English language

The present article is aimed at examining the category of the reality status by discussing the dichotomy "realis / irrealis" in the context of the categories of modality, habituality and futurity. Prototype analysis is juxtaposed with scope analysis, and the category of the habitual is discussed from the typological perspective as well as from the perspective of its connection with the category of futurity. The paper presents aspect diversity of habituals (perfective and imperfective aspect and its contextual implications) as well as the differentiation between the habitual and modality. A special focus is on the prototype analysis and its application instances in Polish, English and Hebrew. The primary objective of the paper is to show that, although it is possible to treat irrealis as notional category, the habituals in Polish and many other Slavic languages (e.g. Czech) should be identified with the modality domain rather than irrealis category. The paper is also an attempt to provide an insight into the distinction between (ir)realis and encoding systems of modalities as the habitual aspect displays modal category features in many languages (including Polish).

Abstract. ‘The world’s landscapes are but the screen on which the past, present, and anticipated cosmic vanity of mankind is written. Land is the palimpsest of human needs, desires, meaning, greed, and fears’. James Houston’s vision of landscapes as reservoirs of the most fundamental aspects of humanity supports the cognitive value of traveling as far as interhuman relationships are concerned. This, in its interracial dimension, was a primary interest of John Howard Griffin. In 1959 the renowned white Texan journalist went on a tour of the Deep South, a quest preceded by a specific medical treatment resulting in Griffin’s skin turning black. The journey was documented in the bestselling memoir Black Like Me, which is a testimony of Griffin’s passing as a black man, the resulting alienation, dealing with ‘the hate stare’ and, finally, him re-examining his own racism. The aim of my article is to demonstrate that, although some critics claim his passing was a failure (e.g., Kate Baldwin’s assertion that Griffin’s blackness is only superficial as the author sustains his ‘white’ jargon both in thought and talk), the discussed memoir approaches the racial Other by sharing some vital features with the slave narrative (its purpose being the enhancement of communal consciousness or asking a white person to preface and thus authenticate the story).

''Without the juice of friendship, I would not be even what I seem to be.'' Such excerpts expressing affirmation of friendship proliferate in Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Road (1942). Although in her autobiography the avoidance of intimate details is striking, Hurston devotes two distinct chapters to the virtue of friendship, which is tackled respectfully, with sophisticated vocabulary. Hurston admits she lacked perfection in friendship, but nevertheless she appreciates the material patronage, the emotional support and the fun she had with numerous friends. Those three functions are parallel to Aristotelian distinctions of friendship, based upon utility, virtue or pleasure. The focus of my paper will be the potentially morally dubious relationship Hurston had with her patrons (Charlotte Osgood Mason, Carl Van Vechten, Franz Boas, Fannie Hurst). My aim will be to prove that, considering the Aristotelian approach, such a relationship may still be classified as friendship, which in Hurston's case blurs racial, economic and even death boundaries.

