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Papers by joanna stolarek

Issues of Masculinity (Volume 13) , 2013

The aim of the article is to present the issue concerning masculinity, men’s role and their probl... more The aim of the article is to present the issue concerning masculinity, men’s role and their problems in selected novels of the British writer Ian McEwan. While briefly outlining McEwan’s fiction, the author of the article is going to present the world of contemporary men in British society, their relations with women and their different attitude towards marriage and family. Secondly, two novels are going to be examined and compared, The Cement Garden and The Child in Time in which the British novelist depicted two stages of male maturity process and two different approaches to life, society, in particular to gender relations.
Key words: I. McEwan, masculinity, British society, 20th century, gender relations

Anglica. Debating Literature and Culture. No 17. Edited by Andrzej Weseliński ISSN: 0860-5734, ISBN 978-83-235-0641, 2009

The purpose of this article is to examine the novel by Martin Amis Night Train with respect to th... more The purpose of this article is to examine the novel by Martin Amis Night Train with respect to the rules of modern and postmodern detective fiction. The introductory part of the article is devoted to the scrutiny of various modern and postmodern tendencies in crime literature, such as hard-boiled detective fiction, metaphysical detective stories and pastiche, analysed by theorists like Patricia Merivale, Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, Alain Robbe-Grillet and Fredric Jameson. The second and simultaneously main part of the article focuses on Night Train, examined both as a pastiche of the classical detective story and hard-boiling metaphysics. Finally, while exploring the thematic and structural complexity of Amis’s novel, the author of the article accentuates Night Train’s adherence to miscellaneous postmodern works and literary genres, such as an existential novel, a psychological book, black comedy, a noir police procedural, or a dark romantic novel
Key words: M. Amis, P. Merivale, S. E. Sweeney, A. Robbe-Grillet, F. Jameson, hard-boiled fiction, metaphysical detective story, pastiche, existential novel

Synopsis The present article shows the process of shaping the postwar American crime literature,... more Synopsis
The present article shows the process of shaping the postwar American crime literature, especially the so-called hard-boiled crime fiction, after a period of domination of the classic English detective fiction. The article examines the most crucial distinctive features of the hard-boiled crime fiction, which distinguish this type of literature from a traditional detective novel, such as the changing status of a detective, urban realism, gender issues and its dependence on popular culture.
Key words: hard-boiled detective fiction, American crime literature, police, detective, culprit

Synopsis The aim of the article is an analysis of gender issues in the work of the British write... more Synopsis
The aim of the article is an analysis of gender issues in the work of the British writer Martin Amis. In his works the writer presents different images of heroines and tense, even combative relationships between women and men. The article examines the three novels by the British writer, Money, London Fields and Night Train, which present both the relationships between heroines and heroes in the context of crime and violence, as well as the writer's ambiguous attitude to women and their images in his works. When discussing the subject of gender in Martin Amis’s literary output, I refer, on the one hand, to the feminist critique literary circles and, on the other hand, the opinions of various critics and reviewers, usually Amis’s advocates and followers.
Keywords: M. Amis, gender relations, crime, violence, feminist literary circles

Abstract The aim of the article is to analyse the status of the detective fiction in the 20th-ce... more Abstract
The aim of the article is to analyse the status of the detective fiction in the 20th-century literary criticism. The article is divided into two parts. In the first one, the emphasis is placed on the examination of the classical and modern crime stories, their statuses and thematic components with reference to a structural approach to detective fiction delineated by Tzvetan Todorov in “The Typology of Detective Fiction.” The second part is devoted to the scrutiny of Martin Amis’s London Fields as the illustration of postmodern crime fiction. When examining the novel by Martin Amis, I underline that the British writer has made a substantial contribution to the modification of a classical pattern of crime fiction. Like many other artists of his generation, the author of Money, London Fields and Night Train has attempted to be in tune with his times, so his works touch upon the issues of the contemporary world, especially on the role of the writer at the end of the 20th century, next to the themes related to crime, violence and power, as well as the problem of human motive and existential anxiety. Finally, in this part I stress that in London Fields Amis has incorporated the elements of surrealism, hyper-reality, pastiche as well as metafictional linguistic games and a subjective narrative.

Key words: M. Amis, T. Todorov, classical detective fiction, structural approach, postmodern crime fiction

Interpersonal Relationships. Between the Sacred and the Profane (Volume 15), 2013

The aim of this article is to examine sociological and psychological aspects of crime in Truman C... more The aim of this article is to examine sociological and psychological aspects of crime in Truman Capote’s most celebrated nonfiction novel In Cold Blood (1965). The author of the article is going to analyse the crucial themes running through the book, such as violence, murder, victimization, atonement and punishment as well as the writer’s narrative techniques, characterization, style and setting. The article is going to prove how and to what extent In Cold Blood constitutes an excellent mélange of literature, journalism and reportage as well as a thorough sociological, philosophical and psychological study of crime, the nature of the evil and a painstaking analysis of the human psyche, especially the criminal’s mentality which still remains enigmatic and inscrutable.

