Contemporary Polish Research Articles

Polski film hagiograficzny jako forma komunikowania wiary. Komunikacyjna funkcja struktur genologicznych współczesnego polskiego filmu hagiograficznego

The polish film hagiography as a form of communicating faith. Communicative function of genre structures of contemporary polish film hagiographyThis article is divided in three sections. In the first one the author tries to investigate definitions of film hagiography functioning in the Polish film study writings. The basic research leads her to believe that this is the phenomenon hardly recognized theoretically, although in The World Encyclopedia of Religious Film eds. M. Lis, A. Garbicz there are many specific examples of film hagiographies, mentioned and characterized. The second part of the text is filled out with analyses of concrete film works. The Author concentrates in her procedure on communicative functions of the characteristic structures and genre conventions of these films. She points out that the majority of film hagiographies, especially those produced by independent producers, overtly continues the model of literary hagiographies known as the Gesta Sanctorum. They developed in the Middle Ages and still were popular at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the last section of the paper the reasons for which there are so few feature film hagiographies in the contemporary Polish cinema are discussed.

Образы России: стратегии представления России в современном польском репортаже

Образы России: стратегии представления России в современном польском репортаже

Archiwum pisarza, topografia jego utworów i ich potencjał dydaktyczny. O dwóch opowiadaniach Włodzimierza Odojewskiego z Wielkopolską, Poznaniem i archiwum w tle

Autorka artykułu skupia się na biografii i prozie Włodzimierza Odojewskiego – jednego z najważniejszych współczesnych polskich pisarzy. Od 2008 jego spuścizna literacka jest gromadzona na Wydziale Filologii Polskiej i Klasycznej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu. Celem pracy jest wskazanie, jak zbiór archiwalny może być wykorzystany w dydaktyce na różnych etapach kształcenia. Tekst stanowi również swego rodzaju propozycję dla nauczycieli, jak zaznajomić uczniów i studentów z twórczością Odojewskiego. Część pierwsza pokazuje dokumenty archiwalne (rękopisy, maszynopisy, korespondencję powstałe w różnych etapach życia pisarza) jako źródło wiedzy o biografii autora i dziejach jego twórczości, jak również przybliża pracę archiwisty. Druga część przedstawia znaczące dla Odojewskiego miejsca w Wielkopolsce, opisane w jego opowiadaniach, które stanowią indywidualne zapisy pamięci zachowane w tekstach literackich.

Adverbial intensifiers in contemporary Polish and Slovak

Abstract The paper discusses the intensifying functions of some lexical units derived from adverbs in a cross-linguistic Polish-Slovak perspective. The expression of intensification in Polish and Slovak has not been widely explored, which is why the present paper aims to point out a few aspects of this phenomenon in two closely related Slavic languages, which may contribute to help fill this gap. Intensification is without doubt a very interesting, pervasive and complex phenomenon in linguistics and is understood here as the process of quantitative change of a feature, activity or state. That change refers to the increase and decrease in intensity of a feature/activity/state according to an approved canon. The components of the category of intensification are therefore both, intensifying and deintensifying. Therefore, it is also postulated that a class of intensifiers/deintensifiers should be distinguished as means of intensification/deintensification. Intensifiers have also been a long fruitful topic of investigation in sociolinguistic research: on one hand intensification systems are unstable and tend to change rapidly in any speech community and on the other, the use of intensifiers tends to vary across demographic categories, especially age and gender. Intensification can also be researched due to ‘delexicalization’, which is defined as the reduction of the independent lexical contents of a word, or group of words, so that it comes to fulfil a particular function – the original meaning of the word is gradually lost as it evolves into a marker of intensification. The paper aims also to show that the more delexicalized an intensifier becomes, the more it will lose its lexical restrictions and increase in frequency. Through frequency of use and over time, intensifiers tend to lose their intensifying force and the renewal process occurs. This process promotes other adverbs, be they newly created adverbs or already existing ones, to the rank of intensifiers – it seems that the class of intensifiers may be an open class. The undertaken analysis has shown that there are a number of aspects which can be considered while describing intensifiers.

