Definicje dziecka w twórczości Janusza Korczaka

Abstract

The reconstruction of the image of the child would have to begin with the ways of establishing the subject of research, namely, the basis of the verbal image of the child. Words and names distinguish and identify concepts and things, carry a certain meaning, and it is the context that sometimes allows to make the meaning more specific. However, in Korczak’s work it is not that easy, because there is no single, consistent definition of the child, there are many different explanations and explications of the concept in question depending on the situation and circumstances it was located by the author. I will try to show the meanings and connotations of the lexeme ‘child’ used in Korczak’s texts. It must be emphasized that the motif of the child is omnipresent in Korczak’s world, it acts as a dominant in each of the texts under analysis Nevertheless, putting these images together into a single, coherent picture seems impossible for several reasons. One of them is the fact that the child is involved in many different linguistic, cultural, social and generational contexts in Korczak’s prose. The other is the repertoire of linguistic means the author used to define the concept of the child and to create an image of the child to model the ways the child is perceived.