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EN
Alternate history, the type of fiction which describes worlds in which history developed differently than in reality, is often depreciated as a subgenre of science–fiction. Yet Polish alternate history novels are in reality an interesting commentary on polish culture, history and memory. In this paper I present the subject–matter of Polish alternate history novels, their functions and their relevance to Polish culture. In the first part I describe the history of counterfactual thinking and historians’ attitude towards it. In the second part, I emphasize that there are two types of alternate history. I name them “non-fiction” and “fiction”. Next, I provide the definition of alternate history. In the third part of the article I describe functions of alternate history novels. These functions show clearly that they are not created for entertainment only. On the contrary, they comment on important features of Polish culture.
XX
The article is an attempt to put novels of the alternate history genre in the wide frame of utopian thought. The key to the interpretation of alternate histories is the identification of strategies revealing affinity with science fiction and utopia: ontological and epistemological concepts, structural similarities, political and historiosophical conceptions. The psychology of fabricating utopia, focused on collective desires is similar to psychology of creating alternate histories, which reveals mechanisms of collective memory. On the example of few works it is shown how an utopian impulse harmonizes with other forms of social imagination (like: national myths, historical myths, ideology, collective memory).
XX
In his alternate history novel After Dachau, Daniel Quinn envisages a chilling dystopian reality two thousand years after the Second World War. The most meaningful scene is set in a history class during which it becomes clear that for both the teacher and the students the battle of Verdun has as little meaning as the battles of Thermopylae and Hastings (120). Despite its ostentatiously implausible plot, Quinn’s novel poses the highly relevant question of the impact of an inevitable and ever-increasing temporal distance on the signifi cance of historical events for contemporary and future generations. In other words, how are societies to ‘remember’ their past if there is no one left who actually remembers it?
EN
In his 1949 short novel, Story of Tomorrow, Italian writer Curzio Malaparte depicts postwar Europe invaded by the Soviet Union. The book focuses on the new political order in Italy, and particularly on the fates of several important Italian politicians from the 1940 decade (Alcide De Gasperi, Palmiro Togliatti) and of the author himself. It can be disputed whether the text may be considered an alternate history (or rather political fiction), mainly because of the lack of an explicit nexus event (i.e. the event that creates the alternative reality in relation to the one known to the reader). Although the events depicted in the book take place in near future or – more probably – in an alternative present, the author’s main aim is to provide a highly critical and satirical commentary on contemporary Italy’s political situation.
EN
The aim of this article is to analyze two novels, namely Nagrobek z lastryko(A Terrazzo Tomb) by Krzysztof Varga and Der Komet (The Comet). Despite the differ-ences that occur between the two novels (a dystopian version of the future in the former, and an alternative history in the latter), the predicted end of the world does not take place, while the apocalypse blurs. Equally resistant to change is also the existing societal structure as the catastrophe does not bring a new hierarchy. Both novels use the images of WWII as the pattern to create the literary vision of a total disaster.
EN
The paper investigates the contemporary Russian historical military novel, which is seen as a highly popular speculative fiction genre of the 2010s. The author focuses on defining the boundaries of the local genre “Time Travelers to World War II”. The popularity of the genre seems to stem from increasing interest to the topic of World War II in the Russian public conscience of XXI century and a call for rethinking Russian and Soviet history and “correcting” historical errors. The author defines ideological and artistic boundaries of the genre, which is considered to have been formed as a merge of military speculative fiction, alternate history and the “time traveler” adventurous plot. Analysis of the evolution of the speculative fiction genres in the Russian literature of XIX-XXI centuries revealed the essential eclecticism and internal inconsistencies of the “Time Traveler to World War II” plot. Three main trends in the development of the local genre were identified. The heroic adventure trend focuses on depicting successful actions of a well-equipped and trained time traveler. The alternative history trend represents possibilities of changing the course of the war through a single person’s efforts. The war history trend aims at providing, as far as possible, an objective description of the war.
