Światy na skrzyżowaniu kultur: Eliza Orzeszkowa i Ludwik Zamenhof. Studia i szkice

Abstract

The presented monograph is an outcome of the grant that has been realised since 2018 by the Belarussian and Polish universities, financed from the funds of the European Union. Under the EU programme “Cross-border Cooperation Programme Poland – Belarus – Ukraine 2014–2020” two research institutions from Belarus and Poland filed an application to the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy of the Republic of Poland. These institutions were the Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno (leading institution) and the University of Białystok (partner on part of Poland). The submitted application “The protection of the historical and cultural heritage of Eliza Orzeszkowa and Ludwik Zamenhof” was one of the 167 projects that were awarded a grant. The objective of the project was the co-operation between Polish and Belarussian scientists with the aim to “fill the gaps in the existing infrastructure of tourist services” on both sides of the state border, based on places connected with the lives of Orzeszkowa (Grodno) and Zamenhof (Białystok). The project involved planning two tourist routes. The first one – “The path of the life and works of Eliza Orzeszkowa” was planned with the aim to connect all the historically and culturally important sites in Grodno that are connected with the life of the author of Nad Niemnem (On the Banks of the Niemen). The project foresaw installing 10 informational boards in Polish, Belarussian, and English languages in selected locations in Grodno. In spite of communication barriers, the online mode of co-operation, the inability to travel between Poland and Belarus, and the historical tensions, the universities successfully completed key elements of the project: – a booklet entitled: Eliza Orzeszkowa, Ludwik Zamenhof: ludzie, którzy łączą kultury (Eliza Orzeszkowa, Ludwik Zamenhof: People who Joined the Cultures) was published, edited by: G. Dawidowicz, A. Janicka, H. Nielepko, Białystok 2021. The materials for the publication were obtained from Książnica Podlaska of Łukasz Górnicki in Białystok, the Białystok Centre of Culture (the Ludwik Zamenhof Centre) and the Museum of Eliza Orzeszkowa in Grodno. – 10 informational boards in three languages (Polish, Belarussian, and English) with information about the main sites connected with the life of Eliza Orzeszkowa were installed in Grodno. – The online discussion panel “Eliza Orzeszkowa i Ludwik Zamenhof: pogranicza i świat. Przekroje i spojrzenia” (Eliza Orzeszkowa and Ludwik Zamenhof: Borderlands and the World. Cross-sections and Views) was conducted (Białystok – Grodno, September 10 2021). – The International Scientific Conference “Eliza Orzeszkowa i Ludwik Zamenhof w przestrzeni estetycznej pogranicza” (Eliza Orzeszkowa and Ludwik Zamenhof in the aesthetical space of the Borderlands) was organised (Grodno – Białystok 22–23 October 2021). The research related to Zamenhof was co-ordinated by Dr. Grażyna Dawidowicz from the 8th Secondary School in Białystok. The conference took place online. Its organisation was co-ordinated by scientists from Grodno, while the Polish academics were responsible for preparing the monograph. The first day of the session was devoted to debates, and on the second day a trip “In the Footsteps of Eliza Orzeszkowa” was organised in Grodno. The sessions of the Conference were summarised by the philologists: Anna Janicka, PhD, hab, Associate Professor at UwB and doc. Sviatlana Hanchar, doc. PhD (Dean of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Grodno). The audience was composed of students of the philology departments of the Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno. The session was considered to be an academic success. The monograph contains texts about two people who “joined the cultures”: the Polish writer who lived and worked in Grodno, Eliza Orzeszkowa (1841–1910), and the famous creator of the Esperanto language, Ludwik Zamenhof (1859–1917) who came from the Jewish community of Białystok and spent 4 years of his life in Grodno. The studies and sketches were grouped into three chapters: Chapter I: Na drogach Elizy Orzeszkowej (On the Paths of Eliza Orzeszkowa), dedicated to the interpretations of the works of the writer, Chapter II: Śladami Ludwika Zamenhofa (In the Footsteps of Ludwik Zamenhof), about Zamenhof ’s heritage in contemporary and historical Białystok, and, finally, Chapter III: Dawne dziedzictwo: nawiązania i rozwinięcia (The Heritage: References and Additions), devoted to the historical and philological contexts of the works of Orzeszkowa. The volume was edited by: dr hab. Anna Janicka, PhD, hab, Associate Professor at the University of Białystok, specialising in the literature of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, employed at the Department of Interdisciplinary Philological Studies, and Helena Nielepko, doc., Phd., specialising in Polish Modernism, who works at the Department of the Russian as a Foreign Language at the Yanko Kupala State University of Grodno. The project and the publication are a continuation of the co-operation between philologists from Białystok and Grodno, which was initiated by Professor Svetlana Filippovna Musienko, the founder of the Department of Polish Philology in Grodno (see also the volume: Eliza Orzeszkowa. Pamięć kultury. Studia i głosy (Eliza Orzeszkowa. Memory of Culture. Studies and Voices), edited by Jarosław Ławski and Svetlana Musienko, Białystok – Grodno 2020). The publication of this volume closes both the project and this stage of co-operation.