Wheels of Change: Feminist Transgressions in Polish Culture and Society

Using rich and varied narrative images and resources, literary artworks, excerpts from philosophical and sociological writings, musicological theories and film studies, historical documents, and other materials, this collection of essays strongly sides with the feminist theory. All chapters tirelessly construct feminist discourse by depicting a new reality, language, and values to assess as well as understand the life, goals, and social achievements of women over a span of centuries in Polish culture and society.

Feminist transgression is envisioned as a thematic category bridging diverse, seemingly loose, distant, and even apparently contradictory women’s accounts. This theme develops a cohesiveness among chapters and provides an underlying unity, built on the coincidence of opposites, known in Latin as the principle of “coincidentia oppositorum.” Even if the dialogue among chapters may be perceived on the surface as difficult, the volume’s parts communicate deeply with each other by narrating, detailing, elaborating, and enlarging in space and time the presented dynamics of women’s transgressions. Transgression thus creates a special form of debate.

Keywords: transgression, feminist transgression and feminism, dynamics of women’s transgressions.

The book provokes a wide-ranging discussion and is a testimony to questions rather than ready answers. It provides different perspectives, placing emphasis on feminists transgressions present in high and popular culture, which are fundamental measures of female emancipation. ‘Feminist mobilisation’ is conditioned by historical time, geopolitical position, age, race, ethnic group, social class, sexual orientation of women. There is a need for an inclusive, transnational, translocative feminist dialogue, which does not omit the voice of ‘Slav women’ of Central and Eastern Europe.
Professor Mariola Bieńko

Jolanta Wróbel-Best – received double degrees in Polish language and literature as well as philosophy from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, and worked there as an assistant professor. Her Ph.D. dissertation examined Polish modernism (Tadeusz Miciński) and Henri Bergson’s metaphysics. The dissertation was given a publishing award and printed as a book (Misteria czasu 1999, 2012). She is the author of numerous articles on Polish literature and philosophy and her research includes Polish studies, continental philosophy, women’s studies, and translation. Currently, she holds a faculty appointment in philosophy at the University of Houston – Downtown in Houston, Texas.

Lynn Lubamersky, https://orcid.org/
“I Am a Woman, I Am Quite Aware of My Own Capabilities”: The Distinctive Voice of Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa On Love, Marriage, and Freedom
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.55-64

Elwira Grossman, https://orcid.org/
Feminist Transgression in Children’s Literature? Engendering Samples of Diverse Children’s Literature Published in 21st Century Poland
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.209-226

Aleksandra Gruzińska, https://orcid.org/
From Drama and Novel to Film: Rediscovering Feminist Transgression in the Discovery of Radium in Les Palmes de Monsieur Schutz
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.153-172

Krystyna Zabawa, https://orcid.org/
Grandmothers, Mothers, Daughters and Granddaughters: New Patterns of Female Characters in Polish Literature for Young Readers in the 21st Century
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.193-208

Halina Filipowicz, https://orcid.org/
Is Simply Saying “We” Enough? Feminism, Transgression, and the Challenge of the Transnational Turn
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.27-54

Grażyna Borkowska, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6281-4566
Narcyza Żmichowska: Building the Foundations and the Roleof Women
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.65-78

Anna Gąsienica Byrcyn, https://orcid.org/
Tamara Łempicka’s Veils of Transgressions as Captured in Robert Dassanowsky’s Poems
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.121-136

Aleksandra Święcka, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7197-0253
Tekla Bądarzewska as a Bold Representative of Female Composers of Polish Classical Music in the 19th Century
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.137-152

Jolanta Wróbel-Best, https://orcid.org/
The Bookkeeping Madness: Life as Transgression or Zofia Stryjeńska’s Approach to Art and Femininity
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.95-120

Daniel Kalinowski, https://orcid.org/
Women Rule: Manuela Gretkowska, Olga Tokarczuk, and the Self-Liberation of Polish Women
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.173-192

Józef Figa, https://orcid.org/
Women Want More: Władysław Reymont’s Parafeminism
https://doi.org/10.31338/uw.9788323549482.pp.79-94