Multicriterion Typology of Agriculture: A Spatial Dependence Approach

Abstract At the turn of the 21st century Polish agriculture intensively changed as the consequence of: 1) the socio-economic transformation that started in 1989, 2) the general transition from a centrally-planned economy to a market economy and 3) Poland’s accession in 2004 to the European Union. In this paper, we try to describe, in a synthetic way, the spatial heterogeneity of development of agriculture in Poland. For this purpose we identified the types of contemporary Polish agriculture. We applied the measures of global (Moran 1950) and local (LISA) spatial autocorrelation devised by L. Anselin (1995) and used their calculations in classification methods. Our dataset consists of 69 variables and 3,069 spatial units at the LAU2 level. As the result of the analysis we identified 20 types of agriculture in Poland and presented their characteristic features. We have paid particular attention to a spatial distribution of identified types. We concluded that the distribution is not only a result of natural or socio-economic conditions and local spatial relationships, but also to a greater extent is still affected by historical conditions (mainly partitions and changes of borders after the First and Second World Wars).

Immigrant Bodies and the Politics of Eugenics in Selected Literary Works Written by Contemporary Polish American Authors

Immigrant Bodies and the Politics of Eugenics in Selected Literary Works Written by Contemporary Polish American Authors

Emotional investments: Contemporary Polish romantic comedy and neoliberalism

Emotional investments: Contemporary Polish romantic comedy and neoliberalismThe author of the article argues that neoliberalism, along with its attendant economic and social ideas, has affected romantic comedy’s politics of emotion and consequently its narrative and formal strategies. The article analyzes two recent romantic comedies, Nigdy w życiu Never Again in My Life, dir. Ryszard Zatorski, 2004 and Listy do M. Letters to Santa, dir. Mitja Okorn, 2011 as exemplifying neoliberal “adjustments” of Polish romantic comedy, specifically employing the conventions typical of family movies. The author claims that generic hybridity of Polish romantic comedy is facilitated by the central position of family in the Polish socio-cultural discourse, whereas simultaneously the use of family-movie conventions serves the purpose of enlarging the target audience and, thus, maximizing the financial return. As Never Again in My Life and Letters to Santa demonstrate, proper management of individual emotions is necessary in order to invest one’s human capital with a low risk. Hence, instead of a union of two people leading to the emergence of a nuclear family, neoliberal romance comes into fruition in a corporation-like environment.

O NIEKTÓRYCH ASPEKTACH TRADYCJI CZYTANIA I PRZEKŁADANIA LITERATURY DLA DZIECI. NA KANWIE RECENZJI KSIĄŻKI JOANNY DYBIEC- -GAJER, ZŁOTA RÓŻDŻKA – OD KSIĄŻKI DLA DZIECI PO DRESZCZOWIEC RACZEJ DLA DOROSŁYCH

Artykuł poświęcony jest recenzji książki Joanny Dybiec-Gajer pt. Złota różdżka – od książki dla dzieci po dreszczowiec raczej dla dorosłych (Kraków 2017), w której autorka analizuje polską historię przekładu i recepcji światowego bestselleru Heinricha Hoffmanna pt. Struwwelpeter. W dalszej części artykułu zaprezentowany został nowy polski przekład dzieła Hoffmanna pt. Złota różdżka (Egmont 2017). Rezultaty badań Dybiec-Gajer stają się następnie asumptem do refleksji nad tradycją czytania i przekładania literatury dla dzieci w Polsce przy szczególnym uwzględnieniupolskojęzycznej recepcji baśni braci Grimm i związanego z nimi stereotypowego przekonania o ich szczególnym „okrucieństwie”.

The Image of Contemporary Polish SEZ – Spatial Aspects on the Selected Medium-Sized Cities

The genesis of the article is an attempt to present a contemporary image of the Polish Special Economic Zones in the selected aspects. The topics presented in this publication are aimed at highlighting the complexity of interactions that are observed in the field of privileged areas, how special economic zones have influenced and continue to affect changes in the Polish economy, labour market, social processes and spatial transformation of the cities and regions. The interdisciplinary nature of the article is a multi-directional attempt to highlight issues related to the functioning of SEZ in Poland. As a result of the analysis of various studies, the publication presents both positive and negative aspects of these zones, an objective summary that covers almost a quarter of a century of the existence of SEZ on the territory of Poland. Currently, SEZ have become one of the symbols of the Polish systemic transformation. They are not at the centre of our attention and yet have a significant impact on the Polish manufacturing industry. SEZ is also another form of the structure and a change of the existing configuration of industrial areas in the cities. The strategic task of the special economic zones was to introduce modern production plants with new production technologies to the Polish reality of the early nineties of the last century, and to change the quality of work, increasing its efficiency. Contemporary urban and suburban space undergoes transformation, changing the purpose of old buildings and establishing new ones, enforcing reconstruction of the existing transport systems, and directing workforce to new routes. It is also a new standard of work space organization: on the one hand, it is based on an old type production system, and on the other, it is closed and isolated. On its site, there are completely different rules and laws, including both tax reliefs for investors and the suspension of employee rights. The author looks at the selected regions of the cities, in which they are located, like Mielec, Świdnica, Oława, Dzierżoniów, Polkowice, Niepołomice or Legnica. The analysis covers both the regional dimension as well as the geographical and human one, on the local scale, referring to the spatial and social conditions.

