story is a dead city, existing only in the realm of dream and memory. Wolf’s short story utilizes the body-world metaphor to show that the healing process of the narrator is connected with revealing other levels of the history of East Berlin.Item Danieli Hodrovej mit i poetyka miasta(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Gawarecka, AnnaThe author analyses the theoretical and historical work of the Czech literary theoretician entitled “Citlivé město (eseje z mytopoetiky”), Praha 2006, ss. 416. Hodrova’s work is focused on the topic of the city as an architectural creation and a complicated social and cultural phenomenon. In the post-modern anthropological thought the city is the subject of interest as an area that defines the identity of the human being through urban notions. The historical model of Hodrova’s reflection is the Czech Prague seen through the eyes of writers, artists, architects but also through the European tradition of presenting the city. Ipso facto, the monograph that reconstructs the artistic means of presenting Prague transforms into a dispute in the area of social psychology, mythical studies and anthropology.Item Komparatystyka na rozdrożu?(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Kuziak, MichałThe author of the article attempts to present the situation of comparative studies as a field of research and a way of thinking about the contemporary world on the basis of the analyses presented in Comparative Literature at a Crossroads? in the monographic issue of “Comparative Studies” 2006. Much attention is paid to the phenomenon of the crisis of comparative studies connected with a noticeable reluctance towards great theoretical models shared by many researchers, the extensiveness of the topic area and resulting methodological problems but also the fact that comparatists abandon the studies of other languages. This results in a need of searching for a satisfactory definition of this field of study, its scope of research and applicable research methods. Among the specific issues raised in the article there is, e.g. the case of world literature seen in the context of the classical contradiction between cultural hegemony and cultural pluralism. Moreover, an interesting review of the picture of the Polish culture from the perspective of postcolonial theories and intracultural differences is presented.Item O nowym historycznoliterackim paradygmacie, historii, kanonie i badaczach literatury(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Janoušek, PavelThe author questions the possibility of writing the history of national literature by means of post-modern research methodologies. The post-modern humanistics disregards previous assumptions of continuity, essentialism, cohesion and the assumption of the existence of historical truth which basically precludes writing the history of literature and the history as, e.g. a national whole, in the methodological sense. The author considers this issue in relation with the Czech discussion about the scientific paradigms on the canon of Czech literature that operate in humanistics. He rejects the antiessentialists’ radicalism, undermines the focus of the researchers exclusively on intellectual constructs and is sceptical about the present domination of historic-literary theory over practice. The author claims that, despite the pressure from antiessentialists, the kernel of the Czech literature and historical studies should still be the search for the identity of national literature, defining its relations with other cultures and processes, and an attempt to discover national and supranational values in Czech literature that could be at present showed as canonical.Item Dwa spojrzenia wstecz. Komunizm w rumuńskiej refleksji filmowej(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Bartnicka, IwonaThe Romanian cinema of the recent years in a peculiar way attempts to take account with the Ceausescu authorities and the communist reality. The directors of the Romanian Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) place the suspended, the lost in the totalitarian system, in the limelight. By means of presenting an analysis of two films – The Death of Mr Lazărescu (director Cristi Puiu) and 12:08 East of Bucharest (Corneliu Porumboiu) the article characterises the attitudes of the makers towards the recent past. The author points to the fact that the communist regime and trauma is, first and foremost, present in everyday life of the characters and their psyche. She underscores that the Romanian directors tell about the critical period of history through the prism of the individual and his/hers personal dramas. The brief analysis of the above mentioned films is an attempt at defining the aesthetics of the Romanian cinema of the historical revision and describing the cinematic picture of the reality of the regime.Item Rumuńska melancholia - refleksja o kinie rumuńskim po roku 1989(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Kulig, AgnieszkaRegaining the longed-for freedom in the social sense enabled the artists to talk freely about painful issues, maladjustment to new conditions and uncontrollable desires for wealth and luxury. Nevertheless, Romanian films avoid the pathos of the socially engaged cinema without losing the optics of the characters entangled in the new unknown system. The seriousness of the topics presented in these films did not deprive the makers of the idiosyncratic sense of humour, irony and distance.Item Ukraińskie kino lat 90. XX wieku w poszukiwaniu tożsamości narodowej(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Matusiak, AgnieszkaThe Ukrainian cinema, starting from the 1930s and with a short Chrustchev glasnost’, was subject to strong russification aimed at a consistent eradication and destruction of the Ukrainian national identity. It is only towards the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s – along with the fall of the Soviet empire and the Ukrainian political, national and cultural rebirth and on the wave of widespread discussion about the state and role of the Ukrainian national identity – that the Ukrainian cinema brought a series of