Birutė Jonuškaitė: poems / 7
Barbara Sobczak: Who is hate speech for? / 10
A text devoted to the phenomenon of hate speech and its role in media communications. Hate speech, defined as the Internet activity, encompasses statements (both verbal and graphic, e.g. memes) expressing anger, hostility or hatred towards someone or something. Hate speech serves the purpose of doing harm, but the analysis of Internet communications allows us to indicate its other goals as well. First of all, hate speech is the expression of the psychological needs of its authors: it allows them to release negative emotions and satisfies their need for participation. Secondly, it serves entertainment: haters enter the role of tricksters who defy the established norms and act against the established order. Thirdly, it is used in cultural and ideological wars (in this context, the article describes two types of hate speech: spontaneous and controlled, in which trolls and bots play an important role). Fourthly, hate speech can be used for marketing purposes because it attracts users, provokes discussion and shares a particular message.
Keywords: internet, new media, communication, hate speech, bots, trolls, hate speech functions.
Anna Maria Wybraniec: Kōdō / 18
The group of tourists during the trip of their lives to Japan want to experience foreign reality not only by looking – they want to experience the culture in the deepest possible way, soak it to the bone. They look for new flavors and aromas, new ways of perceiving and new rituals; they explore old memories and truths that they did not manage to reconcile with. The scents whispered by incense, although significant, are not always understood; it is not easy to accept the experience of catharsis, which must take place before the next stage of their journey.
Wacław Oszajca: poems / 25
Alina Kochańczyk: The Time for Memories / 29
The title Pora wspomnień (The Time for Memories) has a double meaning. It refers to the moment in a person’s life when they go back in time, so that they could review the events of their childhood, youth and adulthood from the perspective of the so-called “third age.” In its second meaning, this term refers to memoirs that have gained an immense popularity in recent years. Most of them are the publications by the 80-year-olds whose youth fell on the communist times of the Polish People’s Republic (PRL). They are mostly people with cultural and artistic background and with well-known names. Their books sometimes have the form of traditional fictionalized memoirs, but more and more often they take the form of interviews. The author of the essay puts forward the thesis that such “conversations” have already gained the status of a kind of autobiographical writing. She discusses several publications in the field of memoir literature, focusing on the conversations of Jerzy Illg with Stanisław Radwan, collected in a book titled Zagram ci to kiedyś… (I’ll Play it for you Sometime…)
Key words: memories, extended interview, conversations, PRL (Polish People’s Republic), autobiography, Stanisław Radwan, Jerzy Illg.
Rafał Rutkowski: short stories / 43
The surreal and grotesque stories and the prose debut of the Lublin poet. The events of the first story take place on the verge of life and death (reality or dream), and the decadent vicissitudes of the protagonist are likely to start off the astral journey. The theme of the two subsequent stories is the creative act, the way of constructing the represented world and the relationship between the author and his work. In the last story an ironic approach to the matter is presented; the protagonist, experiencing adolescent adventures, discovers the genesis of rock music.
Anna Frajlich: poems / 52
Sara Akram: How to be a Demiurge. From Creativity – to Creative Writing / 56
The sketch presents the history of the concept of “creativity” by presenting the most important changes in its perception over the centuries. Creativity – thoroughly analyzed in the field of the psychology of creativity and being of interest in such areas as cultural studies, linguistics, marketing or education – appears as a complex and multidimensional phenomenon. Such a great popularity, however, causes the meaning of the concept to be blurred. The author of the sketch answers the question of how “creativity” differs from “creation,” and also takes up the topic of creative writing methods. The idea of creating the rules of literary craft was born at the very beginning of artistic writing and for a long time made itself present in the form of so-called poetic art (ars poetica). And although creative writing and ars poetica, just like creativity and creation, cannot be considered as identical phenomena, their combination allows us to conceptualize better what we can understand under the concept of creative, original writing.
Key words: creativity, creation, creative writing, ars poetica, literature, poetic art
Elżbieta Wicha-Wauben: poems / 69
Zbigniew Masternak: My Real Father / 74
The story of a great fascination with the extreme variation of football, which is a mud ball. A group of enthusiasts from a small town near Nałęczów play a game against the German team. Through the prism of football, we observe people torn between contradictory emotions. Ultimately, the mud ball obliterates all the differences between the players – they are all just as muddy as others in their teams.
Musa Czachorowski: poems / 79
Marta Panas-Goworska, Andrzej Goworski: Pictures from the Fields of Memory / 82
The twentieth-century history of Poland has left its special mark on the creative biography of Marian Jachimowicz. The history of the poet is spread between two regions on the opposite sides of Poland: Boryslav and Drohobych Oil Field and Walbrzych Coal Basin. His poetry was influenced not only by historical circumstances, but also by cultural factors, such as the atmosphere of the already non-existent industrial district, and the specificity of the Austro-Hungarian province, or, later, the situation on the so-called Recovered Territories. Before the war, Jachimowicz was friends with Bruno Schulz, Artur Rzeczyca and Marek Zwillich, who were murdered during the Holocaust. What does it mean in this context to survive totalitarianisms and live in literature? Or maybe poetry is like a palimpsest in our part of Europe? The fate and creativity of Jachimowicz, being a testimony of many accidental and individual events, prove at the same time the continuity of Polish literature despite the great tragedies. Poetry allows the artist not only to create himself, but also to live within himself and to travel into this particular world.
