Gabriela Zapolska w rosyjskim internecie

Abstract

The Russian version of Wikipedia contains an extensive note about the writer, consisting of 7 sections, including: Bibliography of Russian translations and Russian translators of Gabriela Zapolska, infrequent in entries dedicated to writers. An important source of information about Russian translations and publications of plays by Zapolska is provided by the Catalogue of Publications of Theatre Library by S.F. Rassokhin, the publisher of an enormous number of plays intended for his contemporary theatres and theatrical troupes. The works were published in limited editions (100–150 copies). The plays by Zapolska were also published as part of the Theatre Library series by Mariya Demidova (Alexandra Sokolova), beginning in 1890. All works were printed using lithography. During the writer’s life, i.e. until 1921, 21 translations of her works were issued. In the Soviet era, between the world wars, Zapolska’s works had three publications. After World War II, The Morality of Mrs. Dulska and Miss Maliczewska were published (1956). Collected works of Zapolska were issued in Russia and then in the Soviet Union three times. Encyclopedias provide the basic source of information about the writer. The publications include the 11-volume Literary Encyclopedia, the 9-volume Concise Literary Encyclopedia and the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. The Polish writer was included in the Soviet-era encyclopedias principally due to a scathing critique of bourgeois hypocrisy and decay of bourgeois family expressed in her works. These problems were also addressed in works by Soviet writers. The writer’s interest in socialist ideals was appreciated. A conclusion may be drawn that Gabriela Zapolska was widely known in past and modern Russia, maybe better than other Polish writers respected in Poland. Her writing gains in importance today as part of the feminist critique trend strongly present in contemporary literary theory and cultural studies in general.