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This paper aims to illustrate the evolution of the name 'Chominowa' within Polish collective consciousness. Initially mentioned in a poem by Zuzanna Ginczanka as the woman who reported the poetess to the Nazi authorities in 1942, this name gradually came to symbolize all Poles who collaborated with the German occupiers. Its evolution into an antonomasia reached its zenith in 2020 with the unveiling of Adam Rzepecki's art installation - a yellow neon composition featuring the name 'Chominowa'. The controversies surrounding this installation can be attributed to the tabooization of Polish collective memory, which often glosses over the darker aspects of history such as collaborationism, in an attempt to portray a purified national identity free from culpability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines the portrayal of significant anthroponyms in both the initial Italian translation (1968) and a recent retranslation (2022) of Witold Gombrowicz's short story titled "Biesiada u hrabiny Kotłubaj" (literally: "The Banquet at Countess Kotłubaj's"). Originally written in 1928, the story features proper names that conceal humorous puns, alluding to the characters' social background or containing polysemic, primarily erotic references. Through a comparative analysis of the two translations, we uncover the changes that have unfolded over half a century in terms of translation strategies, readers' preferences and competencies, and the role of translated texts within the target culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny is the property of Polish Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper attempts to single out the changes that occur in onomastic functions when a literary name is translated to the target language. After introducing the main functions outlined by Polish scholars and presenting the specificity of the onomasticon in the fantasy genre, the author describes the main changes that onomastic functions undergo in the Italian version of Sapkowski's fantasy saga: preservation, loss, addition, alteration, accumulation, substitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny is the property of Polish Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article aims at presenting the emergence, the evolution and the most recent trends in Gender and Queer Studies in Poland, paying specific attention to their impact on research in Polish literature. The author shows how gender-related theories started to be widespread in Poland only after the sociocultural changes that occurred in 1989. During the first half of the 90s, groundbreaking writings of Anglo-American scholars were translated into Polish, while key concepts and ideas begun to be disseminated. In the meantime, a debate on their applicability to the reality of a post-communist country took place. In the second half of the 90s started to be published the first monographs that tried to reinterpret Polish women writers from a feminist and a gender-sensitive point of view. Meanwhile, Gender Studies programs were established in many Polish universities. In the new millennium, gender binarisms and essentialist conceptions begun to be criticized and subsequently deconstructed, while Polish scholars increasingly focused on queer and until then marginalized topics and authors. At present, Gender and Queer Studies in Poland show an eclectic, intersectional and multifaceted nature, mainly due to such factors as their belated reception, their dissemination together with other theories and methodologies, their rethinking and reworking carried out by Polish scholars, the interplay with other branches of knowledge. Providing new instruments, conceptions, and approaches, Gender and Queer Studies have proven to be an essential instrument to reread Polish literature in a new light. Furthermore, they are part of a wider process of reevaluation of the role of ‘minoritarian’ subjects (women, Jews, LGBT+, nonPolish authors) in the creation of the national literary canon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims at investigating the gynocentric reinvention of Slavic paganism in Polish fantasy fiction by women authors. Such a phenomenon derives from the intersection of two trends that have taken place in Poland during the last decades: the femininization of fantasy fiction and the revival of Slavic myths as a source of literary inspiration. The historical fantasy subgenre, in which fictitious versions of the Middle Ages are combined with folkloric elements, is particularly productive. Writers such as Małgorzata Saramonowicz, Joanna Żamejć and Elżbieta Cherezińska describe the clash between the advent of Christianity and an imagined Slavic paganism, in which women are able to control nature and magic. The analysis of their works shows how women authors rewrite national history to incorporate new visions of femininity into commercial and genre fiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the specific features of fantasy literature that can influence translation strategies are becoming more and more widespread among scholars, as a consequence of increasing interest in the rendition of cultural items and the legitimation of fantasy literature as a field of research. Focusing on the Italian version of The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski, published in 2010-2016, the article investigates the problems posed by the creation of imaginary worlds and the form of literary cycles as distinctive traits of fantasy literature, as suggested by Guttfeld (2012). The author shows how they can affect cultural and lexical consistency in the translation of anthroponyms, toponyms, units of measurement, culinary terms, and fantastic creatures. Whereas in Polish translations of fantasy texts a foreignizing strategy prevails, due to the domination of anglophone writers and the imbalance of cultural systems, the Italian translation of Sapkowski's works appears significantly more domesticated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rewriting mythological characters, tales and motifs is a popular strategy used in feminist literature from the late 20th century. Deconstructing sexist cultural canons, challenging gender normative narratives, subverting patriarchal values and offering new female perspectives are the main purposes. Within such a framework, the article analyzes the reinterpretation of the Sumerian myth of the goddess Inanna made by one of Poland's most prominent writers. Olga Tokarczuk's Anna In in the Tombs of the World employs such strategies as the modernization of the story, now set in a dystopian, high-tech and futuristic world; the introduction of a few, but significant, changes in the narrative structure, like the modification of the plot and the insertion of the figure of the Mother Goddess; the syncretic fusion of themes and topics belonging to different eras and cultures (Sumerian, Assyro-Babylonian, Classical Antiquity) and the redefinition of the psychological meanings underlying the descent of the goddess into the underworld. Ultimately, the writer carries out a deep resemantization and refunctionalization of the original Sumerian myth based on a feminist and Jungian approach. Published in the mid-2000s, the novel should be read as a critical voice in the context of the antifeminist backlash that took shape at that time in Polish politics and jeopardized feminist conquests gained to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]