Eliza Orzeszkowa Research Articles

„Aš myliu ir gerbiu visą Čekijos tautą“. Elzės Ožeškienės čekofilinės veiklos pėdsakai, pagrįsti laiškais Edvardui Jelinekui

The article, based on Eliza Orzeszkowa’s letters to Edvard Jelínek from 1881–1896, pre­sents the relationship between the two writers. They were guided by the common idea of vzajemnosti, i.e. promoting cultural activities among the Slavs, aimed at bringing nations together. In this regard, Orzeszkowa undertook many initiatives in cooperation with the Czech writer. The first was an attempt to publish in Polish the work The Fall and Rebirth of the Czech Nation, presenting the history of the Czechs. On the pages of the letters, the project of publishing an anthology works by famous Czech poets and prose writers translated by Czesław Jankowski, Bronisław Teodor Grabowski, Władysław Bełza and Wilhelmina Zyndram-Kościałkowska was discussed. The income from the sale of the publication was planned to be used to rebuild the National Theater in Prague (Národní divadlo), which burned down in 1881. The writer also organized a fundraising for this purpose at the “Orzeszkowa i S-ka” bookstore in Vilnius. The last undertaking was the intention to publish Orzeszkowa’s memories from her stay in Prague – it was to familiarize the reader with Czech culture. Even though some of the discussed plans were already advanced, they were not implemented, mainly due to tsarist decrees. This correspondence is therefore a valuable trace of the Polish–Czech cooperation between writers. The quoted fragments of Orzeszkowa’s letters to Jelínek are in the National Literature Museum in Prague (Památník Národního Písemnictví). They have not been released yet.

Chiny zapożyczone i zapośredniczone. Głos publicystyczny Elizy Orzeszkowej w sprawie równouprawnienia

The article aims to present Eliza Orzeszkowa’s unusual publicist voice on the question of women’s equal rights. The unusualness is related to her use of Confucius as a figure of transfer, as well as her referring to the scientific and doctrinal fragments of his Chinese philosophical and social teachings. Eliza Orzeszkowa’s passion for journalism resulted in a series of statements on the so-called woman question. In 2020, non-redacted parts of the manuscript of a study on women’s equal rights, found in Vilnius by Iwona Wiśniewska, were published in print. The writer devoted first parts of her text to the position of woman in ancient cultures. She referred, interalia, to Confucius’ philosophical thought, which she adopted as one of the points of departure for defining her own vision of equal rights. However, she drew on the Confucian themes from secondary sources, citing the study of Edward Prądzyński. An important channel for transmitting the Confucian thought to Europe was the thought of the Enlightenment, which, as Grażyna Borkowska argues, is crucial for the discussion of the writer’s position on the woman question.

Fotografie i „efekt swojskości” (miejsca). O jednym szkicu krajoznawczym Elizy Orzeszkowej

The purpose of this article is to determine the influence of photographic practice on the construction of space that occurs in Eliza Orzeszkowa’s sketch entitled Niemen. Zdjęcia migawkowe. The main methodological premise is to apply to the analysis and interpretation of the literary text the findings that the history of 19th-century photography has made. It distinguished the basic functions of this medium, which, in a suitably modified version, are also present in Orzeszkowa’s text. The article thus analyzes what consists in: (1) archiving, (2) organizing, (3) modernizing knowledge and informing, and (4) illustrating. These functions actively shape the meanings of Orzeszkowa’s work, and when summed up, lead to the so-called homely effect. It consists in a three-level harmony between the subject and the place, which creates resonance in the area of cultural, intellectual and biographical experience.

KINESICAL MEANS OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION OF CHARACTERS IN POLISH AND VIETNAMESE LINGUOCULTURES (BASED ON POLISH-VIETNAMESE LITERARY TRANSLATIONS)

KINESICAL MEANS OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION OF CHARACTERS IN POLISH AND VIETNAMESE LINGUOCULTURES (BASED ON POLISH-VIETNAMESE LITERARY TRANSLATIONS)

In Search of Community. Eliza Orzeszkowa in the Circle of Questions of 19th-Century English Women Writers

The article deals with religious issues in selected novels by Eliza Orzeszkowa. The writer often manifested her distance to the Polish national Church and at the same time asked in her works about the possibility of creating a new type of religious community. The search of Orzeszkowa’s heroines is interpreted in the article in the context of the works of English women writers of the 19th century associated with the current of religious revival (Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot).

