10. Researching Books: Narrating the World

Our research on literature is far-ranging – following the principle that what matters is not only a text itself but also the individuals  whose presence the text implies: the one who expresses themselves through it and the one who subjects it to interpretation. Thus, we scrutinize the structure of texts but also the ideas, patterns, institutions and cultural practices associated with them. Poetics, rhetoric, literary theory, comparative literature and, indirectly, the methodologies of the study of literature, as well as  media studies are closely linked to such a broad approach.

 

We reinterpret the classics of Polish literature (M. Kuziak, Inny Mickiewicz [Another Mickiewicz], O. Krysowski, Mickiewicz i romantyczna filozofia języka [Mickiewicz and the Romantic Philosophy of Language], E. Paczoska, Lekcje uważności. Moderniści i realizm [Lessons in Attentiveness: Modernists and Realism]). We examine phenomena that shape contemporary texts (H. Gosk, Przemoc (w) opowieści. Ze studiów postzależnościowych nad literaturą polską XX i XXI wieku [Violence (in) the Story: Postdependency Studies on Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Polish Literature]). We analyse the poetics of spatial descriptions in the accounts of Old Polish travelers (R. Krzywy, Wędrówki z Mnemozyne. Studia o topice dawnego podróżopisarstwa [Journeys with Mnemosyne: Studies on the Topoi of Early Travel Writing]) and look at the specificity of digital texts (E. Szczęsna, Cyfrowa semiopoetyka [Digital Semiopoetics]).

We take a closer look at specific literary forms and genres, from popular literature and children’s and young people’s fiction to the poetry of Miłosz (J.Z. Lichański, Filologia – Filozofia – Retoryka. Wprowadzenie do badań (nie tylko) literatury popularnej [Philology – Philosophy – Rhetoric: An Introduction to the Study of (Not Only) Popular Literature]; G. Leszczyński, Wielkie małe książki. Lektury dla dzieci. I nie tylko [Great Little Books: Readings for Children. And Not Only]; Miłosz w szkole. Szkice interpretacyjne [Miłosz in School: Interpretative Essays], ed. J. Klejnocki).

We examine the division between high and low literature (J.Z. Lichański, Niepopularnie o popularnej. O narzędziach badań literatury [Unpopular Views on Popular Literature: On the Tools for Literary Research], and discourse in literature and beyond (Rodzaje dyskursu publicznego. Media, literatura, rzeczywistość [Types of Public Discourse: Media, Literature, Reality], ed. P. Lehr-Spławiński; A. Kujawska-Kot, CiałoTeksty. Literackie i filmowe reprezentacje transpłciowości [BodyTexts:Literary and Film Representations of Transgenderity]. We study the conceptualizations of specific states, emotions and narrative structures in literature: Abyś mogła opowiedzieć (So That You Can Tell the Story), ed. A. Szurek; A. Mikołajczuk, Wstyd i duma. Tom I. Generalia i kontrasty w badaniach nad konceptualizacją przeżyć samoświadomościowych w języku polskim [na tle porównawczym] (Shame and Pride, Vol. 1: General Issues and Contrasts in the Study of the Conceptualization of Self-Conscious Emotions in Polish (in a Comparative Perspective)).

 

(Photo by M. Kaźmierczak)