Pragnąć : szkice o literaturze nowoczesnej

Abstract

The articles that comprise the book focus on a description of the phenomenon of modernity in the context of various theories of desire, starting from the classic Freudian psychoanalysis through to Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze’s schizoanalysis. The first section of articles entitled Szyfry pragnienia w twórczości Bolesława Prusa (Codes of Desire in Bolesław Prus’s Writings) is devoted to The Doll, and in particular, to the characters’ entanglement in the sexual norms and restrictions binding in the second half of the 19th century. The last text about the 1890 novel concerns the as yet insufficiently discussed connections of Prus’s novel with Maxime Du Camp’s treatise Paris, ses organes, ses fonctions, sa vie, which sheds new light on the Parisian episode. The cycle Piekielny pociąg Władysława Stanisława Reymonta (Władysław Stanisław Reymont’s Infernal Desire) consists of two dissertations devoted to the Nobel Prize laureate’s work. The first Niebezpieczeństwa fantazji (The Dangers of Phantasies) is an attempt to interpretet The Dreamer using theoretical tools developed by Jacques Lacan. Then, the second text entitled Falangi infernalne (Infernal Phalanxes), is an attempt at interpreting the selected themes in The Vampire through the lens of the Leo Taxil case resounding at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The last part Inne pragnienia (Other Desires) contains two articles. The text “Gdy popłyną miliony…” (“When Millions Begin to Flow in…”) is a comprehensive analysis of Ignacy “Sewer” Maciejowski’s forgotten novel about a Galician petroleum boom. Its interpretation focuses on such categories as: money, affect, sexuality and work viewed from the context of Guattari and Deleuze’s conception. The dissertation entitled Pasje (Passions) begins with a comparison of the vision of the Middle Ages chilren’s crusade created by Marcel Schwo and Jerzy Andrzejewski, and arrives at more genralized conclusions about the nature of a homosexual desire and the specificity of historical writing.