Wcielenia martwego ciała w twórczości Elizy Orzeszkowej. Rekonesans

The article analyses the various ways of depicting the dead body and its functions in the literary works of Eliza Orzeszkowa. Due to the ambiguity of the very concept of a dead body (corpse, cadaver) and the special approach to this issue in Polish positivism (with all its dimensions and complexity), many of the author’s works contain interesting perspectives and opportunities to interpret the problem. The analysis of individual cases (the corpses of a young man, a young woman, an old woman, an insurgent, and an animal), using the tools of anthropology and ecocriticism, offers new conclusions about the issue of the dead body and death in Orzeszkowa’s On the Niemen.

Kobiety (nie)widoczne w nazwach ulic – dysproporcje liczbowe między patronkami a patronami ulic w polskich miastach na prawach powiatu

The study aims to determine the degree of disproportion in numbers between male and female patrons of the streets of Polish large cities. It provides answers to the question of how many streets in cities with county rights were named after male and female historical figures. The research sample includes all 66 cities and towns with county rights. Moreover, on the basis of the collected data, a pantheon of female patrons was prepared. Data from the TERYT register was manually marked in a spreadsheet in order to count patrons disaggregated by gender. The study concluded that there is a high degree of numerical disproportion between female and male street patrons in Polish cities. Among historical figures commemorated in street names, women constitute between 3.52% and 19.86%. The most common patrons are Maria Konopnicka, Maria Skłodowska-Curie and Eliza Orzeszkowa.

Leopold Méyet and Eliza Orzeszkowa’s „Publishing Biography” (Epistolographic Comparisons)

This article aims to reveal the role Leopold Méyet – an attorney, bibliophile, and collector – played in developing, publishing and popularizing Eliza Orzeszkowa’s works. The source of the analysis is the correspondence of friends, including Méyet’s unpublished letters to Orzeszkowa from 1878 to 1910. The matter of the publication of the writer’s works appeared in the first epistolary dialogues in 1879 and was a subject of interest to Méyet until he died in 1912. Working on publishing Orzeszkowa’s works had a superior status in friends’ correspondence. It was a process which has determined, to a large extent determined, the relations between Orzeszkowa and Méyet.

František Alois Hora (1838–1916) – Ambassador for Polish Culture in West Bohemia and his Relations with 19th century Polish Intellectuals

This paper is dedicated to František Alois Hora (1838–1916), a Pilsen teacher, writer and translator, who broke down borders between Czechs and Poles. He translated more than 50 Polish authors, in particular Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Stanisław Grudziński, Adam Pług, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Władysław Bogusławski, Wilhelmina Zyndram-Kościałkowska, Helena Janina Boguska – Hajota, Józefa Sawicka – Ostoja, Zygmunt Miłkowski – T. T. Jez, Bolesław Prus and Henryk Sienkiewicz. He established personal friendships with most of these writers, and his papers in the Pilsen City Archives contain many interesting letters in Polish. He compiled and published a Polish-Czech dictionary, Czech-Polish dictionary and Polish practical grammar, organised free Polish language courses and popularised the culture and literature of Poland. Although his work is of great significance, interest of literary or history researchers has remained scant right up to the present day.

Samotność przemijania. Synteza biograficzna schyłku życia Elizy Orzeszkowej

The article is a study of the melancholic nature of Eliza Orzeszkowa, an attempt to notice Orzeszkowa not as a writer, but an unhappy woman. The main aim is to show the sorrow at different times in her life. Difficult events from her biography were recalled in the article. Paying attention to such issues allows us to better understand the creations of the heroes in her literary works — especially distanced, snippy mothers. Selected works, letters and the diary Dnie were analysed. Orzeszkowa spent almost all her life in the region of her origin. The first painful experiences for her were the remarriage of her mother and then the death of her sister. The arranged marriage with Piotr Orzeszko did not last long. Also, she did not find happiness in her long-term relationship with Stanisław Nahorski. She constantly missed love. Although Orzeszkowa was appreciated as a writer (she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature twice), lifelong she felt inferior and sometimes even hated herself. From childhood she experienced states of melancholy. Her house in Grodno (where she was interned) was always full of guests — loved ones, friends, readers, pupils; however, her letters and the diary are the testimony of a deep solitude, and the experience of sadness is in almost all of her works.

