Józef Franciszek Fert: Roma, or Amor / 7
Rome is a symbolic city, a source of inspiration and fascination for centuries. The sacred intertwines with the profane, absolutism with democratic ideas and spurts of anarchy. It is the royal, imperial and papal capital; the Comune di Roma and the SPQR. A museum and one of the most important intellectual and artistic centres in the world. The broader background of the essay is formed by references to three classic works on Rome by travellers and scholars of historical issues: Jozef Ignacy Kraszewski, Paweł Muratow and Zygmunt Kubiak. On the other hand, more recent insights into the specificity of the Eternal City are provided by Juliusz Gałkowski’s Miniatury rzymskie (Roman Miniatures), Hanna Suchocka’s Rzymskie Pasje (Roman Passions)and Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi’s stories collected in the book Mój Rzym (My Rome). The flow of the essay is bound together by the personal, intellectual and emotional experiences of its author.
Keywords: Rome, sacrum, profane, myth, empire, papacy, renaissance, baroque, guide to Rome, first Christians, Way of the Cross, Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi, Hanna Suchocka, Juliusz Gałkowski
István Kovács: Ballad of Class IV c / 25
Zbigniew Chojnowski: short stories / 33
The protagonist of the prose miniatures is a several-year-old boy. The works are set in the Mazury region in the second half of the 1960s. The way the reality is presented breaks the stereotype of the Land of a Thousand Lakes as an Arcadian holiday destination. The texts reveal the customs and poverty of the lakeside community. In Kaimy and Ślepaki, the world of children’s play is overshadowed by the threat of losing health and life. In Communion, the narrative of receiving the sacrament is told from the perspective of a disoriented child.
Piotr Matywiecki: poems / 41
Dorota Kudelska: The Palimpsest of Vienna / 44
An essay showcasing the multilayered nature of Vienna’s history using examples selected by the author on the basis of her many years of research queries. From an analysis of historical facts and information about Viennese monuments, there emerge non-obvious connections and testimonies to Braudel’s “long duration” of tradition. Polish motifs appear in the context of many places, people, events and works cited in the article. The author reminds us that in the first years after the fall of the First Polish Republic, Vienna attracted Poles, and not only those coming from the aristocratic circles. They lived and studied there, some created institutions important to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (like Maksymilian Ossoliński) or held high governmental positions (like Karol Lanckoroński). In addition, the article addresses issues such as the peculiarities of Viennese architecture, the characterisation of the first two generations of Ringstrasse residents or a description of the relationship of Vienna’s mayor Karl Lueger with innovative art groups: Wiener Secession and Hagenbund. Special attention is given to sections dedicated to the famous Beethoven exhibition organized in 1902 at the Secession Pavilion, as well as the topic of Gustav Mahler and his position among the Viennese cultural elite.
Keywords: Vienna, Austria-Hungary, Poles in the Habsburg Empire, monuments, Ringstrasse, Wiener Secession, Hagenbund, Viennese art, medicine, psychiatry, Karl Lueger, Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler
Uta Przyboś: poems / 53
Anna Goławska: short stories / 55
Three narrative texts and one of the essay type. Lodziarnia (The Ice Cream Parlour)is a story about childhood in a small town, about first friendships, about girls who observe the surrounding world in the titular ice cream parlour, owned by the grandparents of one of them, trying to understand and shape it. Chodzenie po lesie (Walking in the Woods)is a short description of a trip to the village shop along a forest road one summer day, accompanied by reflections on the importance of words, with underlying questions about the limits and conditions of female loneliness looming in the background. The piece entitled D. and M. after the initials of its protagonists’ names, tells the story of a single night, of three people meeting in a situation that is unique to them, of otherness and similarities, of sensitivity and empathy. On theother hand, Migawki z Syrakuz (Snapshots from Syracuse)is a tribute to the city, to its unique beauty, which can be described endlessly.
Aleksandra Zińczuk: poems / 64
Anna Pastuszka: Journeys into Europe. The Writings of Karl-Markus Gauß / 68
The article presents the profile and literary output of the Austrian writer and essayist Karl-Markus Gauß. Known in Poland primarily for his travel prose, Gauß is also a columnist and author of several diaries, a literary scholar and a literary critic. Important themes in his work include the theme of travels to small nations, ethnic and linguistic minorities, the question of revising the literary canon and restoring the memory of forgotten writers, as well as the attempt to draw a new literary map of Europe by challenging the division between centre and periphery. Gauß’s work is thematically linked to Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. The author of this article analyses the various themes and transformations of the Austrian writer’s travel prose and takes a closer look at the concept of European integration he created. Gauß’s narrative style, the way in which he describes places, elements of reportage, numerous literary portraits and intertextual references combine to create a distinctive prose that, as a medium of memory, resists forgetting and fading away.