Modern Western society is definitely materialistic-oriented and the process of dehumanization affects numerous aspects of life, including the sphere of partnership. The private areas of human existence have inevitably been permeated by the capitalistic spirit based on gaining possessions and aspiring to obtain high social status. The dehumanization of the partner can be observed on different levels, and is often conducted unconsciously. The aspects of the process include assigning a person the sign value, alienating him or her from the self, transferring the relationship from the being to the having mode of thinking. Perceiving the partner a commodity implies different kinds of values that can be attached to it. Karl Marx’s Capital may seem too ancient a source, but actually the text provides the very basis for approaching the concept. Marx defines a commodity as ''in the first place, an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another'' (26). Then the distinction between use and exchange value of the commodity is introduced. According to the cognitive theory of relevance, human mind is constantly looking for sense and consequently, for utility of the elements of the surrounding world. Thus, the diminutive role of use value, which is the kind of value most naturally and easily perceived, and replacing it with the abstract idea of synthetic value, leads to the detachment of the commodity from its features and – if a human being is considered a commodity – to his or her dehumanization. The measure Marx uses to assess the value of a given commodity is the amount of social labour invested in the process of its production. It seems that the unconscious evaluation of the partner’s value is based on the similar procedure – the ''magnitude of value'' is here the labour spent on obtaining a certain status (e.g. hours spent at the gym aspiring to reach an impressive body shape, hours spent at the university to get a degree, hours spent at work accumulating wealth manifesting itself in the material possessions, etc.).The roots of the phenomena of treating a human being as an object (commodity) can be also traced in another Marx’s volume, mainly in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, where the theory of alienation is presented. The self-estrangement inevitably implies the parallel process operating in the sphere of relationship. The estrangement of man from man is, according to Marx, an ''immediate consequence of the fact that man is estranged from the product of his labour, from his life activity, from his species-being... What applies to a man’s relation to his work, to the product of his labour and to himself, also holds of a man’s relation to the other man…'' (32). Thus, the economic base strictly concentrated on the materialistic items finds its reflection in the areas belonging to the superstructure – emotions, relationships, the way the partner (or a hypothetical one) is perceived. Popular culture provides numerous vital representations of the dehumanization phenomenon, romantic comedies being the most obvious but at the same time tricky source. Taking into consideration quite recent movie Crazy, Stupid, Love and juxtaposing it with the concepts originating from the marxist literary theory I will aim to prove how far away from the idealistic image of love and relationship the consciousness of modern human being has deviated.

Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America (2003) by Firoozeh Dumas presents an identity constitution process affected by double otherness – being both ethnic and female. The memoir was written after September 11th, in the period when it became possible for the US to impose military actions against Iran for its nuclear programme. Its reception influenced by political upheavals, the book was both criticized for diminishing and trivializing Iranian culture and praised for embracing diasporic as well as American socio-cultural identity element effectively. As the title suggests, the language in its humorous depiction plays a crucial role in the narrative construction. The light-hearted tone of the narration flourishing with numerous funny anecdotes cannot neglect the special status both languages – Persian and English – have in the immigrant's identity searching cycle. As Babak Elahi notices in her essay ''Translating the Self: Language and Identity in Iranian-American Women's Memoirs'', language is both ''the body and garment of ethnic and national identities'' (463). Thus, the concept that I would like to focus on in my presentation is the notion of an ''accented identity (accented writing)'', celebrating hybridity as opposed to ''an acknowledgement of assimilation into American society'' (Elahi, 461). My aim will be to prove that Dumas's memoir expresses the celebration of cultural variety, its author being proud of her Iranian ancestry as well as praising American values and opportunities that she had gained because of the immigration. Her example adequately portrays ''how Iranian-Americans might transform the trauma of a language lost into the celebration of a self regained or reconstructed, translation of identity into a new language or through a dialectical relationship between two languages'' (Elahi 461).

In The Anatomy Lesson, the third novel of Zuckerman Bound series (1983), Nathan Zuckerman suffers from a severe pain of inexplicable origin. Imprisoned at home and immobilized in the collar, the narrator is at the mercy of his four lovers. Zuckerman, desperately looking for the meaning of his condition, is inspired to consider requalifying – quitting writing and applying to a medical university. Forced to lie on his playmat, the indolent patient starts to ponder various explanations for his unjustified suffering. The pain is either interpreted as a punishment for literary cruelty to his parents, the ''displaced guilt'' (Wilson 112), or as an emblem of his struggle with a famous literary critic Milton Appel. Yet another interpretation might be that all his life he has followed the wrong calling. Though belittled by the people around him, the pain is also the source of internal otherness: ''Yet he didn't seem to have a disease that anybody could take seriously … Just having a neck, arms, and shoulders was like carrying another person around'' (Roth 3). In my presentation I will aim to focus on tracing how the signals sent by the sick body may be treated as representing the patient's unconscious desires.

