The article is an attempt to present the position of a woman in the Old Polish period with emphasis on social and moral transformation which contributed to considerable progress and increased opportunities for eighteenth-century women. This study focuses on the one hand on the role of a woman as a wife and mother, on the other hand on the image of a woman-intellectual, educated and conscious, often possessing considerable political ambitions. Special attention has been devoted to Wirydianna Fiszerowa and the reflections concentrate on her memoir called Dzieje moje własne i osób postronnych.Wiązanka spraw poważnych, ciekawych i błahych (The history of myself and other people. A handful of serious, interesting and trivial matters). The account by Fiszerowa presented in this work is not only a memoir interesting from the literary point of view, not only a reliable panorama of the reign of king Stanislaus II as seen from the perspective of a member of high society, but also a valuable source presenting an image of an outstanding eighteenth-century woman who was clearly ahead ead of her female contemporaries due to her attitude, intellect and life choices.
The main purpose of the text is to analyze the problem of sexuality presented in the poem by Samuel Twardowskiof entitled “Nadobna Paskwalina” (“The beautiful Paskwalina”). The analysis was based on previous research: the mimetic concept of René Girard and an attempt at feminist reading of romance. The author shows the process of constructing a woman’s personality on the foundations of admiration on the part of the male sex and confronts it with the traditional model of a woman which dominated in the old ages. The next part of the text presents the relationship between the process of building and collapse of the Paskwalina’s identity according to the concept of René Girard. The heroine’s journey and the significance of the influence of her guides are being analyzed. The poem is interpreted as an extensive commentary by Samuel Twardowski on the observed realities of everyday life of the Catholics, and the finale of this romance as a girardian murder of the heroine’s sexuality, which acquires a transgressive character.
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