Młodopolskie wywoływanie duchów w XXI wieku

Abstract

The text compares the motif of séance appearing in novels written after 1989, referring in their plot to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, with séances constituting a more or less distinct component of Young Poland novels, written between 1890 and 1918. A comparison of E. E. by Olga Tokarczuk, Seans w Dom Egipskim by Maryla Szymiczkowa, and Demonomachia by Marek Krajewski (belonging to different genre registers) with Emancypantki by Bolesław Prus, Fin-de-siècle’istka by Gabriela Zapolska, and Wężami i różami by Zofia Nałkowska, shows the functionality of the motif, at the same time bringing out (if it exists) its identity-forming character. Invoking ghosts is also referred to as the interest in spiritism, so popular at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and to the contemporary interest in the 19th century understood as a specific retelling formula.