promising domestic cinema debuts. Unfortunately, the artists having their debut in the days of transformation of the 1930s did not manage to formulate their own distinct artistic platform. In addition, scant state support offered declarations rather than real and effective [aid both in the legal and the financial areas], which did not contribute to the active development of domestic cinematography. A complex linguistic situation that devalued the Ukrainian language to the advantage of the Russian language, had an adverse effect on the Ukrainian cinema of those days [including the Ukrainian TV, radio or the press]. Both these and a number of other factors led to the close death of the national cinematography in Ukraine towards the end of the 1990s. The situation changed only with the change of power in 2000 when V. Yushchenko’s government financed all the films planned for 2000. At the time the public was able to see films such as Molytva za het'mana Mazepu directed by Yurij Illienko, Mamaj directed by Ołes’ Sanin, Druhoriadni liudy directed by Kira Muratova, or Chorna rada directed by Mykola Zasieiev -Rudenko.Item O przezwyciężaniu socjalistycznej przeszłości NRD oraz "przełomu" w filmie niemieckim(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Trepte, Hans-ChristianThe text is devoted to German films that deal with reckoning with the socialist past. The first films that attempted to reckon with the times of real socialism were produced after the breakthrough during the unification process of Germany. The activity of the secret Stasi police is a pivotal topic in these films. The protagonist are mostly party officers, sneaks, but also regular citizens with a conformist attitude towards the socialist reality. The films produced since the mid 1990s, usually as comedies, psychological dramas or detective stories, reveal symptoms of “nostalgia”, that is longing for stability and prosperity in East Germany.Item Polska komedia filmowa po 1989 roku wobec wielkich mitów i grzechów przeszłości(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Talarczyk-Gubała, MonikaThe Polish comedy in the 1990s and the first years of the new century reflected the mixed feelings with which the Poles welcomed the long-awaited freedom. In the times of systemic and cultural transformation, key tradition – romanticism and the Polish film school – became an indicator of the audience’s readiness for mental changes. As examples the author has chosen comedies-grotesques of makers with an acknowledged output, that stem from the cinema of moral anxiety – Marek Koterski and Stanisław Tym. Marek Koterski through his character, Adam Miauczyński – the Polish language teacher, showed the disappointment of the intelligence with the democratic government, its pauperisation and ahistorical attachment to the romantic paradigm.Item Rekonstrukcje i dekstrukcje historii w polskim kinie po 1989(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Dabert, DobrochnaThe article is an attempt of a synthetic perspective on the Polish cinema after 1989 that discusses the past. After 1989 films about the past seized to perform the function they used to perform in the post-war period, that of indirect and symbolical communication. The contemporary cinema that undertakes the issue of the past balances between the area of social memory, myths and history. It refers to knowledge obtained from objective historical sources, revalues social ideas about the past, obliterates old myths, revives the forgotten ones and calls into being new ones.Item Metafora transcendentalna jako zgłębienie rzeczywistości(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Kuzmina, IrinaThe article concerns the crucial role of language in the creation of the character’s identity. This issue is analysed by the author on the basis of the Russian writer Tatiana Tolstoj’s short stories. In the works of T. Tolstoj the idiosyncratic language of the character, full of surprising metaphors, repetitions and syntactic innovations creates the prose style named ornamental prose by H. Goscilo. According to the author of the article, the metaphor plays a special role in Tolstoj’s short stories. The short story becomes subordinate to one superior metaphor accompanied by a number of subsidiary metaphors. By means of applying the metaphor that transcendents the reality, Tolstoj’s realistic prose becomes deeply emotional and presents unexpected and unknown aspects of Russian reality.Item Rosyjska tożsamość narodowa wobec modernizacji literatury(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Nakoneczny, TomaszThe author sets about the task of presenting selected aspects of modernisation of the contemporary Russian literature in the perspective of broader cultural and social phenomena. Modernisation, by reference to Jerzy Święch, is understood as a process of identity changes initiated by the 19th century modernism and presently realised as post-modernism. In his considerations of the development and nature of the said process the author underscores the role of the Russian intelligence as a social class responsible for its distortions. It concerns cultural imperialism whose most important manifestations are exposed on the grounds of contemporary postcolonial research. Russian post-modern literature is seen in the article as a realm in which traditional values of the Russian culture, such as e.g. its sensitivity to general truths, clash with more and more explicit tendencies to annul or adapt them to new circumstances in post-Soviet Russia.Item Ressentiment w perspektywie postkolonialnej. Przypadek ukraiński(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Gundurova, TamaraThe author uses the notion of ressentiment developed by F. Nietzsche, M. Scheler and A. Camus. She understands ressentiment as a psychosocial form of relations of the weaker with the stronger, the dominant with the enslaved, which describes the state (process) of liberation from the power of somebody else’s glance and a subjugating system of values. The author transfers the notion of ressentiment onto the contemporary Ukrainian (J. Andruchowycz) and Polish (A. Stasiuk) prose. She describes