The aim of the present article is to present an ironic, grotesque, farcical and tragic dimension ... more The aim of the present article is to present an ironic, grotesque, farcical and tragic dimension of totalitarianism in Martin Amis’s selected works. The author is going to analyse and juxtapose three dictatorial ideologies: Nazism, Communism and Islamic fundamentalism while showing Martin Amis’s distinctive literary techniques, styles and modes used with reference to the examination of each of these three issues. Firstly, the emphasis will be placed on the exploration of those novels of the British writer that present Nazism and Communism and their aftermath, namely Time’s Arrow, House of Meetings and Koba the Dread: Laughter and the Twenty Million. This section will present ironic, grotesque, satirical as well as tragic facets of these two totalitarian systems depicted by Martin Amis. The subsequent part will focus on the issues of Islamist fundamentalism, terrorism and the relations between Islamist and Western culture at the turn of the third millennium. Here, the author is going to scrutinize Martin Amis’s novel The Second Plane: September 11: Terror and Boredom as well as she will refer to the writer’s miscellaneous interviews, talks and discussions. Similarly to the previous part devoted to the analysis of Nazism and Communism, this one will draw the attention to Amis’s grotesque, farcical and ironic delineation of Islamic fundamentalism, yet here, a special emphasis will be placed on the writer’s description of a political and social aspect of this matter rather than on his concern for linguistic an stylistic innovation. Finally, by juxtaposing these three totalitarian ideologies in Martin Amis’s selected fiction the author is going to show numerous interpretations and sides of this subject matter, ranging from political and social debate to cultural and literary criticism.

Issues of Creativity and Culture (Volume 11), 2012

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Values and their Meaning (Volume 17), 2014

The aim of this article is to present the importance of and search for values in T. S. Eliot’s po... more The aim of this article is to present the importance of and search for values in T. S. Eliot’s poetry. The author of the article is going to analyse the two poems of the Anglo-American poet, The Hollow Men (1925) and Ash Wednesday (1930), written before and after the artist’s conversion into Catholicism. The article is going to examine the two works which reflect two different yet to some extent parallel visions of humanity, particularly Western society after World War I, the world’s chaos, mental decadence and an individual’s search for spiritual and social values when facing a personal crisis and moral dilemmas.

The present article is an analysis of the dantesque Hell and Paradise represented in the literary... more The present article is an analysis of the dantesque Hell and Paradise represented in the literary output of the American poet Ezra Pound. The author of the article focuses on the interpretation of The Cantos, particularly The Pisan Cantos and post-Pisan Cantos created in the final phase of the poet’s literary output (1954-1972) which reflects his personal crisis as an artist, thinker and man. The Pisan Cantos and post-Pisan Cantos, whose guiding motif is Dante’s The Divine Comedy, were created during the poet’s imprisonment near Pisa in 1945 after his indictment for treason and then his stay in St Elisabeth Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Washington D. C. The article examines the motif of Dante’s Hell, Paradise and Purgatory in Ezra Pound’s epic both with reference to the American artist’s traumatic experiences as well as to his spiritual, artistic and philosophical journey during which he searched for inspiration, wisdom and internal harmony.

Women and Men – around the Similarities, Differences and Relationships (Volume 14), 2013

The aim of this article is to present complex, difficult, gender relations in the selected works ... more The aim of this article is to present complex, difficult, gender relations in the selected works of the contemporary British writers, Martin Amis and Ian McEwan. The author of the article would like to compare the novelists’ distinctive worldviews on the roles of men and women in late 20th century as well as their changing attitudes and opinions on male-female relations during the process of their writing career. The problem of masculinity and femininity delineated by Amis and McEwan will be examined from the point of view of psychology as well as socio-cultural changes that occurred in British and world society in late 20th century and at the turn of the 21st century.

A Person and His/Her Identity (Volume 16), 2013

The aim of this article is to discuss and examine the problem of identity, individuality, human... more The aim of this article is to discuss and examine the problem of identity, individuality, human dignity and freedom in Katherine Anne Porter’s novel Ship of Fools. The author of the article is going to show how the American writer depicts the theme related to socio-political discrimination, cultural alienation and isolation at the beginning of the 1930s by presenting different protagonists, being passengers on the German ship, their grotesque, eccentric lives and tempestuous relations. A special attention will be drawn to the examination of ethnical prejudice and social segregation on the eve of Nazism and a menace of the oncoming mass killing and annihilation of individuals.

Issues of Femininity (Volume 12), 2012

The aim of the article is to present problematic aspects of femininity and masculinity of the sel... more The aim of the article is to present problematic aspects of femininity and masculinity of the selected woks of the American writer Carson McCullers. The author of the article focusses on McCullers’ three novels: The Ballad of the Sad Café, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and The Member of the Wedding. In the scrutiny of these books the author analyses the problem of women’s and men’s isolation, seclusion, alienation and mental imprisonment in the context of social separation, sexual and racial prejudice in the Southern American states after World War II. The article depicts Carson McCullers’ fiction which, abounding with highly complex, bizarre and frequently grotesque characters, treats sexuality and gender relations with high ambivalence and ambiguity and thus emphasizes the tortuous, labyrinthine nature of human interactions, particularly gender interdependence. Nevertheless, behind the grotesque and freakish countenances in McCullers’ works, the author of the article endeavours to stress the writer’s obsessive, desperate longing for human harmony, love, compassion and existential search for identity.
Key words: C. McCullers, femininity, masculinity, American South, alienation, racial prejudice