Zachowany fragment autografu "Pana Graby" Elizy Orzeszkowej – opracowanie edytorskie

The preserved manuscript of the end of chapter 5 of the first part of Eliza Orzeszkowa’s novel "Pan Graba" (1868–1869) reflects the work on the crystallization of the text and the improvement of the style of writer. The editorial study of a fragment of the manuscript of the novel and a list of variations compared to the press first edition of the novel (“Tygodnik Romansów i Powieści” 1869, No. 46–47) as well as their comparison makes it possible to analyze the creative methods of young Orzeszkowa.

„Przekreśl albo nie wydrukuję”. Autograf fragmentu "Pana Graby" jako dokument warsztatu pisarskiego młodej Elizy Orzeszkowej i relacji autorki z redaktorami w świetle jej korespondencji z Józefem Sikorskim

The preserved manuscript of the end of chapter 5 of the first part of Eliza Orzeszkowa’s novel Pan Graba (1868–1869) reflects the work on the crystallization of the text and the improvement of the style. The corrections made on the brochures in the light of Orzeszkowa’s letters to Józef Sikorski, an editor of “Gazeta Polska” (1867–1873) reveal the editor's influence on the final form of the work: changes in the text of the manuscript, as well as imposing his own worldview and aesthetic tastes on the young writer, who begins to increasingly defend her creative independence.

Myślnik i subtelności znaczeniowe w pisarstwie Elizy Orzeszkowej

This article is devoted to the em dash in the works of Eliza Orzeszkowa, which was introduced into the texts as a peculiar, multi-meaning means of expression – a sign used by the writer to convey in a wordless way meanings, especially emotional ones, which cannot be expressed in words. While working on a new edition of Orzeszkowa’s autobiographical texts (Wspomnienia, Autobiografia w listach, Pamiętnik i Zwierzenia) it turned out that the em dash, introduced in special meaning functions other than the ordinary, commonly accepted ones (of course, Orzeszkowa also uses such em dashes), is a very important sign in all of her writing when its matter, whether literary or strictly private, has a character that can be described as confessional. That is, when it concerns the inner life: meditations, memories, feelings, personal struggles with universal existential problems, and all these inner contents are presented in statu nascendi.

The corners of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the early columns of Eliza Orzeszkowa

The article recalls little-known columns and literary texts by Orzeszkowa from the earliest period of her work, devoted to descriptions of several parts of the Grodno region, Lithuanian Polesie and Pińszczyzna. The article presents a thesis about the coherence of the vision of the province as a cultural and social space presented in these texts.

Educational opportunities and prospects. From the notes of Wilhelmina Zyndram-Kościałkowska

The aim of the article is an attempt to define the nature and specificity of opportunities and perspectives of education in the autobiographical reflection of Wilhelmina Zyndram-Kościałkowska (1844–1926), who was a friend of Eliza Orzeszkowa. The author uses the manuscripts of the writer collected in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives in Vilnius. The essence of the research is the question – how Kościałkowska defines the opportunities and perspectives of education. The reflection on them becomes the fundamental way of defining and diagnosing the intellectual identity of the community, of which Kościałkowska feels an integral part. The article is divided into several most important issues focused on education within the walls of Vilnius University, the founding fathers of Vilnius Alma Mater, reflection on the educational activities of Eliza Orzeszkowa, the impact of russification on education in the territories annexed by Russia, the role of memoranda on education, the concept of superpowerhood as well as the importance of language as a tool and code integrating the national and intellectual community.

„Gloria victis” Elizy Orzeszkowej

Przedmiotem artykułu jest opowiadanie Elizy Orzeszkowej Gloria victis z 1910 roku. Autorka ukazuje napięcie pomiędzy romantyczną z ducha ideową koncepcją utworu o powstańczym zrywie 1863 roku a modernistycznym obrazowaniem i wrażliwością estetyczną. Zwraca uwagę na konsekwencje narracji prowadzonej z perspektywy leśnej przyrody (wiatru, drzew): symbolizm mitu eleuzyńskiego, techniki impresjonizmu i ekspresjonizmu oraz brutalny naturalizm w opisach śmierci i umierania. Eksponuje zarysowaną przez Orzeszkową dychotomię historii (i niepamięci) i biologii (cyklu natury).

