Polish literature of the 19th century for non-humanists and foreigners (multimedia short cours) 3001-KMK-OG

This course gives a fresh and modern view of the ‘long 19th century’ (1795-1918). It is equally appealing to people with different levels of initial knowledge, including students from non-humanities courses. The course teaches about the sources of Polish culture in a fun and original way. You will learn the key things that still guide our literature and culture today, helping you become a more active and knowledgeable part of Polish society. This course is unique and does not repeat any subjects in full-time Polish studies. It moves away from traditional history of literature and shows the 19th century as a multicultural time. Classes are online and use advanced multimedia tools like animated films, video lectures, and interactive maps.

Assignments on the platform, reading the bibliography, and preparing for the final test take about 90 hours (= 3 ECTS).

Type of course

general courses

Mode

Remote learning

Prerequisites (description)

(in Polish) Kurs adresowany jest do: - studiujących kierunki niehumanistyczne, którzy w swoim programie studiów nie mają zajęć z historii literatury polskiej lub historii kultury polskiej XIX wieku. - studiujących na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim obcokrajowców, w tym stypendystów Rządu RP oraz obywateli UE uczestniczących w programie Erasmus, także studiujących polonistykę. Warunkiem udziału w kursie jest znajomość języka polskiego na poziomie B2.

Course coordinators

Urszula Kowalczuk
Magdalena Krzyżanowska
Łukasz Książyk
Damian Makuch

Course dedicated to a programme

4EU+Courses

Learning outcomes

The graduate of the course:

- learns to study the main literary contexts of the 19th century using tools from literary and cultural geography.
- can point out cultural centers, peripheries, and borders of different periods: Romanticism, Positivism, and Modernism. They can also compare and describe national and emigration literature.
- knows how to trace the travel and emigration routes of important 19th-century writers and understands how these movements shaped new areas of Polish identity in Europe.
- can use interactive maps to explain the origins and importance of key themes in 19th-century literary geography and their changes within the country under partition and in exile.
- can identify 19th-century masterpieces and the historical contexts in which they were created. They can explain the unique identity of the literature from that century, from the formation of Polish insurrectionary mentality to the modernization of Polish identity, and its diverse reception in the 20th century.
- can describe various social responses to 19th-century works in the 20th century.
- recognizes the mythographic or phantasmagorical aspects and social roles of 19th-century literature in redefining Polish identity.

Assessment criteria

The final grade is the average of the total points you get for individual activities in each module (maximum 100 points) and the points for the final test, with a 7:3 ratio (70% for online activities and 30% for the classroom credit).

Conversion of scores into final grade:

0-50 points - 2 (fail)
51-59 points - 3 (satisfactory)
60-69 points - 3+ (satisfactory+)
70-79 points - 4 (good)
80-89 points - 4+ (good+)
90-99 points - 5 (very good)
100 points – 5! (excellent)

Bibliography

An author's textbook has been created for the course. Students can download the chapters as PDF files to their computers or print them out. The authors of the textbook are: Ewa Paczoska, Andrzej Fabianowski, Ewa Hoffmann-Piotrowska, Ewa Ihnatowicz, Urszula Kowalczuk, Tomasz Jędrzejewski, Karol Samsel, Michał Mizera, and Damian Makuch.

Mandatory literary texts (all available as pdf files):
Antoni Malczewski, Maria
Zygmunt Krasiński, Nie-Boska komedia
Adam Mickiewicz, Dziady Part III
Cyprian Norwid, Promethidion and a selection of prose and poetry
Bolesław Prus, Lalka (fragments)
Eliza Orzeszkowa, Nad Niemnem (fragments)
Stefan Żeromski, Rozdzióbią nas kruki, wrony
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Listy z podróży do Ameryki, Listy z Afryki (fragments)
Maria Konopnicka, Italia and a selection of short stories
Stanisław Wyspiański, Wesele
Supplementary reading (all available as pdf files):
book chapters: Marek Bieńczyk, Oczy Dürera. O melancholii romantycznej; Maria Janion, Niesamowita słowiańszczyzna; Maria Janion i Maria Żmigrodzka, Romantyzm i egzystencja; Marek Bieńczyk, Czarny człowiek. Krasiński wobec śmierci; Ryszard Przybylski, Słowo i milczenie bohatera Polaków. Studium o „Dziadach”, Stanisław Kieniewicz, Powstanie styczniowe; Ewa Paczoska, „Lalka”, czyli rozpad świata, Ryszard Koziołek, Ciała Sienkiewicza; Mirosława Bukowska-Schielmann, „Ja we śnie narodu przeklętym, uśpiony”. Stanisława Wyspiańskiego dramaty-sny.
articles: Bogusław Dopart, Adam Mickiewicz – „Dziady”; Grażyna Halkiewicz-Sojak, O autokreacji i koncepcji sztuki w „Promethidionie” Norwida; Grażyna Borkowska, O „centrum” powieściowego świata w „Nad Niemnem” Elizy Orzeszkowej; Ewa Paczoska, Pogranicza i ograniczenia. Pozytywiści wobec kresów; Dariusz Trześniowski, „Listy z Afryki” Henryka Sienkiewicza w świetle dyskursu postkolonialnego; Tadeusz Budrewicz, Rok 1885 w poezji naszej; Andrzej Nowakowski, W stronę modernizmu. O estetycznych poglądach Marii Konopnickiej; Tadeusz Boy Żeleński, Plotka o „Weselu” Wyspiańskiego; Irena Sławińska, Młodopolska batalia o teatr; Joanna Waszek, „Wesele” Stanisława Wyspiańskiego w dwóch interpretacjach Andrzeja Wajdy (1973–1991.

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 3001-KMK-OG in USOSweb