Porównania
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2012
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vol. 10
173-188
EN
The paper is focused to comparative analysis of the novels Muza dalekich podróży by Teodor Parnicki (“A Muse of Distant Journeys”) and Lód (“The Ice”) by Jacek Dukaj. The author compares the artistic techniques as well as the historiosophical consciousness and the awareness of the historical process in the aforementioned novels. The two writers belong to different cultural and literary generations and employed different poetics, still, it is possible to compare the historiosophical and methodological aspects of their works and their ways of thinking about Polishness and cultural myths. The two novels may be treated as realizations of the alternate history genre. Muza dalekich podróży called by the author himself a “historical-fantastical novel”, includes a part entitled “It could have been like that” („Mogło być właśnie tak”) describing the rebirth of Poland after a successful November Uprising. In Jacek Dukaj’s science-fiction novel history “froze” in 1908. Poland still remains divided in the years 1924–1930, never freed after the Partitions. For both Parnicki and Dukaj, creating alternative versions of Polish history was the way to criticizing the model of writing “to uplift hearts” introduced by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Their attitude towards the methodology of history is worth deeper analysis. Parnicki, who lost his enthusiasm towards the 19th century type of history á la Ranke, rejected the idea of historical truth preserved in historical sources. Dukaj, on the contrary, created a postmodernist methodology of history out of the paradigms of the 19th century historiosophy, thus undermining the status of the historical knowledge as “science”. 
PL
Artykuł ma na celu analizę porównawczą powieści Teodora Parnickiego Muza dalekich podróży i Lodu Jacka Dukaja, w zakresie technik artystycznych oraz świadomości filozofii i przebiegu procesu historycznego. Mimo iż pisarze ci przynależą do zupełnie innych formacji kulturowych, pokoleniowych i literackich i dzieli ich warsztat pisarski, to obie powieści łączy zainteresowanie historiozofią i metodologią historii oraz literacki namysł nad polskością i jej mitami. Powieści te zaliczyć można do gatunku historii alternatywnych. Powieść Parnickiego zwana przez niego samego powieścią „historyczno-fantastyczną”, zawiera cześć pt. Mogło być właśnie tak, w której to autor testuje możliwość odrodzenia się Polski po zwycięskim powstaniu listopadowym. Jacek Dukaj, pisarz science-fiction, tworzy zaś świat, w którym historia uległa zamrożeniu w postaci z roku 1908. Powieść rozgrywa się w latach 1924–1930, a Polska wciąż jeszcze znajduje się pod zaborami i nie odzyskała niepodległości. Obaj twórcy piszą swe historie alternatywne w trybieveta wobec sienkiewiczowskiej idei „pokrzepienia serc”. Szczególnie interesujący jest stosunek obu twórców wobec metodologii historii. Parnicki zniechęcony do historii w pozytywistycznym sensie (á la Ranke), odrzuca możliwość dotarcia do zdeponowanej w źródłach prawdy historycznej. Dukaj zaś, sięgając właśnie po paradygmaty XIX-wiecznej metodologii historii nicuje je tak, by uzyskać z ich materii postmodernistyczną filozofię historii, podważającą status naukowy historii i jej możliwość wnioskowania o historii.
EN
The aim of this paper is to show the significance of the postcolonial determinants for understanding the specificity of the Polish alternate history novels. The author argues that one of the most meaningful repercussions of postcolonialism is the specific self-consciousness of the insignificant subalterns and, as a consequence, the inferiority complex. More importantly, the „subaltern state of mind” lasts even after the postcolonial subordination ends. Paradoxically, the inferiority complex could be manifested as a belief in one’s glorious and magnified past. Such a conviction is evoked inter alia by literature, which is a type of mapping the world and describing cultural diversity. In this scope, literature is a mirror of ideology and policy. Alternate history novels are interesting examples of creating a false magnificent past. Therefore, applying the terms such as „writing the nation”, „national pedagogy” and „necessary fictions” (H. Bhabha) the author discusses the capability of the selected alternate history novels for fulfilling the subalterns’ dreams about greatness, power and political importance. The literary works of Marcin Wolski (Alterland, Mocarstwo, Jedna przegrana bitwa), Andrzej Ziemiański (Bomba Heisenberga), Dariusz Spychalski (Krzyżacki poker), Maciej Parowski (Burza. Ucieczka z Warszawy ‘40) and the journalistic, non-fictional products of pop-history, such as Pakt Ribbentrop-Beck, czyli jak Polacy mogli u boku III Rzeszy pokonać Związek Sowiecki by Piotr Zychowicz, describe fictional, alternates, worlds in which Poland conquered a significant part of the world, defeated their enemies in the Second World War and subordinated the Soviet Union as well as smaller neighbours. Thence, the above mentioned authors give the subalterns the necessary fiction, a kind of self-therapy. The latter could be also understood, the author concludes, as the effect of postcolonial trauma, resentments and unresolved issues stemming from subjugation. 