Eliza Orzeszkowa Among Positivist Writers from the Perspective of Warsaw. Leopold Méyet’s Letters to Eliza Orzeszkowa

The article discusses Leopold Méyet’s selected letters to Eliza Orzeszkowa from the period 1878–1910. The original manuscripts are kept in the Eliza Orzeszkowa Archive in the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Leopold Méyet was an attorney, writer, publisher, social activist and philanthropist of Jewish descent, and he lived in Warsaw in the second half of the nineteenth century. Orzeszkowa then resided in Grodno. Méyet’s letters do not represent a high literary quality, and should rather be considered as a collection of personal details about the author and the addressee, recounting his efforts to publish Orzeszkowa’s works or his struggles with the Russian administration and censorship. Méyet also portrays the people of his time, looks at the social and political events and discusses the significance of literature or the status of a writer. A specific concern of some of the letters is Orzeszkowa’s place in Polish literature toward the end of the nineteenth century.

Self-destruction and self-salvation in Emma Jeleńska-Dmochowska’s novels

Emma Jeleńska-Dmochowska’s novels: Young Lady (1899), The Ring (1907), Woman, Miserable Fluff... (1909) seem to be an insightful, though probably unintentional, study of female self-destruction. At the root of this self-destruction is always the male element – the character of a father or brother, cousin, husband. A man who – through a relationship of kinship or affinity – gives the female heroin her status and defines her identity, and who is (or was) the owner or co-owner of the landed property located in the Polesian borderlands. <br>Such story patterns and creations of the heroines are already implemented by the works of Eliza Orzeszkowa (e.g. Two Poles, 1893) and Maria Rodziewiczówna (e.g. Dewajtis, 1889). In my article, I want to trace the similarities (and differences) between the narratives of Jeleńska-Dmochowska and Orzeszkowa. I am also interested in reflecting on whether the analyzed novels of the Rose and Fly author really have such a pessimistic tone. It seems that in these stories of self-destruction one can find their reverses – stories of self-salvation. Finally – I would like to think about the consequences of this double interpretation for the reception of Jeleńska-Dmochowska’s work.

“Wildness” as a metaphor for self-definition of the colonised subject in the Positivist period in Poland

This article discusses the question of the Polish nation's self-definition in the Positivist period both in belles-lettres and in journalism, which were dependent to a great extent on the colonial discourse. It is argued that crucial metaphors of “wildness,” “savageness” or “backwardness” stem from orientalising labels created by the colonisers. Examination of this issue requires some basic introduction to historical and anthropological ideas which date back to the Age of Enlightenment. The aim of this paper is to shed light – by analysing literature examples such as Ludwik Powidaj, Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Maria Konopnicka, Eliza Orzeszkowa and Henryk Sienkiewicz – on the so called “colonial trauma” that has condemned the Polish image to resentful ideology. Furthermore, the paper will provide arguments in favour of subscribing to the postcolonial studies in Central and Eastern Europe.

ВІТЧИЗНЯНІ СТУДІЇ УКРАЇНСЬКО-ПОЛЬСЬКИХ ЛІТЕРАТУРНИХ ЗВ’ЯЗКІВ І ТИПОЛОГІЇ (2000–2019)