Keywords: Marian Jachimowicz, Bruno Schulz, Polish poetry of the twentieth century, literary avant-garde, interwar period, Boryslav, Drohobych, Borderlands, Lower Silesia, Shoah, totalitarianisms of the twentieth century
Miłosz Waligórski: poems / 87
REVIEWS
Not only analytically…
Wiesława Turżańska: Literary Peregrinations of the Clerk [Janusz Drzewucki „Obrona przypadku. Teksty o prozie 2” (“Defense of the Case. Texts on Prose 2”)]; Alicja Müller: The Drama is Dead, Long Live the Drama! [Jacek Kopciński „Wybudzanie. Dramat polski / Interpretacje” (“Awakening. Polish Drama / Interpretations”)]; Rafał Habielski: On the Journalistic Writing of Leopold Unger [Iwona Hofman, Ewelina Górka, Justyna Maguś, Magdalena Pataj „Publicystyka Leopolda Ungera. W kierunku dziennikarstwa poważnego” (“The Journalistic Writing of Leopold Unger. Towards Serious Journalism”)]; Jerzy Skwarzyński: Activities of the Impossible Kind [Jerzy Jarniewicz „Tłumacz między innymi. Szkice o przekładach, językach i literaturze” (“Translator Among Others. Sketches on Translations, Languages and Literature”)]; Jadwiga Mizińska: “Do not be Afraid, Do not Steal, Do not Lie” [Tomasz Dostatni OP „Otwarta brama” (“Open Gate”)]; Jacek Zalewski: Crossing Over the Metaphysics, or Palikot Reads Leśmian [Janusz Palikot „Nic-nic. Ontologia na marginesach Leśmiana” (“No-thing. Ontology on the Margins of Leśmian”)]; Teresa Dras: Actor on the Go. Actually, my Dreams Have Come True [Jacek Brzezinski „Provisorium. Nieregularny dziennik z podróży” (“Provisorium. Irregular Travelogue”)]; Adam Kopciowski: I have Penetrated this Black Abyss to the Bottom … [Mordechaj Canin „Przez ruiny i zgliszcza. Podróż po stu zgładzonych gminach żydowskich w Polsce” (“Through Ruins and Ashes. A Journey through one Hundred Jewish Communities Destroyed in Poland”)] / 90
Reviews of recently published scientific, essayistic and documentary books, seen against the background of the most important phenomena of contemporary culture.
ART
Ewa Oleszczuk: Jarosław Koziara – Individual Artist – Man of Art / 119
An article devoted to Jarosław Koziara. He is a versatile artist: painter, visual artist, photographer, designer of the covers of albums and books, posters, logotypes, installations, theater sets, costumes, and the arranger of urban spaces. He made several dozen happenings, performances, exhibitions in galleries and public spaces in France, Belgium, Germany, Ukraine, in former Czechoslovakia, Israel or Japan. Koziara is also a non-conformist columnist. As an artist, he is characterized by a tendency to provoke, by irony and sensitivity to the absurd aspects of reality. This year marks the 30th anniversary of his artistic activity.
Lechosław Lameński: Israel in the Etchings and Aquatints of Anna Maria Perłowska-Weiser / 127
An article devoted to Anna Maria Perłowska-Weiser. The artist successfully designs the workshop graphics, creating both in the lithography technique and in her formally closest metal techniques (etching and aquatint); she experiments a lot. Until 2009, her work was dominated by the figure of a man who was perceived as a “portrait” of an individual person or as a fragment of the reality captured by memory or by a photographic camera, in close contact with nature. In 2010, Israel became the artist’s new source of inspiration. The enchantment with its rich and diverse culture and history, the climate, the unusual colors (especially the Negev desert), the contact with exotic vegetation and species of animals, birds and insects unknown to the Europeans have led to a total change in the themes and styles of Perłowska-Weiser’s graphics, as well as to the artist’s decision to enlarge and unify their formats.
CONTEXTS
Eliza Leszczyńska-Pieniak: The Union of Artists in the Lublin Castle / 133
A review of the exhibition dedicated to the 450th anniversary of the Union of Lublin. The exhibition was prepared thanks to the cooperation of the Lublin Museum and the Association of Visual Artists and was accompanied by “The 6th International Meetings with Art – Lublin 2019.” The exhibition featured 35 artists from Poland and Lithuania. The author discusses the most important motifs and themes that inspired the artists and draws attention to the artistic diversity of the solutions proposed in the works. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue in which, apart from the reproductions of the painters’ works, there were poems by eminent Polish and Lithuanian poets chosen by the editor of “Akcent,” Bogusław Wróblewski.
