Jarosław Kapłon: poems / 7
Łukasz Suskiewicz: The Current / 10
A story about the aristocrat – a gambler at the time of his personal fall presented against the background of a historic catastrophe. We follow the fate of a protagonist who is wasting his family fortune, drowning in addictions and ruining family ties. At the same time he is not paying attention to the approaching “wind of change.” Those whom the aristocrat had previously treated as a “living inventory” become a historical driving force, seeking their place in the new reality. The protagonist travels the world plunged into the chaos of social change, in which the only goal is survival.
Aneta Wysocka: Sophisticated Humor Casually. Stylistic Wit in the Songs by Wojciech Młynarski / 25
An article devoted to the analysis of Wojciech Młynarski’s lyrics. The author attempts to describe the mechanisms of a stylistic wit, where the comic effect is achieved not through formal or semantic transformations of lexical or grammatical structures, but through their use in a specific context. Młynarski often used a representative (sociolinguistic) speech function to create comic characters, and therefore the subject (homo loquens) was made the overriding category of the description of the characterized aspect of his works. The author presents a gallery of characters created by the artist with an easily identifiable linguistic and cultural identity, and also evokes texts in which there appears a heterogeneous, polyphonic “I” as a speaker. The analysis carried out in this way allowed to answer the questions how the creation of these subjects was reflected in the sociolinguistic biography of the author and how he manifested his epistemological autonomy through interactions with other styles and discourses.
Keywords: Wojciech Młynarski, literary song, stylistic wit, a representative function of speech.
Piotr Szewc: poems / 34
Milena Orłowska: All Saints’ Day / 36
In a small town on the North Sea there lives an immigrant who had left Poland years ago. Engulfed by depression, she leads a life of a hermit. Around and within she observes the signs of transience. The old board which she accidentally came across reminds her of her deceased grandmother. There are memories of places known from childhood – a post-German house with high ceilings and a large garden. During the November storm, the heroine goes deeper and deeper into what connected her with her grandmother. Going through some unexpectedly received photographs of her youth, she discovers how little she knows about her grandmother. Finally, with pain, she returns to the last moments of her grandmother’s life and to what happened next. It turns out that their heartfelt relationship is overshadowed by the unredeemable sin.
Rafał Hille: poems / 42
Tomasz Kłusek: Between History and Literature. On the Prose of Zbigniew Jakubik / 46
The article discusses the prose work of Zbigniew Jakubik (1920-1976) – a writer and a journalist associated with Lublin. In 1944, Jakubik, who was critically wounded in the partisan battle at Osuchy, was sent to a hospital in Szczebrzeszyn. He was persuaded by doctor Zygmunt Klukowski, who was not only an outstanding doctor, but also a chronicler of the occupation times in the Zamość region, to write down his wartime memories. This is how his adventure with literature began. During his lifetime, Jakubik published only one book, entitled Czapki na bakier (1963, Tipped Hats), in which he described his experiences from the Second World War. The publication of the second volume of his autobiographical prose entitled Mój wstrętny brzuch (My Abominable Belly) was banned by censorship. This book was published only in 1995, almost twenty years after the author’s death. Jakubik’s work, despite the vivid presence of the elements of memoirs, should not be read solely as a documentary. These works are characterized by a great artistic value, both in terms of the way the narrative is conducted and the psychological conditioning of the characters. Premature death prevented the writer from carrying out many of his planned writing projects.
Keywords: Zbigniew Jakubik, Zygmunt Klukowski, Jerzy Krzysztoń, Józefów, Szczebrzeszyn, Lublin, World War II, memoir prose.
Danuta Agnieszka Kurczewicz: poems / 58
Bernard Nowak: Short Stories / 61
The narrator of the first story – the owner of the publishing house – recalls his peculiar employee, known as Chief Iron Foot. The protagonist, in order to get a pension from the Social Insurance Institution, did not allow the removal of the wire clamp from his foot, placed there during the convalescence after an unfortunate accident. In the second story, the narrator mentions his debut and the first theft of a book in his life. The protagonist of the third story, before escaping from communist Poland to the West, leaves his colleague a book to be returned to the library, which leads to an unexpected situation.
