Search

The term engagement was used in critical cultural studies as a term that name an attitude of scholars, and a feature of cultural and scientific texts, that are based on the experience of an individual or a group of people. In the recent two decades, many of Polish academic narrations on the field of cultural production focused on the issue of engagement. In the article, a phenomenon of engagement in the context of disability studies is considered. The main objective of the article is the analysis of disability studies as a new model of experience- oriented discipline. What is particularly interesting is a possibility to relabel experiences of the disabled as a significant report on the status of modern narrations, which should include different minority bodies. The main aim of disability studies is to present a project of engaged attitudes towards social sustainability that is not based on exclusions of any social groups of people. Studies on disability are also introduced as an experience-oriented discipline in the field of engaged humanities. This article aims at presenting critical narrations on the issue of engagement in other to connect disability studies to the engaged humanities. Promoting engagement in many areas of culture and social life seems to be a way of introducing more open politics towards difference, and social sphere of life that is equally accessible for everyone.

Copyright of Śląskie Studia Polonistyczne is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego 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 study presents a critical analysis of the discursive sphere of interdisciplinary interaction between broadly understood textual studies, including studies of representation and literary criticism, and medical humanities. The article critically reconsiders the interpretative paradigm of text as (self-)therapy. The paradigm dominated the discourse of medial humanities, especially in the field of narrative medicine and is deeply rooted in literary studies of illness and disability narratives in Poland. While the paradigm is seen as a neutral scheme of interpretation in contemporary literary studies and medical humanities, it seems that it somewhat narrows down and reduces the scope of possible interpretations of experience-oriented texts (i.e. texts that create, represent, and validate a particular personal or communal experience), and especially the interpretations that reach beyond the texts towards activism and emancipation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the issue of a crisis of literary criticism in Poland in the 20th and 21st centuries. The crisis is linked to the spheres of culture described by the term literacy (or cultural literacy). One of the reasons for the crisis is the series of ruptures in the tradition of literary criticism. In order to overcome this crisis, it is crucial to relate the ruptured threads of narration on literary criticism. The Krakow school of literary criticism serves here as an example of a rupture between the present and the tradition (or heritage). Another problem analysed in the text is that of establishing a tradition and a school of thought. By verifying some of the elements of the discourse on literary criticism (e.g. Masters, ruptures, traces, melancholic position), some possibilities for overcoming the crisis are being considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]