Transgressing boundaries between film and music videos: Smarzowski, Kolski, and music videos in Poland

While the investigation of how directors utilise popular music in their films has enjoyed relative popularity among Polish scholars, the way in which contemporary filmmakers transgress boundaries between ‘film’ and ‘music video’ in order to manifest their authorial strategies in other screen genres has not entered academic debates yet. The aim of this article is twofold. First, I will provide an overview of the marginalised position that the music video genre occupies in Polish-language academic discourse and suggest a few reasons for this negligence. Secondly, I focus here in particular on a comparison of the visual approaches and strategies prevalent in music videos directed by two notable contemporary Polish filmmakers: Jan Jakub Kolski and Wojciech Smarzowski. I will position their music videos in the context of their film production, arguing that their work for the music industry is an extension of their distinctive cinematic worlds and that it affects both the film language and the aesthetics of the music video genre ingeneral.

Theatre on the Water. The Aquatic Element in Contemporary Polish Theatre

In view of theatrical performances, water is not only an important cultural trajectory, but also an attractive, though very particular, stage material. The author draws attention to the ambivalent character of water as an element of the spectacle. Water identifies the very essence of theatricality, which consists of the constant oscillation between illusion and reality. The effect of real water – limited by technical restrictions and in effect artificial to some extent – has an unquestionable value in the spectacle. The author recalls selected performances whose creators chose large-scale solutions and introduced a large amount of water to the stage. In this way, she shows how they create the symbolic value of aquatic motives, how they use their semantic and sensual potential in the process of translating the cultural connotations of water into signs and meanings of a particular show.

НЕСКОЛЬКО СЛОВ О ДВУХ НОВЫХ ПОЛЬСКИХ СЛОВАРЯХ ПО СЛАВЯНСКОЙ ФОЛЬКЛОРИСТКЕ И ЭТНОЛИНГВИСТИКЕ

This paper presents a review upon two dictionaries on Slavic folklore studies and ethnolinguistics published in Poland in recent years, which reflect the variety of trends and methodological approaches in contemporary Polish Slavic studies. The first book that is reviewed is Volume V of the “Axiological lexicon of the Slavs and their neighbours”, edited by the well-known Polish ethnolinguist Jerzy Bartminski. The reviewed volume is dwelling upon the concept of “Honor” (Lublin, 2017; edited by Peter Sotirov and Deyan Aidachich) and is an example of parallel description of Slavic system of values based upon varied comparative data. The second book that is reviewed in this paper is the “Plants in folk beliefs and customs” dictionary (Wroclaw, 2016) by Adam Fischer, one of the most renown Polish ethnographers and folklorists of the first half of the 20 th century. Most of the data for the dictionary had been already collected and processed by Fischer in the 1930s, but the dictionary itself was edited and published by the research group in the University of Wroclaw only two years ago. The dictionary provides information on 250 plant species used in folk culture.

O rozwoju semantycznym socjolektalnej amby

The article deals with the presence of the word amba in the Polish language. Apparently, in contemporary Polish the noun functions in numerous new meanings. Referring to contemporary tendencies and phenomena, the author proves that word amba, of jargon origin, was spread and became a tool of communication between social and ethnic groups. The lexeme amba was well-known in the 19th century, but only became a fashionable word in its final years. The author discusses two paths of the word’s development: „Russian”, associated with Russian partition of Poland, which comprised a few of its regions including Mazowsze (amba is a word borrowed from Russian criminal dialects and Polish argot or jargon is an intermediary); and „German”, connected with the linguistic situation in the Prussian partition (various meanings of word amba are the result of neo-semantization of German loanwords). Today’s semantics of the word depends on the source of the loan, since the word was present both in the Russian and German languages.

Rodzaje zaangażowania we współczesnych polskich reportażach (na wybranych przykładach)

The article entitled is about the problem of engagement in contemporary polish reportage. The author distinguised three types of engagement: affective-memorative, intervention-performative and ethical-political. The research material is the reportage of Ewa Winnicka Był sobie chłopczyk, a collection of Justyna Kopinska’s texts Polska odwraca oczy and multi-author collection entitled Obrażenia. Pobici z Polską.