PL
Celem artykułu jest wykazanie, jak duże znaczenie dla zrozumienia specyfiki polskichhistorii alternatywnych mają uwarunkowania postkolonialne. Jednym z najważniejszych następstw postkolonializmu jest specyficzna zaniżona samoświadomość subalterna, prowadząca w konsekwencji do kompleksu niższości narodu podporządkowanego. Co więcej, „postkolonialny stan świadomości” trwa nawet po ustaniu procesu politycznego podporządkowania. Paradoksalnie jednak, kompleks niższości może objawiać się w pielęgnowaniu melancholijnych wyobrażeń o wspaniałej, pełnej chwały przeszłości. Takie wyobrażenia manifestują się między innymi w literaturze, która jest przecież sposobem mapowania świata i opisywania jego kulturowej różnorodności. W tym ujęciu literatura staje się zwierciadłem ideologii i polityki. Interesującym przykładem kreowania obrazów minionej hegemonii historycznej są powieści z gatunku historii alternatywnej. Dlatego też, autorka, korzystając z terminów H. Bhabhy „pisanie narodu”, „pedagogika narodowa” czy „necessary fictions”, opisuje i analizuje sposoby w jakie wybrane historie alternatywne wypełniają marzenia subalterna o minionej wielkości politycznej. Utwory literackie Marcina Wolskiego (Alterland, Mocarstwo, Jedna przegrana bitwa), Andrzeja Ziemiańskiego (Bomba Heisenberga), Dariusza Spychalskiego (Krzyżacki poker), Macieja Parowskiego (Burza. Ucieczka z Warszawy ‘40) oraz prace z gatunku dziennikarskiej niefikcjonalnej pop-historii (np. Pakt Ribbentrop-Beck, czyli jak Polacy mogli u boku III Rzeszy pokonać Związek Sowiecki Piotra Zychowicza) kreują fikcyjne, alternatywne światy, w których Polacy podbili znaczną część świata, pokonali wrogów podczas II wojny światowej oraz podporządkowali sobie ZSRR i mniejsze sąsiadujące narody. Wspomniane powyżej utwory literackie stanowią dla subalterna „konieczne fikcje” [necessary fictions], stanowiące rodzaj autoterapii. To zaś może być rozumiane jako efekt resentymentów czy postkolonialnej, nieprzepracowanej przez subalterna traumy.
EN
The author of the article is of the opinion that at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries there was a growing interest in various types of popular literature, including alternative history. Upon reminding us of the terminological differences between alternative (alternate) history and counterfactual (virtual) history, she goes on to discuss alternative histories by Konrad T. Lewandowski and concludes that in his books, while playing an entertaining role, alternative history still remains the teacher of life.
PL
Autorka artykułu wyraża przekonanie, iż na przełomie XX i XXI wieku wzrosło zainteresowanie odmianami literatury popularnej, w tym historią alternatywną. Po przypomnieniu rozróżnień terminologicznych pomiędzy historią alternatywną i historią kontrfaktyczną przystępuje ona do omówienia historii alternatywnych Konrada T. Lewandowskiego. Badaczka dochodzi do wniosku, że w książkach Konrada Lewandowskiego historia alternatywna, pełniąc funkcję ludyczną, nie przestaje być nauczycielką życia.
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