The article considers monographs, dissertations and collections on various topics related to Ukrainian-Polish literary comparative studies that appeared in independent Ukraine 2000–2019. The author considers Ukrainian-Polish literary relations and typological aspects of the 19th – the beginning of the 21st centuries: from the era of pre-romanticism and romanticism, then to positivism and hence to modernism and postmodernism. These are primarily works focused on the «Ukrainian school» in Polish Romanticism (R. Radyshevskyi, Ye. Nakhlik, M. Bratska, I. Rudenko), dedicated to Juliusz Słowacki’s creative connections with Ukraine, and P. Kulish’s dialogue with Poland (Ye. Nakhlik), Józef Ignacy Kraszewski’s dialogue with Ukraine (R. Radyshevskyi). The 2000s in Ukrainian-Polish comparative literary criticism were marked by a revival of attention to various aspects in the field of Taras Shevchenko study. Worth mentioning a fundamental edition in three books «Reception of Taras Shevchenko’s Creativity in Poland» (2015) by R. Radyszewskyi, a selection of «Shevchenkiana by Teoktyst Pachovskyi» with R. Radyshevskyi’s introduction «Polish reception of Taras Shevchenko creative heritage in the works by Teoktyst Pachovskyi», published in the book «Kyiv Polonistic Studies» (2014. Vol. XXIV); moreover articles by O. Astafiev, Ye. Nakhlik, R. Kharchuk in periodicals, scientific collections and six-volume «Taras Shevchenko’s Encyclopedia» (2012, 2013, 2015). The author of the paper offers his own experience of typological and contactgenetic analysis of Taras Shevchenko’s works (the monograph «Fate – Los – Destiny: Taras Shevchenko and Polish and Russian Romantics», 2003). Some aspects of Ivan Franko’s studies in Ukrainian-Polish comparative literature are covered in a separate volume of «Kyiv Polonistic Studies» – «Ivan Franko and Polish Culture» (2017. Vol. XXIX), in V. Durkalevych’s monograph «In Searching for Narrative Identity: The Individual Myth in the Works of Ivan Franko, Andrzej Chciuk and Bruno Schulz» (2015), partly in the books of V. Korniichuk «“Like the Organs in the Grand Temple ...”. Contexts and Intertexts of Ivan Franko» (Comparative Studies)» (2007) and Ye. Nakhlik «Bends of Ivan Franko’s Spirit. Worldview. Ideology. Literature» (2019). In the 2010s, the investigation of Ukrainian-Polish literary bilingualism of the 19th century was revived thanks to the book by Ye. Nakhlik «Creativity of Juliusz Słowacki and Ukraine. Problems of Ukrainian-Polish Literary Comparative Studies» (2010), articles-personalities by Yevhen and Oksana Nakhlik in the first volume of «Ivan Franko Encyclopedia» (2016), due to separate editions of works by Leo Węgliński (2011) and Tymko Padurra (2012) compiled with the accompanying articles by R. Radyshevskyi and his colleagues. Models of Polish positivism in nineteenth century Ukrainian literature were also studied (B. Honcharenko). Typological parallels between the «Bohdan Khmelnytskyi» trilogy by M. Starytskyi and the novel «With Fire and Sword» by Henryk Sienkiewicz were traced (V. Martsenishko). Attention was paid on the Ukrainian reception and typology of small prose by Eliza Orzeszkowa (I. Spatar), the literary works of S. Wyspiański (M. Medytska), S. Przybyszewski (T. Tkachuk). The objects of the studies were also V. Stefanyk’s connections with Polish modernism (S. Yamborko), Ukrainian-Polish aspects of the «Lviv» and «Kharkiv» texts by L. Staff (E. Tsykhovska), models of catastrophism in Ukrainian and Polish prose of the interwar twentieth century (O. Harlan), vision of Ukraine in works by Jerzy Stempowski and Józef Łobodowski (O. Vozniuk). On the examples of J. Iwaszkiewicz, L. Buczkowski, R. Wernik, V. Odojewski, A. Chciuk, M. Szofer the biographical preconditions and evolution of the image of the borderland in the prose of J. Iwaszkiewicz of the interwar period and artistic ethnocultural models of literature of the Polish Ukrainian borderlands of the twentieth century are investigated (author of both researches O. Sukhomlynov). Olesia Nakhlik found out the perception and adaptation in Ukraine of artistic and essay prose of Polish writers A. Bobkowski, T. Borowski, G. Herling-Grudziński, W. Gombrowicz, T. Konwicki, Cz. Miłosz, A. Stasiuk. And I. Kropyvko comprehended Ukrainian and Polish postmodern prose of the late twentieth – beginning of the XXIst centuries in aspects of carnival, fragmentation and frontier (as manifestations of transgression) and using the comparative-typological method. Due to these studies, Ukrainian-Polish comparative literary criticism took a prominent place among national comparative studies.