Jadwiga Mizińska: A Booth without a Souffleur, Or More than Music / 67
Reflections on the phenomenon of a song. They were inspired by the reading of the book by Jarosław Sawic entitled Budka Suflera. Memu miastu na do widzenia. Muzyka – miasto – ludzie (Budka Suflera. A Good-bye to my City. Music – City – People). A popular song – as opposed to a more eminent chanson – stands out with such features as egalitarianism, peculiar ubiquity and universality. Being a hit, conditioned by a variety of factors, allows popular entertainment songs to affect a multitude of people. Creating and listening to music fulfills important functions: it serves to express one’s own reflections and emotions, stimulates emotions and soothes manners. No wonder that songwriters are often not only the heroes of the collective imagination, but also important participants in artistic life, connected by strong ties with other artists and culture animators. The latter aspect was well captured in the book by Jarosław Sawic: the first monograph of Budka Suflera is also a story about Lublin and the Lublin artistic milieu, and – and perhaps above all – about specific people who at different times collaborated with the cult band or influenced its members.
Rafał Jakub Pastwa: poems / 76
Michał Krawczyk: Exercises of Border Imagination / 79
The author encourages us to put our own mental habits to the test. However, by operating with understatements and gentle irony, he does not strive to make universal diagnoses. He only creates an opportunity for possible reflections on the everyday perception of the world. By taking on subjects such as the rules of formal logic, the experience of time or the beaten trails of religious thinking, the author provokes amazement – the basis of all serious reflection. He also indicates contemporary art as a particularly interesting territory for achieving “amazements.”
Janusz Kryszak: The Remnants of the Dawning Legend … On Henryk Domiński / 83
The poetry by Henryk Domiński, a forgotten author who belongs to the circle of artists gathered around Józef Czechowicz, is not only a testimony to artistic creation, but also a biographical document. The poet grapples with the trauma of his orphan childhood, which is manifested in the themes of death and homelessness, the main motifs of his poems. Domiński was also known as a critic and theoretician of literature. He expressed his approval of the achievements of the Cracow avant-garde, but he also believed that the new poetry should be characterized by a combination of rational and irrational factors, the concrete with the phantasms, reflection on the unpredictability of perilous history and fairy and idyllic elements.
Keywords: poetry, Józef Czechowicz, catastrophism, Henryk Domiński.
Jan Klimecki: Circuit n. / 90
REVIEWS
Poets, poets …
Jan Wolski: Jerzy Pleśniarowicz – A Man of Many Talents [Jerzy Pleśniarowicz: „Wiersze i przekłady wierszy. Tom I Pism Jerzego Pleśniarowicza” (“Poems and Translations of Poems. Volume I of Collected Works by Jerzy Pleśniarowicz”)]; Anna Choma-Suwała: A Bilingual Anthology for the 700th Anniversary of Lublin [„Lublin z dala, Lublin z bliska. Antologia poezji o Lublinie / Люблин здаля, Люблин зблизька. Антологія поезії про Люблин” (“Lublin from Afar, Lublin in Close-Up. The Anthology of Poetry about Lublin,”) ed. Andriy Saweneć]; Andrea F. De Carlo: A Look at the Long Road [Anna Frajlich: „Ocean między nami / Un oceano tra di noi” (“Ocean Between Us”)]; Karol Maliszewski: To See Well [Adrian Sinkowski „Atropina” (“Atropine”)]; Ewa Dunaj: “So That we Would Never Die” [Jacek Podsiadło „Sprzeczna jaskrawość” (“Contradictory Vividness”)] / 94
Discussions of the latest collections of poetry written by literary scholars and critics. They contain detailed analyzes and characterize the most popular currents and literary phenomena.
Not only analytically …
Jan Lewandowski: “These People are There No More, Neither that Time” [Joanna Zętar: „Lublin, którego nie ma – A Lublin that no longer exists”; Tomasz Pietrasiewicz: „Poemat o mieście Lublinie Józefa Czechowicza. Przewodnik” (“A Poem about the City of Lublin by Józef Czechowicz. A Guide”)]; Wiesława Turżańska: Not only Beks. Controversies of Piotr Dmochowski [Piotr Dmochowski: „Zmagania o Beksińskiego” (“The Struggle over Beksiński”); Zdzisław Beksiński, Piotr Dmochowski: „Beksiński – Dmochowski. Listy 1999-2003” (“Beksiński – Dmochowski. Letters 1999-2003”)]; Grzegorz Żuk: Heroism – Martyrdom – Nostalgia: On Representations of the Past [Anna Ziębińska-Witek: „Muzealizacja komunizmu w Polsce i Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej” (“Communism in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe in Museums”)]; Grzegorz Józefczuk: How to Write about the Theater in the City Differently [Jarosław Cymerman, Dominik Gac, Grzegorz Kondrasiuk: „Scena Lublin” (“The Lublin Scene”)] / 110
Reviews of recently published academic, essayistic and documentary books, seen against the background of the most important phenomena of contemporary culture.