ressentiment as a crucial component of Ukrainian postcolonial awareness that manifests itself mainly in the prose. Anticolonial covetousness and postcolonial rebellion determine the amplitude of emotional manifestations of ressentiment. The above mentioned writers display an idealisation of Central Europe as a world rich in values that were not colonised, thus representing a chance for liberation from the demeaning influence of ressentiment.Item Czeska i słowacka tradycja międzyliterackości w kontekście współczesnej komparatystyki (założenia i źródła ideowe chrestomatii "Koncepcja międzyliterackości w literaturoznawstwie porównawczym")(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Zelenka, MilošThe author presents a selection of theoretical works on comparative literature and cultural studies. The anthology entitled The concept of interliterariness in comparative literature will unite the diachronic survey of the changes undergoing in comparative studies and present the diversity of the contemporary schools and initiatives. The anthology project, that encapsulates the whole 20th century, contains scientific concepts organised according to their approach towards the issue of interliterariness. It is exactly the feature of interliterariness that is exhibited as substantial for modern comparative studies. The anthology includes works of, i.a. P. van Tieghem, D. Ďurišin, M. Žyrmunski, J. Lotman, R. Wellek, S. Bassnet, M. Bakoš, representatives of postcolonial studies, cultural theories of literariness and others. The largest part of the anthology is occupied by research organised into the following units: genealogy, emigrantology, thematology, imagology, feminist studies, literary translation and criticism, eurocentrism studies. The anthology project prepared by M. Zelenka together with the Slovak researcher P. Koprda is the first undertaking of this kind in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.Item Kulturoznawstwo porównawcze Stevena Tötösy'ego w kontekście środkowoeuropejskim(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Lisiak, AgataThe aim of the author is to present chosen elements of the Canadian comparatist Steven Tötösy’s theory and their application in the analysis of the Central European cultures. In an attempt to restore the proper status of comparative studies, which has been lost in the recent decades in favour of cultural studies, Tötösy unites both fields in the scope of the synthetic concept of comparative cultural studies. Its main assumptions are presented in the ten general principles. They allow to define Tötösy’s project as, i.a. interdisciplinary, intercultural, pluralistic, Anglophone and methodologically reliable. The author points to the applicability of the above mentioned principles in the research on Eastern and Central European culture, supported by the analyses carried out by the Tötösy himself, e.g. in the works on the contemporary Eastern German and Hungarian prose. The author claims that “a more frequent and widespread application of Tötösy’s theory can result in preventing the fall of comparative studies into the sea of dead academic disciplines but also bringing about a greater interest for the Central European studies.Item Metaporównanie. Komparatystyka jako system zwrotny(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Wolski, PawełIn order to obtain, as the author himself puts it, “a successful internalisation of the comparative metadiscourse” necessary for “the survival of comparative literature”, the author refers to constructivism by noticing crucial similarities between the two directions in terms of their historical development and character. The author does not agree with the accusation of the secondary status of comparative research in relation to other fields of science. He points to the fact that the existence of a rich comparative metadiscourse, which implies analogy with constructivism and accounts for the status of comparative studies as an important area of research, is omitted. By means of referring to Niklas Luhman, the author identifies comparative studies with second-order observation, that is, focusing not on the objects of comparative studies (those seem to be as numerous and various as the reality surrounding the human being), but on the nature of the comparative process, in other words on the manner in which the comparison of the above mentioned objects is carried out.Item Zarys metody pragmatycznej w badaniach porównawczych(Wydawnictwo-Drukarnia Bonami/Pracownia Komparatystyki Literackiej IFP UAM, 2007) Wiśniewska, LidiaHenry Remak’s proposal, that reach beyond literary comparisons only, and reference to the notion of cultural texts allows for a broader understanding of comparative studies. In this spirit I present the comparative method which refers to two types of myths and the corresponding desacralised indicators of time and space in the form of paradigms put forward by Eliade. The origin myth and the modern myth, at this point signed with the figures of Nature and God, allow to perceive the world from the inside as dynamic (metamorphosis) or from the outside as static (governed by law). The corresponding desacralised paradigms permit to retrieve the basic indicators of time and space. The circular paradigm expresses time in form of units of circular recurrences and shows space as a whole based on the coincidentia oppositorum principle. On the other hand, the linear paradigm presents the holistic rectilinear time and the hierarchical space which separates units. In cultural works, to start with science and end with literature studies, echoes of particular myths and methods of organisation through the above mentioned paradigms of time and space are retrieved in a way that complies with the specificity of fields of interest (the physical, biological, psychological world, the consciousness, the unconsciousness, the featured world, the organisation of the work and historical changes), which allows to perceive the distinctness of their concrete realisations and treat them as tertium comparations. The possibility of applying this method in art, including literature, is signalised here as well