BARDS
Judyta Bednarczyk: “Change my Way of Thinking.” Bob Dylan and Christianity / 139
Awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, the poetry of Bob Dylan is filled with religious symbols. One of the turning points in his biography occurred in the late 1970s, when the musician, wanting to change his life and distance himself from the past, approached Christianity. This event resulted in the creation of several albums with a religious and apocalyptic meaning – including a critically acclaimed Slow Train Coming. The analysis of the lyrics of the songs from this album says a lot about the phenomenon of conversion. Dylan-neophyte guides the listener along the paths of truth, teaches him and warns him. He prophesizes the second coming of the Son of God. Dylan’s impulsive and at the same time committed songs allow us to draw a conclusion about the tendency of the artist to succumb to momentary fascinations, but also to see him as an experimenter of vocation and of his own choice – an artist of many faces.
Keywords: Bob Dylan, Christianity, song, rock, folk, conversion, counter-culture.
MEMORIES
Danuta Sękalska: “Weren’t we Lucky to Have Amos in our Lives?” / 148
A memoir text devoted to the late Amos Oz who died on December 28, 2018. He was one of the most prominent contemporary writers, the greatest virtuoso of the pen in the contemporary Israeli literature, as well as a staunch supporter of the Israeli-Palestinian compromise. Personally – a great man endowed with enormous charisma. The author of the text accompanied Amos Oz in all his trips to Poland, starting from his first visit in 1994, which she organized at the request of his literary agent Debora Owen and which resulted in Oz’s publications in “Akcent,” and ending with the last one in 2013, when the writer was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of the University of Łódź. Recalling her meetings with the artist, Danuta Sękalska also presents in a nutshell the most important facts of his life and work.
Keywords: Amos Oz, Hebrew language, Jews, Kazimierz on the Vistula.
THE ART OF LISTENING
Magdalena Jankowska: Truly Good / 154
A discussion of the radio series „Bazarek” (“A Little Market”), written and directed by Grażyna Lutosławska, an editor in Radio Lublin and an author of books and plays for children. Lutosławska created six characteristically diverse characters, and the actors, through their voice interpretation, brought out many nuances of their personality. Shopping at a local market provides an opportunity for conversations. Although the dialogues are mainly focused around food, they expose deeper ideas, including careful being “here and now,” maintaining interpersonal relationships, mutual kindness and vegetarianism.
THE CITY ON FIRE
Michał Frąckiewicz: Highway or Dead End. A Forethought on the Anthropology of the City / 159
Smog and melancholy haunt our cities. Toxic fog is a sign of the fifth spectral season, and an indescribable longing for something permanent torments a generation brought up in the digital world. The previous decade teeming with mirage is already being blurred, and the tempting and self-ironic capitalism has suddenly entered its serious, mystical phase. Civilization is on the home stretch towards a new era. It used to be difficult to predict what will happen in half a century, and today the forecast for the next decade can be treated as a weather forecast. The uncertainty and dynamics of contemporary times is reflected in the landscape of our cities. To escape the melancholy of the 21st century one may only move forward.
Keywords: post-digital civilization, transformation, visions, contrasts, future, city, utopia, dystopia.
SEEN FROM FLORENCE
Jan Władysław Woś: From the Cadet School in Toruń to the Biblical Institute in Rome. Rev. Stanisław Michalski (1916-2003) / 162
Jan Władysław Woś – historian, researcher of Polish-Italian relations, publisher of sources on the history of Poland and the history of the Church, bibliophile, collector, professor emeritus of Eastern European history at the universities of Pisa, Venice and Trento – presents the figure of Rev. Prelate Stanisław Michalski (1916-2003), a longtime secretary of the Roman Emigration Ministry, as well as the colonel of the Polish Army artillery. He writes about their joint meetings and talks, primarily on issues related to the Second World War, Oflag VII A in Bavarian Murnau, where Stanisław Michalski was held captive by the Germans for 5 years, the biblical studies of Rev. Michalski in Rome and his stay at the Polish Institute by via Pietro Cavallini while Rev. Marian Strojny served as its Rector. They also talked about current events, new publications in the field of theology and philosophy, and sometimes about the problems related to the Biblical Hebrew.
PASSIONS
Marek Danielkiewicz: Job, my Sole Brother (essay) / 169
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Leszek Mądzik: The Window of Memory (essay) / 171
NOTES
Hans-Christian Trepte: Sudička – A German Historical Novel about (almost) Forgotten Country and its People / 172
Kamila Regel: Striving for the Authentic / 176
Ludmiła Siryk, Ewa Tomanek: A Saga about the Cossacks, or a Word about the Trilogy by Józef Łobodowski / 180
Janina Januszewska-Skreiberg: Norway Falls in Love with Szymborska. An Unusual Spectacle in Oslo / 186
Iwona Hofman: “Poland the Independent” / 189
Information on the well-known creators of culture, as well as the most interesting events, publications and artistic activities from the past few months.
Notes about authors / 193