ART
I do not Have Time to Die. Rafał Olbiński on Illustrations, Inspirations and Paintings in a Conversation with Eliza Leszczyńska-Pieniak / 132
From an interview with Rafał Olbiński we learn how an unknown architect from Eastern Europe has climbed the artistic peaks of New York. Eliza Leszczyńska-Pieniak asks him also about his inspiration and the road he had to travel in order to become acknowledged in the world of painting. The artist talks about his cooperation with the New York City Opera, which resulted in posters presented at many exhibitions at home and abroad. Olbiński’s art is based on surprising concepts. The artist engages in a game with the viewer, collides reality with unreality, uses symbol and metaphor. An interesting procedure used by the graphic artist is also the processing of elements of the painting tradition consolidated in the social consciousness. At the end of the conversation Rafał Olbiński reveals why he left the United States and returned to Poland.
CONTEXTS
Piotr Sendecki: Polish Art in the Heart of the Alps. SUSCH Muzeum of Grażyna Kulczyk / 141
The author visits the small town of Susch in the Swiss Canton of Graubünden, in the Engadine valley, where Grażyna Kulczyk created a museum of contemporary art a few months ago. The museum, which is an expression of a bright and modern patronage, was opened on the premises of the 12th-century abbey and the buildings of the former breweries. The exhibition was divided into two parts. The first – permanent – includes the works by artists such as: Adrian Villar Rojas, Monika Sosnowska, Piotr Uklański, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Sara Masüger, and Mirosław Bałka. The second – temporary – was given the title of Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women, emphasizing feminist themes in art. It presents works by the following artists: Heidi Buecher, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Renate Bertlmann, Izabela Gustowska, Zofia Kulik, Joanna Rajkowska, Paulina Ołowska, Mária Bartuszová, Louise Bourgeois, Geta Brătescu, Ellen Cantor, Marlene Dumas, Maria Lassnig, Natalia LL, Teresa Pągowska, Sarah Lucas, Carolee Schneemann and Alina Szapocznikow. Some works are accompanied by paintings by Wojciech Fangor, Andrzej Wróblewski, Jarosław Kozłowski and Lucio Fontana.
LUBLIN ON FIRE
Jacek Zalewski: Lublin, a City in Ecstasy / 150
So far Lublin has focused so much on its development that it ignored a deeper reflection on the assumptions and conditions of this process, considering it as an unnecessary and perhaps harmful factor. A subtle change took place only a few years ago: the city gained confidence and was ready to discuss also the mistakes which were made in the process. This essay constitutes a part of this discussion – it is perhaps the first longer text written from a critical perspective. The methodological basis is the concept of ironic and ecstatic cities presented by Ewa Rewers, an anthropologist from Poznań. This concept was slightly developed and then treated as a sui generis matrix. The image of Lublin as an ecstatic city is presented on the basis of specific examples in the field of communication, architecture, culture and art.
Keywords: Lublin, city, ecstasy, irony.
MUSIC
Jarosław Sawic: Musical Palimpsests. A Remark about Lithuanian Jazz / 164
The theme of the essay is the development of jazz in Lithuania, from its beginnings in the interwar period to modern times. Nearly a century-long history of Lithuanian jazz creates a mosaic of various cultural layers, which is most vividly represented by the Ganielin Trio – the most acclaimed jazz band from Lithuania. Lithuanian jazz, despite its peripheral character in relation to the jazz centers, has a surprisingly individual feature – it is rich stylistically and pioneering when it comes to avant-garde trends (compared to the rest of the USSR), European, and definitely “Eastern,” which can be associated with the baroque architecture of Vilnius.
Keywords: jazz, Lithuanian music, Lithuania in 1918-2018, Ganielin Trio.
MOVIE
Rafał Szczerbakiewicz: After the Crime is (Not) Over. Paradoxes of Prisoner of War and Prisoner Movies (Part Two) / 174
The imprisoned civilians, with whom prisoner movies confront us, become figures in the discourse on enslavement and freedom. In the history of cinema we are dealing with the evolution of the topos of an “evil” prisoner turning into an “innocent” prisoner. This process progresses with the reflection on the weaknesses of the penitentiary system in the modern world. Rehumanization of prisoners is therefore a consequence of the unveiling of violence mechanisms characteristic of exercising power. The control of the prisoner’s body provokes questions about the barriers and limitations of sexuality. In turn, in the face of ineffectiveness and injustice of the prison system, the most important motifs in this type of movies are rebellion, escape and revenge of imprisoned people.
Keywords: prison cinema, prison, freedom, escape, biopolitics.
