EN
The paper presents an overview of Kraków’s “Życie” (1897–1900) as a journal that featured the most important ideological and philosophical trends of the late nineteenth century. Examination of journalistic texts on cultural, social and political issue, published in the journal especially when Ludwik Szczepanski and Artur Gorski where editors-in-chief, helped to isolate major fields covered in the periodical. These include: (1) bankruptcy of the ideals of the nineteenth century; (2) antinomy of native and universal values as well as values of other cultures; (3) relationship between tradition and modernity; (4) risks associated with the development of mass culture and the dissemination of the philistine worldview; (5) possibilities of overcoming the decadent and artistic worldview. Analysis of journalistic texts devoted to the issues listed above adds to Kraków’s “Życie” being characterised as a journal showing the complexity or even – in a sense – the dialectic nature of Polish modernism.