Conference Presentations by joanna stolarek

El objetivo de este documento de sesión es examiner diversos aspectos postmodernos de la literatu... more El objetivo de este documento de sesión es examiner diversos aspectos postmodernos de la literatura policial en Europa, los Estados Unidos y el Sur America. En mi presentación me centro en la ficción de detectives metafisica y sus tipos, al comparar las siguientes obras: Night Train de Martin Amis, The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, La Caverna de las Ideas de José Carlos Somoza y “La muerte y la brujula” de Jorge Luis Borges. Durante mi análisis de estas obras destaco los elementos cruciales de la teoria de la literatura policial metafisica formulados por Patricia Merivale y Susan Elisabeth Sweeney, tales como: el fracas del detective, la presentación del lugar (la ciudad, el mundo) como laberinto, la forma enigmática del texto, el significado ambiguo y complejo de pistas y testimonies, la persona desaparecida, la identidad desaparecida y robada, el final ambivalente y la falta de solución a la delincuencia. Por otra parte, me gustaria explorer otros aspectos de las obras de Amis, Auster, Somoza y Borges, tales como: la metafisica, la cosmologia, la relación entre el crimen y el arte, el crimen contra la escritura, el descubrimiento del delito contra el acto de leer, la actitud ambigua del autor hacia sus protagonistas y el lector. En la parte dedicada al análisis de la ficción detective inglés y nortamericano (Night Train and The New York Trilogy) me concentro en la metafisica, metaficción, el existentialismo, asi como en la comparación entre “hard-boiled detective fiction” y la novella metafisica. Durante el examen de La Caverna de las Ideas de José Carlos Somoza el énfasis se pone en el carácter laberintica del texto, el aspecto metafisico de la novella policiaca, la relación entre la interpretación racional, lógica de la delincuencia y su aspect misterioso e irracional. En última instancia, en la parte dedicada a la novela corta de Jorge Luis Borges, “La muerte y la brujula”, que muestra la subversión por el autor argentino de los textos de detectives clásicos y su exposición de los aspectos metafisicos y metaficcionales de la historia, la relación ambigua entre el escritor, narrador y lector.
Palabras clave: M. Amis, P. Auster, JC Somoza, JL Borges, la ficción de detectives, la metafísica, escritor, narrador, lector

The aim of this paper is to examine the elements of suspense and psychological thrillers in ... more The aim of this paper is to examine the elements of suspense and psychological thrillers in Patricia Highsmith’s most famous novels. This American writer whose tales of gentlemen murderers and psychological intrigue were often explorations of her own obsessions was widely known both in the United States and in Europe. Her two most notable works, Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley which feature sociopaths and murder were made into successful movies, first by Alfred Hichcock in 1951 and the second by René Clemént in 1960 under the title Plein Solei (Purple Noon) as well as in 1999 directed by Anthony Minghella. The author of the paper would like to explore and compare the two novels which reflect two different yet simultaneously similar and overlapping crime literary genres, the emphasis being placed on the exploration of the internal human drama, the problem of fading identity and double personality. The author is going to show why the American novelist became a popular crime writer worldwide and why her books made successful film adaptations in the 20th century as well as she is going to analyse Highsmith’s two novels in the light of the 21st literary criticism. According to Graham Greene; “Miss Highsmith is a crime novelist whose books one can reread many times. There are very few of whom one can say that. She is a writer who has created a world of her own – a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger…” (Graham Greene, ‘Introduction’ to The Snail-Watcher, 1970).

Key words: P. Highsmith, suspense, psychological thriller, guilt, identity

The purpose of this paper is to analyse two novels, Martin Amis’s Other People and Paul Auster’s ... more The purpose of this paper is to analyse two novels, Martin Amis’s Other People and Paul Auster’s Travels in the Scriptorium, with respect to the way in which both the texts raise questions about the quintessence of the narrative act in postmodern detective fiction. Amis and Auster depict in their works the dilemmas of alienation, dislocation and a highly subjective seeing of the reality. The author of the article aims to show the mastery with which Martin Amis and Paul Auster manipulate their protagonists, narrators, and simultaneously implicate the reader in the process of storytelling, making him/her become the participant in, even the accomplice of their literary homicide and violence towards the narratees and the narrator. During the examination of Amis’s Other People, I refer to Jean Paul-Sartre’s No Exit, William Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads and, above all, Craig Raine’s and Christopher Reid’s poems representing the “Martian School of Poetry.”

Key words: M. Amis, P. Auster, postmodern detective fiction, writer, narrator, narrative act, homicide

The aim of this paper is to discuss and analyse the meaning and various forms of grotesque in Pol... more The aim of this paper is to discuss and analyse the meaning and various forms of grotesque in Polish literature of the interwar period. The author would like to focus on the use of grotesque by such Polish modernist writers and playwrights as Witold Gombrowicz, Bruno Schultz and Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. The paper aims at examining different forms of this literary genre (humour, parody, absurd), especially its linguistic aspects and at showing their similarities and differences. In the scrutiny of grotesque the author of the paper will refer to various critical schools and approaches in Poland, particularly the contemporary literary and linguistic studies.
Key words: grotesque, Polish literature, avant-garde, W. Gombrowicz, B. Schultz, I. Witkiewicz