ADDENDUM
Edyta Frelik, Jerzy Kutnik: Looking Through Another Window is Worth a Try. A Reflection after Reading the Anthology by Piotr Sommer / 184
The reading of the third – modified and enlarged – version of the anthology of American poetry A Step Away From Them by Piotr Sommer is a pretext for a broader look at the history of the presentation of twentieth-century American poetry in Poland. The authors of the text, referring both to the issue of poem selection and translation, demonstrate on specific examples the problems that a translator of this type of literature has to deal with. Bearing in mind the original character of the anthology discussed, they appreciate the value of Sommer’s translations, yet, at the same time, they notice certain limitations related to his fascination with poetry created in the years 1945-1970. Sommer – they claim – as the editor-in-chief of Literature in the World could significantly contribute to a more extensive and fuller presentation of the latest American poetry, including its more avant-garde and innovative achievements.
Keywords: American poetry, translation, Piotr Sommer.
PASSIONS
Marek Danielkiewicz: Sorrentino, My Love (essay) / 191
NO TITLE
Leszek Mądzik: The Wall (essay) / 194
NOTES
Zbigniew Nestorowicz: Józef Piłsudski in Medals / 195
One of the forms of popularizing the figure and deeds of Józef Piłsudski was and is creating commemorative coins, medals, orders, badges, tokens or plaques. The first ones appeared already during the First World War, and in the interwar period their production became an important element of the official state propaganda. After the communist period, when the public remembrance of the marshal in a positive context was forbidden, the fashion for creating commemorative and decorative objects with his image returned in the Third Republic. Medalist products dedicated to Piłsudski are characterized with a great variety, both in terms of form, artistic level, as well as workmanship techniques and materials used.
Przemysław Kaliszuk: The Immersion in the Theory of World-Formation / 200
The task that Krzysztof M. Maj set for himself in the book Allotopie. Topografia światów fikcjonalnych (2015, Allotopias. The Topography of Fictional Worlds), is to present a multi-faceted and coherent methodological concept allowing to capture the changes taking place in contemporary fantasy prose. In recent decades, this genre of literature – for a long time treated as pure entertainment – has not only gained in popularity, but also in depth, opening itself to the key themes of our (modern and postmodern) era. In view of the uniqueness and complexity of many works that use fantastic fiction, May postulates the creation of a new language for their description, which is to refer to the notion of allotopia proposed by Umbert Eco, xenology (phenomenology of the alien) by Bernhard Waldenfels, the concept of topographic return and geopoetics, as well as ludology, game studies and studies in transmedia narrative. The author’s erudition and the multitude of contexts he refers to, make his book an important statement about contemporary literature, not only fantasy.
Bartłomiej Pniewski: To Look and to See is a Big Difference / 204
Tomasz Sikora – an eminent photographer, author of theater and film posters, book illustrations, and collaborator of European and American advertising agencies – is a man of many talents. In conversations with Dorota Wodecka published in the volume Kapitalnie! He puts a particular emphasis on the need for creative thinking and acting. Talking about his own life, he also characterizes his personal attitude towards the world. “Perceive,” “anticipate,” “participate,” “pass on,” “keep” – these are the tips that Sikora gives us, so that we can fully use our potential and co-create the reality that surrounds us.
Maciej Tuora, Krzysztof Pyter: Jakub Nowak, or Two Voices about Lublin Science Fiction Literature / 206
On January 24, 2019, a meeting with Jakub Nowak – a writer, author of science-fiction short stories, as well as a political scientist and lecturer at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University – took place at the House of Words in Lublin. Nowak, in his thematically and formally varied literary output (inspired by, among others, cyberpunk, alternative stories or hard science fiction), takes up the issue of threats posed by technical development. In his academic research he deals mainly with the theory of communication and online media. The authors of the text, and, at the same time, the organizers of the meeting, write about their acquaintance with Nowak and his literary and research methods. Emphasizing the originality and maturity of the writer’s work, at the same time they pay attention to the analogies present in the works of the most outstanding Polish authors of science fiction prose: Stanisław Lem and Jacek Dukaj.
Rev. Edward Walewander: Laudation in Honor of the President of Lublin, Dr. Krzysztof Żuk, on the occasion of awarding him the medal “Mickiewicz–Puszkin” / 212
The text of the speech of praise given on February 13, 2019, on the occasion of awarding the President of the City of Lublin, Krzysztof Żuk, with the Mickiewicz-Pushkin Medal, the highest honorary distinction awarded by the Association of Poland-East Cooperation. The author of the laudation describes the ideas guiding the association, and also mentions the most important events in the history of Lublin – a city located on the border between East and West of Europe. He pays tribute to President Żuk for his help in developing friendly relations with the countries east of Poland, and expresses gratitude for his help offered to the Poles who live there.
Notes about authors / 215