Claiming Breath by Diane Glancy is an account of the author's one-year journey during which she taught poetry and travelled between Oklahoma and Arkansas. The text's structure relies upon a montage of neatly organised diary entries, poems, titled undated prose entries and, last but not least, reflections on Indian oral tradition. The whole text is clearly autobiographical, and because the diary parts prevail, it may be studied as a specimen of the diary genre: ''fragmentary, made up of a series of 'entries' or 'notes' … These units, which are separated from one another, have their own morphology: date at the top, a beginning, an end, and possibly internal divisions … So each entry is a microorganism caught up in a discontinuous whole: between two entries, a blank space'' (Lejeune 178). The latter idea is echoed by Glancy's reflection on ''that empty space'', which is how she refers to her state of constantly being in between. In Claiming Breath, the fragmentary structure reflects the identity split into two cultural heritages: the writer's father's Cherokee roots and her mother's Anglo culture. Discontinuity of the external structure seems to form a conscious parallel to the content as the term ''fragments'' proliferates both in the poems and in the diary entries. Likewise, the depiction of the major themes discussed in Claiming Breath (poetry, writing, teaching, otherness, ethnicity and feminism, converted by Glancy into ''shedonism'') is of fragmentary nature. Lejeune proposes that a critical approach to the diary should be compared to a musical analysis, so that ''the internal dimension would begin with an analysis of the diary text itself, to establish its internal morphology (themes and forms) and how the links between them are organized'' (180). In view of all that, the aim of my paper will be to explore the connections between the ''internal morphology'' of Claiming Breath and its author's fragmentary identity.

