In the article, Pierre Bourdieu’s “habitus” theory is employed to discuss Henryk Sienkiewicz’s hunting practices. Particular attention is devoted to the way the writer defines the concept of “masculinity” and its relationships with hunting skills. The author also points to the compensatory nature of this type of practices in the context of the nineteenth-century transformations of the social structure, the Polish political situation and the biography of the author of With Fire and Sword.
The paper discusses the forgotten science fiction novel entitled Goście z Marsa by Władysław Satke with regard to “racial” ideology of the turn of the century. It primarily focuses on reconstruction of the ideological and intertextual background with particular reference to the 19th-century typologies of “races” and scientific theories based on them. Furthermore, the article addresses the issue of utopia and its limitations as a literary genre.