Forms of Masculinity
Volume 1
Published on 17. November 2025
Book
Hardback
564 pages
978-3-631-94276-5 (ISBN)
Description
The book stems from an interdisciplinary and transdiscursive approach to describe Polish masculinities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, along with the "new masculinity" that has become increasingly distinct in the early twenty-first century. A collection of texts, the book covers Polish literature from Romanticism to the present day to thoroughly rethink the Polish literary studies in the context of various masculinities shaped in Polish culture over the last two centuries. The individual texts study masculinity with a plethora of methods, ranging from psychoanalysis and deconstruction through feminist literary criticism to queer studies. The scrutinized works of fiction reveal invaluable culture data - often constituting the most important source of knowledge about reality - that no other field of art could map so precisely.
More details
Persons
Adam Dziadek is a Full Professor of Polish Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice, specializing in literary theory, poetics, scholarly editing, comparative analysis, and masculinity. Chief editor of Aleksander Wat's oeuvre, he published extensively about poetry and translated key works of literary theory.
Filip Mazurkiewicz is an Associate Professor of Polish Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice. His research focuses on the Polish nineteenth-century novel and the broader cultural context of the period, along with issues of masculinity and modernity. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the scholarly journal Wiek XIX.
Content
Masculinity Studies
Adam Dziadek
Part 1: Historical and Theoretical Prolegomena
De(re)construction of Masculinity
Krysztof Klosinski
Remarks on the Still Unwritten History of Masculinity in Poland
Tomasz Tomasik
Nineteenth-Century Masculinity: A Prolegomenon
Filip Mazurkiewicz
Fabricated Masculinity: On Homosociality
Mateusz Skucha
Part 2: Polish Masculinities of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Railways of Desire: Prus - Freud - Grabinski
Tomasz Kalisciak
Gender Relations Inside the Dulskis' Establishment
Krystyna Klosinska
Benedykt Dybowski and Wlodzimierz Popiel, or On a Certain Discourse of Polish Profeminists at the Turn of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Mateusz Skucha
Endangered Masculinity / Endagered Masculinities
Krystyna Klosinska
Seductive Patriot, Aroused Admirer, and the Complex Pursuit of Orgasm: On Erotic (Non)Masculinities in the Polish Interwar Nationalist Novel
Dezydery Barlowski
The Fascinating Allure of Masculinity
Slawomir Buryla
Excess of Masculinity: Boxing Narratives in Holocaust Literature
Pawel Wolski
Hegemony and Trauma: Literature after 1945 in the Face of Transformations of Masculinity
Wojciech Smieja
Part 3: Case Studies
Witold Gombrowicz's Invisible Operetta: From Hegemonic to Atopic Masculinity
Filip Mazurkiewicz
A Piece of the "Fedora" Cake: The Male-Centered Imagination of Jerzy Andrzejewski
Wojciech Smieja
"Made hysterical by Your Lack of Power": Masculinity in the Work of Tadeusz Konwicki (Based on A Dreambook for Our Time)
Agnieszka Wrobel
Who are you? - Little Hans. The Polish Political Subject from the Viewpoint of Jarslaw Marek Rymkiewicz
Dawid Matuszek
Creature: Swietlicki Under the Guise of Masculinity
Dawid Matuszek
The prose of life: (Un)canny/unheimlich stories
Grzegorz Olszanski
The End of Masculinity or the Description of the Witcher
Dawid Matuszek
Adam Dziadek
Part 1: Historical and Theoretical Prolegomena
De(re)construction of Masculinity
Krysztof Klosinski
Remarks on the Still Unwritten History of Masculinity in Poland
Tomasz Tomasik
Nineteenth-Century Masculinity: A Prolegomenon
Filip Mazurkiewicz
Fabricated Masculinity: On Homosociality
Mateusz Skucha
Part 2: Polish Masculinities of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Railways of Desire: Prus - Freud - Grabinski
Tomasz Kalisciak
Gender Relations Inside the Dulskis' Establishment
Krystyna Klosinska
Benedykt Dybowski and Wlodzimierz Popiel, or On a Certain Discourse of Polish Profeminists at the Turn of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Mateusz Skucha
Endangered Masculinity / Endagered Masculinities
Krystyna Klosinska
Seductive Patriot, Aroused Admirer, and the Complex Pursuit of Orgasm: On Erotic (Non)Masculinities in the Polish Interwar Nationalist Novel
Dezydery Barlowski
The Fascinating Allure of Masculinity
Slawomir Buryla
Excess of Masculinity: Boxing Narratives in Holocaust Literature
Pawel Wolski
Hegemony and Trauma: Literature after 1945 in the Face of Transformations of Masculinity
Wojciech Smieja
Part 3: Case Studies
Witold Gombrowicz's Invisible Operetta: From Hegemonic to Atopic Masculinity
Filip Mazurkiewicz
A Piece of the "Fedora" Cake: The Male-Centered Imagination of Jerzy Andrzejewski
Wojciech Smieja
"Made hysterical by Your Lack of Power": Masculinity in the Work of Tadeusz Konwicki (Based on A Dreambook for Our Time)
Agnieszka Wrobel
Who are you? - Little Hans. The Polish Political Subject from the Viewpoint of Jarslaw Marek Rymkiewicz
Dawid Matuszek
Creature: Swietlicki Under the Guise of Masculinity
Dawid Matuszek
The prose of life: (Un)canny/unheimlich stories
Grzegorz Olszanski
The End of Masculinity or the Description of the Witcher
Dawid Matuszek