Keywords: Karl-Markus Gauß, travel prose, reportage, intertextuality, Central and Eastern Europe, memory, centre-periphery opposition, ethnic minorities
Jan Władysław Woś: Aronek / 78
The narrator accidentally meets Aron Goldman at the swimming pool – a young boy from a Jewish family settled in Florence. He gets to know the boy’s father, who comes from Brzeżany and was raised in Polish culture. With the help of many people, he managed to survive the Holocaust. He left Poland right after the war and has difficulty adjusting to life in the West. Over several years, his meetings with the narrator provide him with opportunities to talk about his past and reminisce about the idealized country of his youth. During the bar mitzvah reception for Aron, where Goldman also invited Polish acquaintances, an unexpected anti-Semitic incident occurs. Years later, Aron, now a university student, rejects the idea of visiting Poland, viewing the myth of Poles universally rescuing Jews with skepticism.
Rafał Rutkowski: poems / 90
Jadwiga Krężołek: short stories / 92
Debut of the author born in 2005 in Lublin. The main protagonist of Moja ostatnia historia (My Last Story)possesses an extraordinary gift which he himself has longed for – the ability to know all the thoughts of others about himself. He spends his simple, nomadic life analysing these thoughts. One day, however, he discovers that by leaving those he has met, he has allowed them to forget him… In the second piece, a portrait emerges from episodic memories of a man bearing the weight of responsibility for others. He easily reads the thoughts hidden in their words and associates them with the expected course of events. In this way, he could have likely prevented numerous tragedies…
DIASPORA ADDRESSES
Roman Sabo: House above Houses / 97
Roman Sabo (born 1957) is a poet, translator and essayist. He left Poland in 1980 and moved to Vancouver, Canada after a year-long stay in Western Europe. He obtained his doctorate after studying Slavonic Studies at UBC (University of British Columbia) and the University of Toronto. In the extensive excerpts from Sabo’s autobiographical prose published in “Akcent”, Sabo – although he thoroughly understands the reasons for his departure – tries, years later, to understand what guided him in his decision to stay in the West. Memory, when confronted with the circumstances of the time, still needs to be verified. So: why did he stay and what was the result?
REVIEWS
Poets, poets …
Kamila Dzika-Jurek: A Small Planet [Piotr Szewc „Zielony anioł i inne oktostychy” (“Green Angel and Other Octostichs”)]; Ewa Dunaj: Can You Lock Yourself in a Safe with Your Dreams? [Katarzyna Wiśniewska (Kate Prozac) „Hakapik”]; Bartosz Suwiński: “What Kind of Meat are You” [Joanna Wróbel “rare”]; Grzegorz Jędrek: Lithuania is Not Silent [„Pauzy w milczeniu. Wybór współczesnej poezji litewskiej” (“Pauses in Silence. A Selection of Contemporary Lithuanian Poetry”). Compiled by Agnieszka Rembiałkowska and Joanna Tabor]; Ewa Dunaj: Simple, Useful and Indispensable Objects [„Żeby ten wiersz był pudełkiem zapałek. 97 wierszy. Obiektywizm w polskiej poezji” (“To Make This Poem a Box of Matches. 97 Poems. Objectivity in Polish Poetry”). Volume edited by Jakub Kornhauser] / 111
Discussions of recent books of poetry written by literary scholars and critics. They contain detailed analyses and characterise the most popular contemporary literary currents and phenomena.
ART
Lechosław Lameński: “I Look at the World From Below…”. Marek Andała, an Extraordinary Artist from Kazimierz Dolny / 126
Marek Andała is one of the most interesting contemporary artists associated with Kazimierz Dolny. Born in Ostrów Mazowiecka in 1957, he succumbed to the charm of this small town on the Vistula river after graduating from the Faculty of Arts at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. For over twenty years, he and his wife Marta (a fellow student) have run an art gallery there. Initially fascinated by non-representational painting (the result of two years spent in the USA), in the 1990s he created large abstract compositions in oil technique with elements of collage. Since the early years of the 21st century, however, the hallmark of his painting has been exclusively oil pastel. Marek Andała’s paintings are decidedly horizontal, medium-sized, very elongated rectangles, whose main theme is first of all fragments of lush nature and historic buildings of his beloved Kazimierz Dolny, captured from an unusual perspective, from the level of the artist’s feet (e.g. door thresholds, stair treads). An important element of these paintings is light and the subtle harmony of colours, with which Marek Andała builds the unique mood of the individual compositions.