Tygodnik „Motor” jako najstarsze współczesne polskie czasopismo motoryzacyjne . Analiza za lata 1952–1991

Tygodnik „Motor” jest najstarszym współczesnym polskim czasopismem motoryzacyjnym. Periodyk w ciągu ponad 65 lat istnienia na stałe wpisał się do kanonu polskiej prasy motoryzacyjnej. Celem prezentowanego tekstu jest przedstawienie losów tytułu, poprzez analizę zmian, którym podlegał, zaczynając od numeru pierwszego z 1952 r. do chwili przejęcia pisma przez nowego wydawcę w 1991 r. Badaniu poddano wybrane roczniki periodyku, zaś część badawczą uzupełniono o próbę analizy teoretycznej i oceny oddziaływania sytuacji politycznej w Polsce w latach 1952–1991 na zawartość treściową i obecność tytułu na rynku prasowym. Do przeprowadzenia badań wykorzystano metodę analizy zawartości prasy oraz metodę historyczną.

CARRYING COALS TO NEWCASTLE COULD ONE SAY IT IN A DIFFERENT MANNER?

The article’s starting point is the necessity to alter the paradigm of Polish poetry, which is declared in the ‘contemporary Polish lyric poetry’ anthology Powiedziec to inaczej [To say it in a different manner]. The author attempts to assess the chance of the project’s success.

The Socio-Demographic Changes in Contemporary Polish Society - Selected Issues

The Socio-Demographic Changes in Contemporary Polish Society - Selected Issues

Railroad Workers, Civilization and Communism: the Young Men’s Christian Association on the Interwar Polish Frontier

This article seeks to present and analyze one of the aspects of the work of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA or Y) in interwar Poland: the initiatives for railroad workers from eastern frontier towns and cities. Focusing on the efforts that the organization undertook on the territory commonly referred to as the Polish borderlands (Kresy), I show that for the leaders of the Y the work among the railway employees was of utmost political and civilizational importance. There were several reasons why the YMCA became involved in the railroad work on the eastern Polish borderlands. One of them was the looming threat of communism from neighboring Russia, another—the American Y leaders’ mythic perceptions of the U.S. moving frontier, which prompted them to adapt the American discourse on civilization to the Polish political and social situation. Using archival documents and recollections of Americans involved in the Y’s activities on the eastern Polish frontier I demonstrate how the perception of the Polish borderland by the Y’s secretaries was greatly influenced by myths deeply embedded in American culture. Drawing on the contemporary Polish press reports as well as writings of local collaborators of the YMCA, I also describe the reaction of Polish public opinion to the Y’s undertakings on the Polish frontier.

Screening religiosity in contemporary Polish films. The Role of Religious Motifs in Visual Communication.

Screening religiosity in contemporary Polish films. The Role of Religious Motifs in Visual Communication.

In Defence of Lost Causes: Counter(F)Actual Recasting of Biographies in Polish Contemporary Theatre

Summary This article considers the impact of counterfactual strategies on the most recent Polish theatrical practices dealing with biographies of “historical” figures. The re-occurrence of these past agents on the stage will be viewed in light of the biographical turn in the humanities as well as from the perspective of Jacques Derrida’s concept of hauntology. Seemingly, both trends share a need to create an alternative space for the expression of a contemporary self which is marked by disunity and disintegration. Subjects of current semi-biographical projects are those whose voices have once been neglected, marginalised, or oppressed because of their gender, social background, or political views. This account examines the ways in which counterfactual strategies enable us to grasp the polyphonic condition of a modern subject and to see, in traces left by different Other(s), touchstones for social and political change. By taking the play Tu Wersalu nie będzie! (No Versailles over here!) by Rabih Mroué as the core case study of the analysis, I aim to demonstrate how counterfactual strategies animate emancipatory potential ascribed to the arrival of the phantom of controversial Polish politician Andrzej Lepper. His death in unknown circumstances becomes a point of divergence in which Lepper’s existence layers into counterfactual scenarios. Counterfactual strategies enable many approaches to view Lepper’s figure without the ethically dubious act of speaking in his name. By unsettling claims of truth, counterfactual strategies unravel how “facts” about Lepper resurfaced in mass media, thereby constructing his stereotyped and over-generalised image. The play has a form of investigation which, by employment of counterfactualism, reenacts the oppression of a mainstream media discourse against the disturbing Other epitomised by Lepper.