The aim of this paper is to present the problem of multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity in South ... more The aim of this paper is to present the problem of multiculturalism and multi-ethnicity in South Africa in John Maxwell Coetzee’s selected works, in particular the novel Disgrace, Waiting for the Barbarians and selected autobiographical works (e.g. Youth) as a postcolonial reflection and voice of protest against white imperialism, hegemony and cultural homogeneity both in social-political terms and especially in literary-cultural aspects. The author of the paper will analyze the problem of racial segregation, marginalization, alienation and existential quest for identity in Coetzee’s novels as well as reexamining and recapitulating the crucial issues concerning racial and social injustice, the problem of otherness, and the juxtaposition of the “white” and “black” world in The Republic of South Africa at the turn of the third millennium. By and large, the author of the paper will attempt to find a voice of compromise between social anger, cultural protest and political reconciliation, and the authorial distance from contemporary conflicts and tempestuous racial relations in the world at the threshold of the third millennium.
Key words: J. M. Coetzee, South Africa, multiculturalism, postcolonialism, racial segregation

The aim of this paper is to present the problem of morality, normality and oddity in Patricia Hig... more The aim of this paper is to present the problem of morality, normality and oddity in Patricia Highsmith’s (1921-1955) selected works (mainly in The Ripliad and Strangers on a Train). The emphasis will be placed on the depiction of psychopaths, killers and delinquents as unfulfilled artists, social outcasts excluded from their families and marginalized by their community, mostly due to their sexual orientation and ‘extravagant’ behaviour. The author of the paper would like to show how Highsmith’s protagonists, frequently homosexuals and strangers, are exposed to the suspicious examination of an orthodox and frightened society that rejects them and hounds them, thus reinforcing their misanthropy. As a lesbian, the American writer was imbued with a feeling of social non-conformity from an early age and later, her status as an American living in Europe also marginalized her, making her as much of an outsider in her chosen home as she had been in her country of birth (Fort Worth, Texas). The author of this paper is going to prove how Patricia Highsmith’s living in deeply conservative American society and having strained relations with her mother and stepfather affected her writing and how it contributed to the creation of the characters who operate outside the norm and live on the fringe of society. A special attention will be drawn to the exploration of male characters, such as Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) and Bruno Anthony in Strangers on a Train (1950).

Key words: Patricia Highsmith, psychopaths, artists, strangers, homosexuals, society, marginalisation

The aim of this paper is to present the correspondence between biography, art and literature in M... more The aim of this paper is to present the correspondence between biography, art and literature in Martin Amis’s writing, particularly the author’s criticism and attitude towards his father’s work and the Amis paternal-filial conflict. The author shows how and to what extent Kingsley Amis influenced his son’s writing, artistic career and literary criticism, especially in shaping and creating such literary techniques and elements as humour, comedy and satire. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first one the author compares and contrasts the elements of comedy in Martin Amis’s Rachel Papers and Kinsley Amis’s Lucky Jim as well as scrutinises the two authors’ distinct attitudes and approaches towards humour in fiction. In the second part the author juxtaposes satirical strategies in Martin Amis’s Dead Babies and Kingsley Amis’s Ending-Up. When analysing all four novels the author refers to Martin Amis’s interviews and diaries which constituted a point of departure for shaping his literary criticism and philosophical worldview. Finally, the paper shows how Martin Amis’s works illustrate the link between art and life and the process of creating the self in writing.
Key words: Martin Amis, Kingsley Amis, bibliography, writing, humour

Issues of Masculinity (Volume 13) , 2013

Anglica. Debating Literature and Culture. No 17. Edited by Andrzej Weseliński ISSN: 0860-5734, ISBN 978-83-235-0641, 2009

Key words: M. Amis, T. Todorov, classical detective fiction, structural approach, postmodern crime fiction

Interpersonal Relationships. Between the Sacred and the Profane (Volume 15), 2013

Issues of Creativity and Culture (Volume 11), 2012

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Values and their Meaning (Volume 17), 2014

Women and Men – around the Similarities, Differences and Relationships (Volume 14), 2013

A Person and His/Her Identity (Volume 16), 2013

Issues of Femininity (Volume 12), 2012

Key words: P. Highsmith, suspense, psychological thriller, guilt, identity

Key words: M. Amis, P. Auster, postmodern detective fiction, writer, narrator, narrative act, homicide

Key words: Patricia Highsmith, psychopaths, artists, strangers, homosexuals, society, marginalisation

The aim of this paper is to present some practical applications of relevance theory in literary c... more The aim of this paper is to present some practical applications of relevance theory in literary criticism. In the paper I will discuss literary pragmatics, the ‘essentialist’ theory of reading literary texts and interpretative and evaluative aspects of literary studies. While referring to such critics and theoreticians as Adrian Pilkington, Jonathan Culler, Robert Jacobson or H. G. Widdowson I am going to show why, how and to what extent relevance theory is descriptively and explanatorily adequate as a general pragmatic theory assumed by literary theories and how its account of poetic effects provides a suitable theory of literary communication. The paper is divided into three parts. In the first one I will briefly examine the role of a theoretical literary pragmatics within literary studies, particularly its importance in describing and explaining the communication of poetic effects. The second section will provide some analysis and account of relevance theory, especially its account of poetic metaphor. Here, the discussion will be focused on the relevance and implicatures of poetic metaphors and their function in the process of literary communication. In the final part of the paper I will scrutinise stylistic and literary studies from a Relevance theoretic angle, in particular I will examine the notion of poetic effects in the context of issues raised by stylistic and literary criticism by interpreting a few poems of Anglo-American literature.