"W jaki sposób obejmujemy umysłem przeszłość? Czy to w ogóle możliwe? Kiedy byłem studentem medycyny, podczas potańcówki na zakończenie semestru paru figlarzy wpuściło do sali nasmarowane tłuszczem prosię. Plątało się pod nogami, wymykało z rąk, kwiczało jak najęte. Ludzie rzucali się na nie, próbując je schwycić, a skutek był tylko taki, że się ośmieszali. Wygląda na to, że przeszłość zachowuje się zawsze jak to prosię" (Barnes 13). Odnosząc "przymioty" prosięta, które wspomina narrator, do przeszłości-Barnes jasno czyni te dwa koncepty paralelnymi-plątanie się pod nogami prosięta oznacza fakt, iż przeszłość nieustannie obecna jest w naszej świadomości oraz sposobie postrzegania teraźniejszości. Wyrażenie to oznacza również pewną irytację, podenerwowanie-coś lub ktoś "plątający się pod nogami" wywołuje negatywne konotacje, przeszkadza, nie pozwala swobodnie się poruszać bądź wykonywać zamierzonej czynności. Przeszłość, niczym nasmarowane tłuszczem prosię, wymyka się z rąk, a więc nie daje się do końca zrozumieć. Sens przeszłych wydarzeń jest postrzegany przez pryzmat danego momentu, w którym obecnie się znajdujemy; sens ten ewoluuje-może okazać się, że wraz z upływem czasu percepcja danych wydarzeń, przeżyć, osób z przeszłości zmieni się parokrotnie. Co więcej, obraz przeszłości wymyka się z rąk, ponieważ nawet jeśli naszej świadomości "uda się" ustalić spójny, wiarygodny obraz wydarzeń, w których uczestniczyła, musimy zdawać sobie sprawę ze skrajnej subiektywności takiego przedstawienia. Barnes, "dopuszczając do głosu" relację Luizy Colet, różniącą się znacząco od obrazu romansu postrzeganego przez pryzmat Flauberta i jego przyjaciół, zdaje się w pełni legitymizować tezę o subiektywności wspomnień, jak również, w szerszym kontekście, przeżyć ludzkich w ogóle. Przywołane przez narratora prosię kwiczy jak najęte, a więc jest źródłem drażniącego ucho hałasu, nie pozwalającego na zignorowanie pojawienia się zwierzęcia czy kontynuowanie zabawy. W tym kontekście przeszłość również domaga się naszej uwagi; pamięć o wydarzeniach trudnych, bolesnych, wstydliwych bądź odwrotnie-satysfakcjonujących, kojących, dających wrażenie spełnienia-powraca niekiedy z zadziwiającą mocą, zdając się "kwiczeć" w świadomości teraźniejszej. Ludzie rzucający się na prosię i próbujący je schwycić to właściwie my wszyscy, ponieważ impuls do analizowania i próby nadania spójności i jednoznacznego, racjonalnego sensu przeszłości są uniwersalne. Dotyczy to zarówno przeżyć indywidualnych, jak i szerszego kontekstu historii narodowej i powszechnej. Skutek takich dążeń jest na ogół taki sam, jak podczas wspomnianej przez narratora potańcówki-próbom schwycenia przeszłości towarzyszy ośmieszenie, zażenowanie bądź indywidualne poczucie klęski czy rozczarowania. Podejmując próbę odpowiedzi na pytanie, co to znaczy, że przeszłość zachowuje się jak "prosię"-a więc nie w porządku, nieładnie, głupio, prostacko-należy również odnieść się do prototypicznych konotacji, jakie to zwierzę wywołuje. Prosię powszechnie kojarzy się z brakiem czystości, należytej powagi, postawą niezbyt mądrą czy szlachetną, a wręcz obsceniczną bądź wulgarną. Jeśli przeszłość to "prosię", nie można na niej polegać, a wręcz należy zakładać, że w każdej chwili może nam wypłatać niezbyt wyrafinowanego figla. Do próby poskromienia tego kapryśnego stworzenia posiadamy dwa narzędzia. W przypadku badania historii, czyli zbiorowego przeżywania przeszłości takim orężem jest historiografia. Aparatem poznawczym, na jaki jesteśmy skazani przy próbie skonsolidowania wspomnień indywidualnych jest pamięć. Celem mojej prezentacji będzie próba analizy, jak te dwa narzędzia przedstawione są przez Barnes'a, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem pobrzmiewającego wyraźnie w Papudze Flauberta echa tez Haydena White'a, który w Poetyce pisarstwa historycznego stawia tezę, iż obiektywna prawda historyczna nie istnieje, ponieważ nie mamy bezpośredniego dostępu do wydarzeń w przeszłości. Jedyne, do czego mamy dostęp to relacje, które są nieuchronnie naznaczone subiektywizmem. Jeśli relacjonowanie wydarzeń historycznych ma charakter narracyjny, a historiografia może być porównana do dzieła literackiego, przeszłość poznajemy przez literaturę, w której naturę wpisana jest fikcja, konwencja, brak obiektywizmu.

The idea of the Other is a crucial concept in Western philosophy. The Constitutive Other may refer to the person (consciousness) other than the self (self-consciousness) or, in a broader sociological dimension, it can denote ''the others'' – groups of diverse nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, individuals performing distinct social roles, possessing different social status or set of moral values. In my paper I would like to compare and contrast two depictions of self/other relation in the context of its dialogic aspect. In this respect, Levinasian notion of responsibility is often compared to somehow parallel Bakhtinian notion of answerability. Responsibility, understood as the general movement of response to the other, is inscribed in social dialogue since functioning in a society inevitably entails responding to particular others. Answerability is defined as responding to the other ''from within'' the particular dialogic situation. Both Bakhtin and Levinas assume the primacy of social over philosophical understanding of otherness. Levinas privileges other as ensuring the stability of the self's ethical conduct. Similarly, for Bakhtin the self is always open (responding) to the other, though subjectivity inescapably privileges sameness over difference. Despite substantial similarities both philosophers present, I would like to point to the notion of excess as shared yet understood differently. Levinas locates the excess on the part of the other and perceives it as a remedy for experiencing lack. In this regard, the source of any motivation to act comes from the other and is devoted to the other. Quite the opposite is claimed by Bakhtin who ascribes excess to the self and situates the other in the position of ''infinitely substitutable''. Unlike Levinas, Bakhtin does not assign priority to the other automatically. The other is appreciated in the context of its potential contribution to the self, which is called ''unconsummated fluidity''.

