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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12128/11184
Title: Nippon wyobrażony : Japonia i Japończycy w piśmiennictwie polskim do 1939 roku
Authors: Spurgiasz, Michał
Advisor: Gomóła, Anna Anita
Rygielska, Małgorzata
Keywords: Japonia - wyobrażenia; Japonia - relacje z podróży; literatura polska; kulturoznawstwo
Issue Date: 2019
Publisher: Katowice : Uniwersytet Śląski
Abstract: In this dissertation, I handled extensive Polish-language literature devoted to Japan and the Japanese, from the 16th century to the outbreak of World War II. My goal was to discover how the Poles perceived the Land of the Rising Sun and its inhabitants, to reconstruct what changes these ideas were subject to, and to answer the question regarding what influenced these changes. I looked for Japan in travel reports, geographer texts, encyclopedic notes, newspaper articles. I focused not on what the Poles knew about Japan and its inhabitants, but on what they were imagining about it; this is detailed by themes of "imagination" and "picture" in chapter 1. Thus, said dissertation is the construct of a "model of understanding" of Japan based on various types of texts. The basic questions I tried to find the answer in the dissertation are: How was the image of Japan constructed on the basis of Polish culture? Is it possible to pin point the imagined common axiological space (understood as the similarity of the value system) between Poland and Japan? If and when the culture of Japan was perceived as attractive to a Polish citizen? How Polish texts from the end of the 16th century to the outbreak of the Second World War depicted Japan? Were the imaginations associated with Japan and the Japanese persistent, or did they change dynamically with the passage of time? I tackle theoretical issues in chapter 1, focusing on issues of "imagination" and "image". I try to answer the question about the context in which imagining something is manifested and try to determine what "imagination" is, and what it refers to. The second chapter contains an analysis of selected Polish texts with the characteristics that Poles attributed to themselves. Works by such authors as: Piotr Skarga, Szymon Starowolski, Kajetan Koźmian, Józef Szujski, Jan Ludwik Popławski, Antoni Chłoniewski and Jan Karol Kochanowski are analyzed chronologically, from the earliest to most recent. This study determines which of the character traits attributed to Japanese people were perceived positively and which, due to significant differences, could build a feeling of alienation. The third chapter is an analysis of the image of Japan and the Japanese in Polish encyclopedic texts from 1745 (Nowe Ateny) to 1937 (Ilustrowana encyklopedia powszechna, wydanie drugie). These texts are chronologically analyzed from the earliest to most recent. In the chapter, I take into account the publications in which the entry Japonia appears or there are direct references to Japan. The fourth chapter deals with the image of Japan and the Japanese in the geographical and travel works available in Polish. Texts include such authors as: Władysław Łubieński, Ludwik Sienicki, Karol Wyrwicz, Maurycy Beniowski, Karol Lanckoroński, Eugeniusz Romer, and Wacław Sieroszewski. They are analyzed chronologically. The fourth chapter deals with the image of Japan and the Japanese in the geographical and travel works available in Polish. Texts include such authors as: Władysław Łubieński, Ludwik Sienicki, Karol Wyrwicz, Maurycy Beniowski, Karol Lanckoroński, Eugeniusz Romer, and Wacław Sieroszewski are analyzed chronologically. In the fifth chapter, I deal with press articles about Japan, which appeared in "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" from 1918 to 1939. These include articles related to Japan occasionally, articles about Japanese politics and the economy, as well as works on cultural and sporting issues. The sixth chapter is a review of the critics' and art popularisers' standpoints from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries regarding Japanese art and aesthetics. Within the chapter, I show a gradual change in the perception and imagination of Japanese art by Poles. The chapter is based both on the analysis of press materials from a given period, as well as on compact items such as Julian Fałat's published diaries (Pamiętniki). The problem of imagining Japan and the Japanese by Poles is intriguing because there was no broader development in literature on the subject. While the subject matter connected with the history of international relations between Poland and Japan is well-developed and its scope includes numerous publications, the subject matter related to the image of Japan and the Japanese in Polish culture remains insufficiently exploited. Thus, this work is an attempt to address this issue.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12128/11184
Appears in Collections:Rozprawy doktorskie (W.Hum.)

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