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Annihilation or Revival? On the Binary Topos “barbaric vs. civilized” in Russian and Polish Poetry at the Beginning of the 20th Century

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Jekutsch U.

Rocznik Komparatystyczny

2013

vol. 4

p. 39-56

Dating back to ancient Greece the classic dichotomy of “barbaric vs. civilized” has become a multifunctional topos in European languages and cultures. Constructing a binary between the “self ” and the “other”, the term denotes differences between individuals, nations, races, religions, and even aesthetics. As such this topical binary may be conceived as a rhetorical device, and, depending on the given perspective of a person, group or culture, it can always be reactivated, reconstructed, and accommodated to shifting conditions. The paper describes two mutually interacting fields in which the topos “barbaric vs. civilized” is constructed and functionalized: in the political, where the lines are drawn between nations and civilizations, and in the aesthetic, where the lines are drawn between groups or literary periods in a single culture. The political and aesthetic functions of the binary topos are not mutually exclusive in the works of any author or group, but they may co-exist synchronically or intermittently. The paper outlines this process by analyzing a few examples from the poetry of Russian symbolism (Brjusov, Blok) and Polish modernism (Morstin, Iwaszkiewicz).

Heiligenkult – Roman – Theaterstück. Zur Übertragung des Kults der hl. Kümmernis in die neue polnische Literatur

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Jekutsch U.

Rocznik Komparatystyczny

2014

vol. 5

p. 127-151

By her novel Dom dzienny, dom nocny (1999), Olga Tokarczuk (re)introduced the nearly forgotten figure of Saint Wilgefortis/Saint Kümmernis into modern cultural memory. The cult of Saint Wilgefortis had spread widely over Europe in the late Middle ages and Early modern times but the Saint had never been officially recognized by the Catholic Church and, consequently, her cult had been nearly totally erased in the times of the Enlightenment. The cult can serve as an example for the permeability of the borders between official and unofficial culture, for the emergence, disappearance and re-emergence of culturally significant figures. Saint Wilgefortis can serve as an example for the arbitrariness of gender constructions and the borders between them, for their partial or total incompatibility with the sexual identity of a single person. In addition to that, the saint’s many names indicate the instability of naming, its dependence on place, time and language. The instabilities of the saint’s figure and name let her become a fascinating object for the postmodern novelist Olga Tokarczuk and the dramatist Piotr Tomaszuk. The paper analyzes and compares the transfer of the history and rites of Saint Wilgefortis’ cult into a novel and from the novel into a drama.

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2 Rocznik Komparatystyczny

2 Jekutsch U.

1 2014

1 2013

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Annihilation or Revival? On the Binary Topos “barbaric vs. civilized” in Russian and Polish Poetry at the Beginning of the 20th Century

Heiligenkult – Roman – Theaterstück. Zur Übertragung des Kults der hl. Kümmernis in die neue polnische Literatur