The aim of this paper is to examine the post-war trauma in American literature, in particular th... more The aim of this paper is to examine the post-war trauma in American literature, in particular the crisis of masculinity, mental, physical as well as symbolic impotence in Earnest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and in T. S. Eliot’s selected fragments of The Waste Land and The Hollow Men. The author of the paper would like to scrutinize and compare the two authors’ responses to the atrocity of the Great War and its aftermath, their examination of the society and individuals living in spiritually empty and barren world. Apart from delineating the crucial themes and motifs saturating Hemingway’s novel and Eliot’s poems, the author of the paper would like to compare and contrast the language and style of both the men of letters, their linguistic innovation and experimentation and to show how their literary techniques reflect and emphasise the leading subject matter. Finally, the author is going to provide contemporary critics’ analysis of Hemingway’s and Eliot’s works, particularly referring to the post-war crisis of masculinity, and the reception of their texts at the beginning of the 21st century.

The aim of this paper is to present and examine secret, hidden and changing identities of th... more The aim of this paper is to present and examine secret, hidden and changing identities of the main characters of Paul Auster’s most notable novels, New York Trilogy (1992) and Travels in the Scriptorium (2006) as well as to investigate an ambiguous relation between the author, narrator and the protagonists of the books, the imbalance between the physical author of the works, the individual who puts his name onto the cover and the authentic author. The emphasis will be placed on analysing a metafictional game between the author, narrator and the protagonists, search for identities, exchanging the characters’ true and false personalities, their disguises and masquerades. The author of the paper is going to show how Paul Auster plays a hide and seek game with his characters as well as with the convention of the crime thriller and detective story, how he parodies and subverts significant elements of traditional crime fiction, mostly by caricaturing classical detective investigators and criminals, lack of motif of the crime, mysterious disappearances and existential anxiety of the characters. By making numerous subliminal references to the 19th century American authors, such as E. A. Poe, Herman Melville or Henry David Thoreau, Auster masterfully creates a postmodern pastiche of classical literary genres, like the above-mentioned detective and crime fiction, mystery novel, transcendentalism, in which the readers are trust into a maelstrom of multiple and confused identities, physical disguises, masking and concealment of personalities.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the problem of female alienation, physical and mental oppress... more The aim of this paper is to discuss the problem of female alienation, physical and mental oppression of the white living in Africa in Doris Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing (1950) referring to T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), particularly stressing the images of the African space (the “waste land”, the “material ecstasy”) the British author took her title form the American poem. More importantly, a depiction of the white woman’s experience in Africa by Doris Lessing is going to be compared to the exploration of the physical and emotional desolation of the main male protagonist by John Maxwell Coetzee in his most notable novel Disgrace (1999). Despite the fact that both the novels depict socially, politically and culturally different backgrounds as well as they differ in terms of style, structure and composition, the author of the paper would like to draw some parallels between these two works, particularly to scrutinize a postcolonial experience of white settlers described in the novels, especially the situation of white women, their personal displacement, exile, uncertain cultural identity, violence, madness and the characters’ imprisonment in the unconquerable enormity of a vast barren “other” land. While examining Doris Lessing’s work with reference to T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and juxtaposing it with Coetzee’s novel the emphasis will be placed on the exploration of the author’s self-conscious reflexive writing, aestheticism, artistic distance and impersonalism thanks to which the British writer, following T. S. Eliot’s modernist poetry, sought the significant emotion and searched for moral intelligibility.

The present monograph undertakes to scrutinise the literary output of Martin Amis, a special emph... more The present monograph undertakes to scrutinise the literary output of Martin Amis, a special emphasis being placed on the author’s redefinition and revaluation of British and American detective literary tradition together with his concerns over social, cultural and political menaces in the second half of the 20th century and at the threshold of the third millennium. While exploring and analysing the works of the British writer, one cannot fail to identify and place his fiction within postmodern literary and cultural trends and tendencies and therefore his oeuvre requires miscellaneous intertextual interpretations and involved reading. Martin Amis is widely known for his nonconformist, even provocative, writing, linguistic experimentation, stylistic innovation and equivocal attitude towards his characters, narrators and the reading public. As regards the themes and issues raised in his oeuvre, the novelist is known for delineating the atrocious, villainous, degenerate sides of human nature and the homicidal facet of contemporary civilisation. Such a dismal vision of mankind transpires from his sundry novels, non-fictional works and various literary articles, yet in the interview with the author of the monograph, Martin Amis expressed his profound faith in humankind (Amis, 6th December, 2010) and his belief in people’s perpetual struggle with the wickedness and heinousness of the contemporary world. The British writer invariably outlines tense, stormy male-female relations and exhibits his highly ambiguous attitude towards women as well as introduces controversial subjects related, among others, to genocide, Soviet dictatorship, and currently, to Islamic fundamentalism. Therefore, he provokes acrimonious discussions and polemics in manifold literary, cultural and political circles

