PL
Continuity in changing times. The German calendar literature by the turn of the 20th century in the Province of Poznań Calendars were originally developed for the purpose of temporal orientation and coordination of activities of a group of people. Over time, they have been used as an important means of forming opinions. In regards to that, one cannot underestimate the role of narrative text forms which have been present in calendars since the 16th century and gradually grew in size and importance. The composition of a wide variety of text types and the combination of text and illustration were responsible for the mass distribution of such publications in the 19th century. In the Province of Poznań calendars also enjoyed great popularity. Of special interest is the Evangelical People’s Calendar, which was published in Poznań for around 80 years (1861–1941). It accompanied the German population in this area through the major transition points from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. In relation to the German calendar literature of the Poznań area, the following questions will be investigated in this article: which turning points of the 20th century were included in the calendar? Which events were considered epochal by the calendar makers? In which form were they presented in the calendars? What was the role of the historical-political and socio-mental context? How was the potential of calendars used to give the readers the sense of continuity and stability by the turn of the century?
EN
In the centre of the analysis stands the autoreferential dimension of Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus and its relation to the novel’s socio-philosophical message, which, although not free from ironical overtones, tends to be a didactic plea for humanism. However, the main emphasis of the investigation is not the humanist idea itself but, above all, the narrative methods used to infuse this idea with new means of expression. Therefore, the music-motif in the novel is interpreted as a metaphor of an intertextual literary motif. From a metaliterary perspective, the main question in Mann’s partly consistent, yet partly paradoxical art- and soul-study is the following: how can (and should) the Faust-legend be reshaped and interpreted to match the demands of the modern age? The attempt to discuss the ‚national myth‘ in such a new way is made by three authorities: two fictional and one real. The protagonist, Adrian Leverkühn, the first-person narrator, Serenus Zeitblom, and, finally, the author himself, Thomas Mann, each in turn, whether wilfully or unconsciously, offers their own art-concept. To a great extent, the general semantic picture of the story told in Faustus is determined by various distinctions between the intratextual ideological confrontation ‚Leverkühn vs. Zeitblom‘ and the extratextual outside-perspective of the author, who stays paramount to the novel-figures. My article attends to the narratological as well as the philosophical decoding of this overall-picture.
DE
Continuity in changing times. The German calendar literature by the turn of the 20th century in the Province of Poznań Calendars were originally developed for the purpose of temporal orientation and coordination of activities of a group of people. Over time, they have been used as an important means of forming opinions. In regards to that, one cannot underestimate the role of narrative text forms which have been present in calendars since the 16th century and gradually grew in size and importance. The composition of a wide variety of text types and the combination of text and illustration were responsible for the mass distribution of such publications in the 19th century. In the Province of Poznań calendars also enjoyed great popularity. Of special interest is the Evangelical People’s Calendar, which was published in Poznań for around 80 years (1861–1941). It accompanied the German population in this area through the major transition points from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. In relation to the German calendar literature of the Poznań area, the following questions will be investigated in this article: which turning points of the 20th century were included in the calendar? Which events were considered epochal by the calendar makers? In which form were they presented in the calendars? What was the role of the historical-political and socio-mental context? How was the potential of calendars used to give the readers the sense of continuity and stability by the turn of the century?