Chmielewska mota intrygę : o "Całym zdaniu nieboszczyka"

Abstract

Całe zdanie nieboszczyka (1932), the fourth novel by Joanna Chmielewska (b.1932) finally defined the poetics of this writer combining the elements of a detective novel, a thriller and a traditional-love humoresque. As a result of such a melange, Chmielewska’s novel plots breaks up with the principle of text verisimilitude (vraisemblance) by means of references to fixed images of what is “real”, instead taking an active game with the genre conventions and pointing to the fantasy of a personal narrator (Joanna) as a source of invention. It leads, among others, to a partial questioning and reversing of gender roles, namely a narrator-character, Joanna, leads her war with an international gang. Meta-literary aspects, on the other hand, bring it closer to the storyline (fabulation) as understood by Robert Scholes. Finally, it turns out, however, that Chmielewska’s novel, with its all quasi-feminist traces, draws to the closure based on a sexist hypothesis, namely female frustrations and aspirations (also literary ones) are underpinned by sexual hysterics that will be best and most quickly heeled by a successsful love relationship. Thanks to a successful solution of the erotic motive, the author also reveals an earlieroutlined existential and ontological conflict between the world of the West and the East. Joanna’s new partner is to belong to these both worlds.