Keywords: Marek Andała, Kazimierz Dolny, abstraction, oil pastel, nature and architecture in art
MUSIC
Michael Ternai: Austrian jazz scene / 136
Michael Ternai is an Austrian journalist and editor-in-chief of the government information portal on contemporary Austrian music “mica – music austria”. In a synthetic sketch, he presents the contemporary Austrian jazz scene, which has been booming in recent years. This is evidenced, for example, by the increased international interest in jazz from Austria, in all varieties of the genre. Following in the footsteps of legendary masters such as Joe Zawinul or Werner Pirchner, a new generation of musicians have successfully established themselves on concert stages throughout Europe with their own original concepts and ideas. Today’s Austrian jazz scene is distinguished by its enormous musical diversity. Whether more or less traditional pieces, smaller or larger ensembles, experimental niches or avant-garde, free or cross-style currents, there is a lively and innovative activity in practically all of these areas.
THEATRE
Tadeusz Krzeszowiak (Vienna): The Freihaus Theatre in Vienna and the premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” / 140
The article presents the circumstances surrounding the premiere of the opera The Magic Flute to music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The first performance of this most frequently staged opera work in the world to this day (before Carmen and La Traviata) took place at the Freihaustheater in Vienna in 1791. The author of the libretto and the first performer of the role of Papageno was the director of the Freihaustheater, the great theatre visionary Emanuel Schikaneder. In 1801, 10 years after Mozart’s death, Schikaneder opened a new private theatre. It was on the day of the inauguration of the famous Theater an der Wien that the Polish soprano Antoinette Campi, born in Lublin as Antonia Miklaszewicz, made her debut on its stage in the leading role in the opera Alexander.
Keywords: Vienna, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Magic Flute, opera, theatre, Emanuel Schikaneder, Freihaustheater, Theater an der Wien, Antoinette Campi
Magdalena Jankowska: Without a Thunderbolt / 148
Juliusz Słowacki’s Balladyna,staged at the J. Osterwa Theatre in Lublin by Jan Hussakowski, aroused much controversy. Many viewers disliked the adaptation of the text, from which Andrzej Błażewicz and Jan Hussakowski removed significant parts (e.g. the lines of fantasy characters), as well as the diverse styles of humor. High praise, however, was given to the visual sphere. The visual language took over some of the functions of words and the drama in comic form retained an almost original arrangement of events centred around a strong female protagonist – a girl from the common folk, who has been deluded by fate with a sudden chance of advancement and ultimately leading her down the criminal path. But there is no metaphysical judgment in the play’s finale, as in Juliusz Słowacki’s work. The thunderbolt does not bring justice to Balladyna – now the queen. This lack of sanction may become an important motive for the audience to reflect on the mechanisms that govern the world as well as a stimulus to confront one’s own attitudes.
AT THE VERNISSAGE
Eliza Leszczyńska Pieniak: A Cat, or a Man in Search of Himself. Piotr Rychel Talks About the Life That Inspired the Book / 152
A conversation with Piotr Rychel – a graphic designer and children’s books illustrator – reveals an artist grappling with difficult experiences. These challenges inspired him to write Kot w jedynym bucie (The Cat in the Single Shoe). Although the book gives the impression of being a children’s story, the mature reader will find in it a story about the mechanism of a dangerous addiction, which is universal in nature. The conversation also sheds light on the creative maturation process of the graphic artist in Poland after 1989.
HONORARY CONSUL RECOMMENDS
Piotr Majchrzak: Austrian Discoveries / 159
Ten honorary consuls from different countries of the world reside in Lublin. The editors of “Akcent” decided to ask them for a kind of self-presentation combined with remarks on their understanding of their role and to recommend a few selected cultural phenomena related to the countries they represent to be featured in “Akcent”. The Honorary Consul of the Republic of Austria, who has held this position since 2016, recommends texts on Austrian culture. These include an essay by Anna Pastuszka on the work of the eminent Austrian writer and essayist Karl-Markus Gauß, a sketch by Michael Ternai on the contemporary Austrian jazz scene, which has been flourishing in recent years, an article by Tadeusz Krzeszowiak on the première of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and an essay by Dorota Kudelska on the magnetic qualities of Vienna, its diverse social fabric, the unusual configuration of ideas and artistic endeavours that have accumulated there, and the multiplicity of working methods of Vienna’s cultural institutions.
POSTCARDS FROM THE ISLAND
Grażyna Lutosławska: Forms of Absence / 162
CANADIAN NOTEBOOK
Marek Kusiba: Bone Writers (2). In the “Theatre of God” – from Persia to Canada / 166
NO TITLE
Leszek Mądzik: Workshop / 170
FILM TASTINGS
Jacek Dąbała: Truthfulness / 171
NOTES
Tomasz Netczuk: Let Us Not Forget the Eastern Concept of Jerzy Giedroyc and Juliusz Mieroszewski / 172
Anthropological and Cultural Dimensions of Language. The Announcement of the September Congress of the Polish Linguistic Society in Lublin / 175
Radosław Borzęcki: A Boy from the Province / 176
Tomasz Kłusek: Historical Romance and More / 178
Information on well-known artists and cultural phenomena, as well as discussions of the most interesting initiatives, events and publications of the past few months.
Notes about the authors / 182