Studia Anglica Sedlcensia, Monograph Series, Volume I: Political Discourses in Contemporary Anglophone Literature and Culture., Apr 1, 2015

This volume collection of articles published under the title Political Discourses in Contemporary... more This volume collection of articles published under the title Political Discourses in Contemporary Anglophone Literature and Culture is aimed at demonstrating the multidimensional and multifaceted character of politics in various contemporary Anglophone literary and culture studies. Part of the essays included in the publication are modified versions of the presentations delivered during Political Discourses in Literatures of Different Linguistic Areas of the 20th and 21st Centuries Seminar, which the Institute of Modern Languages and Interdisciplinary Research of Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities had the pleasure to host in September 2013. The seminar organized by the Department of English Philology and the Department of Russian Philology and Comparative Literature of the Institute of Modern Languages and Interdisciplinary Research provided an exciting international forum for discussion and exchange of ideas related to the following issues: the background of a political discourse in literary texts, a social function of a political discourse in different literary texts, anthropological ideas and values in political discourses, a political discourse as a creation of utopian and dystopian reality, and finally, postcolonial and migration motifs in political discourses

wiersze dotyczą poległym II wojny światowej

London-New York: Exchanges and Cross-Cultural Influences in the Arts and Literature, Edited by Claudine Armand, Pierre Degott & Jean-Philippe Heberlé, ISBN 978-2-8143-0127-6, 2012

Abstract The purpose of this article is to present the social and literary legacy of New York... more Abstract
The purpose of this article is to present the social and literary legacy of New York and London in crime fiction. In my presentation I examine The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster, Money and London Fields by Martin Amis in the context of revaluation and redefinition of the traditions of crime fiction in Britain and the United States, particularly with reference to the hard-boiled detective novel and metaphysical thriller. The focus is on the role and function of a writer in the postmodern detective fiction. My article is divided into three parts. In the first part, I analyze The New York Trilogy as the example of postmodern detective fiction devoted to New York, its cultural, artistic and social ambience. The focus is on the angst of a postmodern detective story writer in the city that symbolizes a metaphysical labyrinth. The second part of the article is devoted to the analysis of London Fields by Martin Amis with reference to the British novelist’s millennium concerns related to social, cultural and ecological crises. I show how the British novelist describes the character of a writer being simultaneously a detective and an assassin in a social and cultural maze of London. Furthermore, I focus on stormy and ambiguous relations between men and women in London in the 1980s, particularly in the relationship between a male assassin and a female victim and simultaneously between a masculine writer and a feminine artist with respect to masculinity crisis and the question of a feminine identity. Finally, I examine Money which presents social, cultural and political interactions between New York and London, highlighting the problem of identity of a British-American individual, his artistic dilemmas, moral degeneration and professional debacle. In conclusion, in the presentation of the novels by Paul Auster and Martin Amis, I draw the attention, on the one hand, to the authors’ illustration of peculiarities and eccentricities of London and New York in the context of postmodern detective fiction and the role of the writer in this type of literature, and on the other hand, to the social and cultural interaction between the two cities.
Key words: P. Auster, M. Amis, New York, London, postmodern detective fiction, writer, labyrinths

Muses, Mistresses and Mates. Creative Collaborations in Literature, Art and Life, Edited by Izabela Penier & Anna Suwalska-Kołecka, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-7531-8, 2015

The aim of this essay is to present the role of Zelda Fitzgerald in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literar... more The aim of this essay is to present the role of Zelda Fitzgerald in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary output. The author depicts the influence of Fitzgerald’s wife on the writer’s literary creativity as well as on his presentation of the social and cultural ambience of the 1920s and 1930s. She also shows Fitzgerald’s portrayal of Zelda in his most outstanding novels (Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night), his devotion to her both in the times of prosperity as well as in the period of crisis, particularly during the time of her confinement in a psychiatric hospital. The essay analyses how and to what extent F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life and career were shaped by Zelda and to what degree she epitomized his own American Dream.

Multidimensionality and Perspectives of Academic Research Beyond the Threshold of the 21st c Edited by Dorota Utracka & Anna Cholewa Purgał ISBN 978-83-7455-247-9 (book +CD), 2012

The main purpose of this article is to present the political, philosophical and psychologica... more The main purpose of this article is to present the political, philosophical and psychological dimension of genocide in the novel by Martin Amis Time's Arrow. When analyzing the book of the British author I show how Amis describes the fall of humanity after World War II, especially modern Western civilization, whose roots date back to the first half of the twentieth century. In his novel, the author refers to the ideas of the modernist philosophy of progress, technological development, cultural hegemony which excludes ethnic and religious minorities, promoted mainly but not only in Nazi Germany. In my article I show, on the one hand, the psychological aspect of genocide, persecution and extermination of Jews, political and cultural propaganda of Nazi Germany, and, on the other hand, I present the problem of post-war generation’s lack of awareness, understanding and sensitivity towards the war victims, their attempts to erase the memory of the Holocaust. Analysing Time's Arrow I refer to such writers and philosophers like Robert Jay Lifton, Vladimir Nabokov or Jean-François Lyotard.
Key words: M. Amis, Time’s Arrow, genocide, political, sociological, philosophical dimension

