Starość. Doświadczenie egzystencjalne, temat literacki, metafora kultury. Seria II, Zapisy i odczytania

Abstract

The volumes on old age contain materials collected during the fiveyear research programme “Reflections on Old Age in Antiquity and Romanticism. Searching for Analogies and Common Ground” (Poznań – Białystok 2007 – 2012). The project was carried out by two teams: Institute of Classical Philology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (headed by Professor Elżbieta Wesołowska) and Department of Interdisciplinary and Comparative Studies at the University of Białystok (headed by Professor Jarosław Ławski). The problems concerning representations of old people and old age have been divided into five research fields: – Topoi, symbols and myths associated with old age in Antiquity and Romanticism (as compared with other epochs); – The old age respected and reverend vs. the old age disrespected, comic, caricatured and satirized; – Literary genres and aesthetics associated with old age representations – Artists’ perception of their own old age; – Ancient and romantic iconography of old age as compared the modern one. From the very beginning the research adopted – as most natural and obvious – the formula of interdisciplinary examination; therefore the scholars who took part in the project represented a whole spectrum of humanistic reflection: classical, Polish, Russian, French and German philologies; Catholic and Orthodox theologies; philosophy, history and medicine. As part of the project, a short conference (or rather a seminar), “Antic Old Age – Romantic Old Age. Poznań, 24 May 2008”, was organized by Institute of Classical Philology at the Adam Mickiewicz University. 708 Summary The University of Białystok, in turn, organized a two-day conference “Old Age: An Anthropological Issue, a Literary Motif, and a Metaphor of Culture. Confrontations: Antiquity – Romanticism – Modernity” (Białystok, 13–14 November 2008). The session discussions revolved around the following problems: – Old age as an existential experience (pattern, wisdom, anxiety, obsession, failure, catastrophe); – Old age as cultural affliction, the signs of its decline; – Old age and text; ageing texts, poetics and literary trends; – Old age as a religious experience (sanctity, religion, blasphemy); – Old and popular culture; old age and high culture; Volume I gathers the following materials connected with old age: – The ever-changing representation of old age in different epochs (Chapter I). – Theological and philosophical disputes on the significance of old age (Chapter II). – Old age in the context of love and desire; literary representations of the problem (Chapter III). – Old age as a metaphor of various cultural phenomena: ageing ideas; youth and old age of interpretations; utopia as an antithesis of old culture (Chapter VI). Volume II groups the studies on old age that touch upon: – Old age in ancient literature (Homer, Euripides, Horace), in the Bible and in the culture of Byzantium (Chapter I). – Attitudes towards old age in Romanticism: Mickiewicz, Słowacki, Krasiński, Norwid (Chapter II). – Attitudes towards old age in the Polish literature after 1864: Orzeszkowa, Zapolska, Grossek-Korycka, Żeromski, Grabiński, Kasprowicz, Hertzówna (Chapter III). – Degradation and elevation of old age in the twentieth-century Polish and German literature: Woroszylski, Wojtyła, Paziński, Kafka (Chapter IV). Both volumes feature a short anthology of literary texts that take old age as its subject matter. The scholars from Poznań and Białystok continue their work on the project.