Męskość, dojrzałość, ojcostwo w powieści drugiej połowy XIX wieku

Abstract

The author looks at changing models of fatherhood from the Ancient times to the 19th century. She puts the special emphasis on the 19th-century prose and formulates a hypothesis that a positivist revolution, the consequence of which was a civilisational progress, science development and a determined direction towards modernity, required a radical modernization of the model of masculinity. The article bases on the classification of masculinity made by Kazimierz Pospiszyl (a King, Warrior, Sage and a Lover) whereby male features of characters appearing in novels by Orzeszkowa, Prus, Sienkiewicz, Zapolska, Rodziewiczówna were presented. The discussion concludes with considerations on the Young Poland breakthrough and a harbinger of the beginning of the Age of Women