Więzi wspólnoty. Literatura-religia-komparystyka. / The Ties of Community. Literature, Religion, Comparative Studies. Edited by Piotr Bogalecki, Alina Mitek-Dziemba & Tadeusz Sławek, ISBN 978-83-60406-36-6, 2013

The aim of this article is to present and juxtapose Flannery O’Connor’s and Flan O’Brien’s attitu... more The aim of this article is to present and juxtapose Flannery O’Connor’s and Flan O’Brien’s attitudes to life, faith and philosophy, in particular their approaches to crime, guilt, remorse and atonement. Two eminent Catholic writers, though deriving from different national, social and cultural backgrounds, seem to share certain fundamental views concerning life, sense of existence, morality, religiosity and human destiny on the one hand and literary artistry on the other hand. In view of that the author of this article would like to focus on two main issues. The first one concerns the analysis of anti-Christian values, such as murder, violence, sense of guilt, moral bedlam, a desperate search for harmony and expiation of sins in Flannery O’Connor’s selected short stories (preferably “A Good Man is Hard to Find”) and Flan O’Brien’s The Third Policeman. The author is going to show how these two writers illustrate crime, violence and victimization in western modern society and what role (if any) plays faith in people’s minds. The second aspect concerns the relation between literature or art and faith. Here, the author will analyze two writers’ literary styles, genres, modes of expression, such as grotesque, caricature, hyperbole, as well as elements of gothic and horror stories. Moreover, the article will show that O’Connor’s and O’Brien’s language, style and narration may serve as clever fictional manipulators of characters, readers’ expectations and of religious ethics. The author of the article is going to find out to what extent the American and Irish writers play with readers, especially with Catholic audience, with religion and its dogmas. The questions to be posed and answered are: Where is the boundary of literary manipulation and artistic freedom? In the contemporary writing can we discriminate between ethics, morality, truth and literary confabulation?

Political Discourses in Contemporary Anglophone Literature and Culture. Studia Anglica Sedlcensia. Monograph Series. Volume 1. Edited by Joanna Stolarek and Jarosław Wiliński, 2015

Abstract The aim of the article is to present the literary output of John Maxwell Coetzee, in ... more Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the literary output of John Maxwell Coetzee, in particular to analyse his most renowned novel Disgrace as a reflection of post-colonialism and a voice of protest against white imperialism, both from a social-political as well as literary-cultural viewpoint. The author of the article depicts a problem of racial segregation, social marginalization, alienation and existential quest for identity as well as examines key issues concerning racial and social injustice and the problem of otherness with reference to J. M. Coetzee’s fiction and literary criticism. Moreover, the author of the article would like to illustrate the writer’s distance towards contemporary conflicts, predominantly tense racial and gender relations, and his questioning realism as a proper form of describing complex postcolonial world at the turn of the third millennium.

Key words: racism, segregation, apartheid, post-apartheid, identity, colonialism, ethnicity

The Subcarpathian Studies in English Language, Literature and Culture. Volume 2: Literature and Culture, Edited by Małgorzata Martynuska, Barbara Niedziela & Elżbieta Rokosz-Piejko, ISBN 978-83-7996-063-7, 2014

The aim of the paper is to scrutinize T. S. Eliot’s Waste Land, The Hollow Men and Ezra Pound’s H... more The aim of the paper is to scrutinize T. S. Eliot’s Waste Land, The Hollow Men and Ezra Pound’s Hugh Selwyn Mauberly with reference to elegiac conventions. The author is going to examine how and to what extent these modernist poems mirror the elements of elegy as genre, is departures and inheritances. The paper is going to prove that Wasteland, The Hollow Men and Hugh Selwyn Mauberly reflect traditional and modern dimensions and features of elegies, both their thematic and structural components and that these two modernists, though questioning elegiac conventions, do not disprove the existence of the conventions of the genre. Moreover, the author of the article will analyse a modernist structure of the three poems, the authors’ linguistic and stylistic experimentation as well as the poets’ juxtaposing tradition and modernity, past and present, ancient and contemporary world, ancient art and culture versus modern commercialism and materialism. Finally, it will be shown how Eliot and Pound, while seemingly spring from the classical elegies, attempt to repress or disguise them, since the poets favour impersonality over emotion, “masculine” irony over “effeminate” sorrow and grief. Notwithstanding this, the article will prove that elegy constitutes one of the most important genres embedded in their texts.

From Queen Anne to Queen Victoria. Readings in 18th and 19th century British Literature and Culture. (Volume 4), Edited by Grażyna Bystydzieńska & Emma Harris, ISBN 978-83-906585-4-4, 2014

Synopsis The aim of this article is to examine the complex and profound portrait of Tess in... more Synopsis
The aim of this article is to examine the complex and profound portrait of Tess in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Roman Polanski’s Tess with respect to nature, landscape, mythology, ritual practices and above all in terms of tempestuous social relations, in particular men’s degrading treatment of women in conservative Victorian society. The author of the paper would like to depict and explore these issues, with a focus placed on Hardy’s and Polanski’s fascination with the heroine on the one hand as well as on their artistic manipulation of the eponymous character on the other hand.
Key words: T. Hardy, R. Polansky, Tess, nature, mythology, Victorian society