Sandra Cisneros is a contemporary American poet, short story writer, novelist and essayist of Chicano origin. Her autobiographical novel The House on Mango Street was published in 1984. Its fragmentary structure refers to the form of a diary, in which subsequent entries begin on a new page (instead of dates, each entry is entitled). Cisneros described her childhood which she spent in a poor district, surrounded by other immigrants. The novel depicts various Others who have influenced the constitution of the author's identity and sense of self – siblings, neighbours, peers, families living at Mango Street, the inhabitants of other (better) districts. Thus, in my paper I would like to discuss the relevance of the encounter with the Other for the formation of the author's feminine and feminist identity. In The House on Mango Street otherness is manifested in gender – Cisneros admits that her two brothers talk with their sisters within the home eagerly, but outside nobody should see them talking with girls. The Other is also an absent best friend, the would-be addressee of secrets and jokes or the author's younger sister Nenny referred to as ''responsibility'', which may be understood in the traditional sense as ''duty'', or, in the context of Levinas's theory, as the constant necessity to respond. The encounter with otherness is, to a great extent, portrayed as a positive experience (e.g. peers serving an initiatory role), but it may also be oppressive (e.g. incidents of sexual harassment, mother-superior who humiliates Cisneros at school) or controlling (on the part of men and the local community who constantly evaluate the girls' behaviour). Most significantly, the author's feminist consciousness is developed in opposition to Others – a neighbour who is the victim of abuse, girls whose only dream is to marry the right man, or sister who is perceived merely through her appearance.

Diane Glancy's Claiming Breath (first published in 1992) is a montage of dated diary entries, poems, titled undated prose entries and reflections on Indian oral tradition. In her fragmentary piece Glancy depicts a wide variety of motifs, her newly-acquired feminist awareness being one of the prevailing themes. As a divorcee with adult children, Glancy disengages from inhibiting familial constraints and embarks on a professional and literary career as a poetry teacher and writer. Quite early in the narrative the reader gets familiar with the author's unsuccessful marriage which was the source of oppression. The reason for her staying in such a relationship for nineteen years seems to be the patriarchal model she was brought up in: ''I suppose it's because I'm from a generation whose mothers were homebound. It was my father who was the center of energy for the family'' (51). The birth of the writing self coincides with the divorce and results in abandoning the burden of the generational heritage to begin a '' journey which my mother never made before she folded up her camp'' and to have '' what men have had/liberty to be myself'' (Glancy 87). Indeed, the manifestation of the author's independence is her unrestrained traveling across the US as the piece presents Glancy's one-year journey between the schools in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Travelling is not only the expression of the regained autonomy, but also the source of great pleasure, which is referred to as 'SHEdonism', a peculiar mixture of feminism and hedonism, ''the enjoyment of oneself as a woman'' (Glancy 52). Finally, the journey may be perceived as the opportunity to encounter external otherness, embodied by the drivers who engage in some sort of a silent game with the author. The aim of my paper will be to discuss those three major roles that Glancy's physical and literary journey serves.

The present article is aimed at examining the category of the reality status by discussing the dichotomy "realis / irrealis" in the context of the categories of modality, habituality and futurity. Prototype analysis is juxtaposed with scope analysis, and the category of the habitual is discussed from the typological perspective as well as from the perspective of its connection with the category of futurity. The paper presents aspect diversity of habituals (perfective and imperfective aspect and its contextual implications) as well as the differentiation between the habitual and modality. A special focus is on the prototype analysis and its application instances in Polish, English and Hebrew. The primary objective of the paper is to show that, although it is possible to treat irrealis as notional category, the habituals in Polish and many other Slavic languages (e.g. Czech) should be identified with the modality domain rather than irrealis category. The paper is also an attempt to provide an insight into the distinction between (ir)realis and encoding systems of modalities as the habitual aspect displays modal category features in many languages (including Polish).