Joseph Roth (1984–1939) belonged to a generation that was affected by two world wars, the collapse of the old world order, emerging nationalism and forced emigration. Columns, journalistic activity and literary works were an expressions of growing frustration, escape from the world, resignation and one’s own helplessness. The columns are a perfect mirror of the changes that have occured in the writer over the decades. At the same time, they became an expression of emotions and experiences and manifested them in (...) various forms and styles of artistic expression. The definition of the feature section, in the sense Joseph Roth understands, stylistic influences on his work and its characteristic features, cooperation with the exile press are the components of the article understood as an attempt to outline the general characteristics of the genre in the author’s work. (shrink)

Interpreting dreams was an important aspect of Sigmund Freud’s life. In his statements and works, he repeated multiple times that a dream is the fulfilment of a wish. Dream analysis had a huge impact on his subsequent research, including psychoanalysis and the theory of the subconscious. Through his work he contributed to people starting to analyze their dreams, and they continue to do so to this day. However, the difficulty in analyzing the dreams was their transience and length. This meant (...) that remembering them was often problematic. Freudian psychoanalysis and the interpretation of dreams were frequent motifs in Artur Schnitzler’s work. One of them is _Traumnovelle_, or _Eyes Wide Shut_. The aim of the article is to show how Freudian psychoanalysis is presented in the work of the Austrian writer and why the symbolism of dreams and its meaning are so important in the context of the discussed work. (shrink)

Power is the main theme of the play _Bang_, which polish premiered in 2019 and took place at the New Theater of Kazimierz Dejmek in Łódź. The play was directed based on the drama of the same title, written by the contemporary German author and playwright Marius von Mayenburg. The aim of the article is to analyze and describe the means by which the viewer has the opportunity to understand why the theme of power is highlighted against the background of (...) others presented in the play and to answer the question of what is the reason for the main character Ralf Bang’s desire to exercise power even before his own birth. (shrink)

The Haskalah, as an intellectual movement among Jews, was a reformist trend of the late 18th century. In Zgierz, it only emerged in the 1860s. Its goal was to promote a new cultural ideal of the Jew as someone well-versed in the Torah while simultaneously integrating into the local community. Education, combating Jewish separatism, preserving identity, culture, and the Hebrew language, as well as the languages of local communities, were key tasks undertaken by the maskilim. Jewish Enlightenment was also manifested (...) through active involvement in local government institutions, interactions with the Christian population, literary and journalistic activities. The following article attempts to outline the specific characteristics of this phenomenon in Zgierz, depicting its history, significance, and development. (shrink)

This article confronts aphorisms by two authors who are far apart in the time continuum. What they – the aphorisms – have in common is that they focus on a critical examination of language as a means of communication. The conclusion of the analysis can be summarised as follows. In the first case, we are dealing with a scholar and exact scientist – a university professor of experimental physics in Göttingen in the Age of Enlightenment. The other, on the other (...) hand, is a contemporary politician and active parliamentarian. As one would expect, the former insists on an exact analysis of the means of language and resists imposing limits on it. The other aphorist, on the other hand, is inclined to commit himself to precise linguistic formulations. His expressis verbis credo is rather committed to dialectics and reads: You should not read an aphorism several times in order to understand it once, but read it once in order to understand it several times. (shrink)

The analysis of the “Tygodniówka” column published on the last page of a weekly magazine “Angora” for the years 2020–2021 made it possible to evaluate the way of presenting an individual and his everyday life during the COVID-19 pandemic in a crooked mirror of cartoon jokes. During one year there is an evident change in attitudes and behaviour of people who have already got used to the pandemic to some extent. Due to the length of the material collected and the (...) most visible change that took place in the way of presenting the mocked events, attitudes and human behaviour in the past year, two specific issues of “Angora” were selected, i.e. 49/2020 and 49/2021. In addition, the examples from the holiday issue 33/2021 have shown how the behaviour of an individual living in constant fear of the coronavirus changes during a vacation. A man tired of the prohibitions and sanitary regime to be in force also seeks opportunities not to follow them for a while. He consciously circumvents restrictions and prohibitions, does not comply with the sanitary regime, which is manifested by the resignation from wearing masks and maintaining social distance. All of this can be found in the jokes of “Tygodniówka”, where mercilessly accurately reflects the pandemic reality, although it’s been showed in the crooked mirror. The person seems to be sure that the coronavirus has magically ceased to be a threat, perhaps even disappeared. (shrink)

This article shows which subject matter is to be found in the German black joke. The material analysis includes 30 jokes taken from the book “Da bleibt kein Auge trocken” by Willy Millowitsch (1980). Besides the subjects to be found (violence, suffering and death) the form of the jokes and the sentence types appearing in the black jokes mentioned by Millowitsch are also important.

The article discusses translation strategies for the lyrics of Agnieszka Osiecka’s songs, highlighting the challenges associated with transferring verbal-musical content into another language. The article emphasizes that literal translations may not always preserve the original function of the song, and the key decision for the translator becomes the choice between a formal and dynamic approach. The author points out two levels of impact that songs have on the listener: a sensory level, related to sound and melody, and a cognitive level, (...) associated with understanding and interpreting the lyrics. Hence, successful translation of songs requires consideration of both these aspects. (shrink)

Stefan Zweig, an outstanding Austrian writer of the 20th century, referring to Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s theory of the novella, depicts in his _The Royal Game_ an unheard story: the meeting of two talented chess players. It is a collision of two extremes, personifying barbarism and humanism. This article traces how Zweig employs time in his work on two levels: historical and psychological. A detailed analysis explores how Zweig portrays the realities of National Socialist terror and its impact on the human (...) psyche. (shrink)