From Queen Anne to Queen Victoria. Readings in 18th and 19th century British Literature and Culture (Volume 3), edited by Grażyna Bystydzieńska & Emma Harris, ISBN 978-83-906585-3-7, 2012

The purpose of the article is to examine gender and sexuality in Thomas Hardy’s fiction. A specia... more The purpose of the article is to examine gender and sexuality in Thomas Hardy’s fiction. A special emphasis will be placed on the portrayal of women and the analysis of tempestuous male-female relations in Tess of the d’Urbervilles. The exploration of gender issues in the novel by the British Victorian writer will be compared with the portrayal of a heroine and the scrutiny of male-female relations by the Polish novelist Stefan Żeromski in his book Dzieje Grzechu.
Key words: T. Hardy, S. Żeromski, gender, sexuality, male-female relations

The Surplus of Culture: Sense, Common-sense, Non-sense (Volume 2): Philological Series. Edited by Ewa Borkowska, Tomasz Burzyński & Maciej Nowak, ISBN 978-83-928226-2-2, 2012

The purpose of the article is to examine the source of sense, common sense and non-sense in Europ... more The purpose of the article is to examine the source of sense, common sense and non-sense in European and American postmodernist detective literature. The author of the article analyses selected detective works by means of juxtaposing their commonsensical (rationality, reasoning) and nonsensical (parody, black humour, linguistic games) aspects accentuating the latter element of the stories written by Martin Amis (Night Train), Paul Auster (The New York Trilogy), and Jorge Luis Borges (“La muerte y la brujula”/”Death and the Compass”). The works by European and American postmodern writers are scrutinized and juxtaposed both with the structuralist approach to detective fiction postulated by Tzvetan Todorov, and selected contemporary movements of crime literature, such as postmodern metaphysical detective fiction examined by Patricia Merivale, Susan Elizabeth Sweeney and Allan Robbe-Grillet.
Key words: common sense, non-sense, postmodern detective fiction, M. Amis, P. Auster, J. L. Borges, T. Todorov

Colloquia Litteraria. Volume 6. Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński Publishing House, 2009

The purpose of this essay is to review Halina Witek’s book Wizerunek obcego. Kultury afrykańskie ... more The purpose of this essay is to review Halina Witek’s book Wizerunek obcego. Kultury afrykańskie w relacjach Henryka Sienkiewicza, Mariana Brandysa i Marcina Kydryńskiego (2009) which constitutes a painstaking analysis of Africa seen through the eyes of 3 different writers, journalists and essayists. Wizerunek obcego is an ambitious and intriguing text for all of those who are interested in new cultural, philosophical and anthropological challenges, especially in the research related to postcolonial literature and culture.
Key words: Africa, H. Witek, postcolonial studies, the Other, Polish Africa-trotters

Norm and anomaly have long constituted a binary opposition whose boundaries are becoming increasi... more Norm and anomaly have long constituted a binary opposition whose boundaries are becoming increasingly blurry and open to scrutiny. What precisely does the 'norm' mean? Which political, economic, and social forces play a decisive role in producing the 'norm'? How is the 'norm' endorsed through the construction of the 'anomaly'? And how does the 'anomaly' contest the 'norm'? Can the 'norm' be anomalous when viewed as a discursive practice and a form of ideological control? And can the 'anomaly' be an integral part of the 'norm' without losing its subversive and oppositional character? This conference invites you to explore norm and anomaly from a variety of disciplinary and methodological perspectives in literary and cultural studies, linguistics and teaching methodology. As a theme in literary and cultural studies, norm and anomaly pertain to representations of transformed and transformative spaces. These include eerie landscapes, geographies of hope and despair, and sites of post-human activity, all of which have featured prominently in such modes of writing as environmental, risk, and speculative fiction. We also invite papers that address forms of expression and repression in modern and contemporary British and US culture. The problem and problematic of order and chaos, autonomy and oppression, harmony and discord allow further productive avenues for exploring norm and anomaly through reference to theatre, film, visual arts, television, computer and video games. The linguistic aspect of norm and anomaly relates to the regularities and/or irregularities of linguistic usage, and to the ways in which norms and anomalies affect linguistic form and meaning or limit language use, its study and understanding. We invite proposals from intra-and interdisciplinary perspectives, such as constitute all areas of theoretical and applied linguistics – from semantics and sociolinguistics through morphology and historical linguistics to pragmatics, translation studies, and lexicography. As a concern in teaching methodology, norm and anomaly are inseparable from the status of English as a global lingua franca. Across the world, English is part of the school curriculum, which results in the need to test the students' skills formally. However, the focus on fluency and communicativeness frequently weakens accuracy requirements, and the gravity of errors is assessed against non-native speakers' subjective judgements. The gap between the ultimate yet not fully attainable goal and the reality of the ELT classroom calls for redefining the parameters of teaching English in response to a number of questions: Is there still one set of norms learners should follow? Or, do norms vary depending on the learner's progress and learning environment? Which language is the 'norm' – the English of the social media or the English of the classroom? Further possible topics may include, but are not limited to, the following: • Conventionality vs. nonconformity, normativity vs. transgression • Order vs. chaos and anarchy, hegemony vs. opposition, protest and rebellion • Evolution and continuity vs. revolution and disruption • Alienation and appropriation vs. inclusion and communality • Beauty and body cultivation vs. deformity and mutilation