orient in literature literature of the orient...international conference on oriental literatures and...

International Conference on Oriental Literatures and Orient in Literary Texts

5th Edition

Orient in Literature – Literature of the Orient

Literature Towards Freedom & Oppression

28-29 March 2019 Toruń

PROGRAM & ABSTRACTS

Adam Bednarczyk Magdalena Kubarek Magdalena Lewicka Maciej Szatkowski

Michał Dahl

Faculty of Languages Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń

2019

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The 5th Edition of the International Conference:

Orient in Literature – Literature of the Orient Literature Towards Freedom & Oppression

Toruń, 28-29 March, 2019

Program & Abstracts

https://ollo2019.wordpress.com/

Department of Japanese Studies Arabic Language and Culture Center

Chinese Language and Culture Center

Faculty of Languages

Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń, Poland

&

Polish Oriental Society http://pto.orient.uw.edu.pl/

Print Machina Druku

Szosa Bydgoska 50, 87-100 Toruń tel.: +48 56 651 97 87 tel.: +48 502 320 776

[email protected]

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PROGRAM

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Thursday, 28 March 2019 09:30-18:00 Registration desk open (in front of Kolankowski’s Hall [Room 307],

Collegium Maius) 10:00-10:15 Opening of the Conference and Welcome Adresses (Kolankowski’s Hall) Opening address The Dean of the Faculty of Languages, Nicolaus Copernicus University

Przemysław NEHRING Professor of Classical Philology

10:15-11:45 Plenary session (Kolankowski’s Hall) Keynote speech (1) Prof. Stephan GUTH Professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Literatures

Department of Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS) University of Oslo

Three Middle Eastern Utopias and the Fading Trust in the Nahdah

Keynote speech (2) Prof. Lisette GEBHARDT Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture

Department 9: Languages and Cultures Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University

Thought Control and Totalitarian System in Recent Japanese Literature: Yoshimura Man’ichi, Tsushima Yûko and Kirino Natsuo

11:45-12:00 Coffee break (Room 306) 12:00-14:00 Noon session (Collegium Maius) Panel 1: Freedom and Oppression in Chinese Literature (Room 309)

Panel 2: Concepts of Freedom (Room 307)

Panel 3: Different Perspectives of Freedom and Oppression (1) (Room 203)

14:00-15:00 Lunch break (restaurant at Collegium Maius) 15:00-16:30 Afternoon session (Collegium Maius) Panel 4: The Dimensions of Freedom in Arabic Literature (Room 307)

Panel 5: Freedom and Religious Texts (Room 309)

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Panel 6: Discourses about Freedom (Room 203)

16:30-17:00 Coffee break (Room 306) 17:00-19:00 Evening session (Collegium Maius) Evening session (Collegium Maius) Panel 7: The Experience of Oppression in Contemporary Japanese Literature –

Precarity, Imprisonment, Totalitarian Tendencies (Room 307)

Panel 8: Woman: between Freedom and Oppression (1) (Room 203)

Panel 9: China: the Picture of Freedom and Oppression (Room 309)

19:00 Conference welcome reception (restaurant at Collegium Maius)

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Friday, 29 March 2019 09:45-14:30 Late registration desk open (in front of Kolankowski’s Hall [Room 307]) 10:00-11:30 Plenary session (Kolankowski’s Hall) Keynote speech (3) Prof. Marek DZIEKAN Professor of Arabic Culture and Literature

Department of Middle East and North Africa University of Łódź

Koncepcja wolności w „Al-Lisan al-murib an tahafut al-adżnabi hawla Al-Maghrib” Muhammada as-Sulajmaniego (1869–1926)

Keynote speech (4) Prof. Daniel KALINOWSKI Professor of Polish Studies

Institute of Polish Studies Pomeranian University in Słupsk

Trzy drogi do buddyjskiej wolności (Jack Kerouac, Janwillem van de van de Wetering, Artur Cieślar)

11:30-12:00 Coffee break (Room 306) 12:00-14:00 Noon session (Collegium Maius) Panel 10: Woman: between Freedom and Oppression (2) (Room 307)

Panel 11: The Freedom in Colonial and Postcolonial Perspective (Room 309)

Panel 12: Freedom in Contemporary Arabic Literature (Room 203)

14:00-15:00 Lunch break (restaurant at Collegium Maius) 15:00-17:00 Afternoon session (Collegium Maius)

17:00 17:15-19:00

Panel 13: Freedom and Violence in Narration (Room 307) Panel 14: Spheres of Freedom and Oppression between Orient and Polish Literature (Room 309) Panel 15: Different Perspectives of Freedom and Oppression (2) (Room 203) Conference closing remarks (Kolankowski’s Hall) Integration event: guided tour at Toruń’s Old Town ent. “Get Gothic”

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KEYNOTE SPEECHES &

PANELS

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Keynote Speech 1

Thursday, 28 March, 10:15-10:45 / Room 307

Language: English

PPrrooff.. SStteepphhaann GGUUTTHH

Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages

UNIVERSITY OF OSLO (Oslo/Norway)

[email protected]

TThhrreeee MMiiddddllee EEaasstteerrnn UUttooppiiaass aanndd tthhee FFaaddiinngg TTrruusstt iinn tthhee NNaahhddaahh

The paper analyses three utopian novellas, written by prominent authors from the Middle East at three different periods

(M.F. Akhundov 1857, Al-Manfalūṭī c. 1908, Y. Idrīs 1954). Each novella represents a stage in the development of Middle

Easterners’ attitude towards the project of a nahḍah, or cultural upswing/revival, and with it the – gradually decreasing –

belief in the feasibility of social and political reform, progress, and modernity in general. The main focus of the analysis will be

on narrative perspective, as the structural feature that tells us most about the writers’ vision du monde – and the view of their

respective society’s future.

Keynote Speech 2


Language: English

PPrrooff.. LLiisseettttee GGEEBBHHAARRDDTT

Department 9: Languages and Cultures

JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE-UNIVERSITY (Frankfurt/Germany)

[email protected]

TThhoouugghhtt CCoonnttrrooll aanndd TToottaalliittaarriiaann SSyysstteemm iinn RReecceenntt JJaappaanneessee LLiitteerraattuurree::

YYoosshhiimmuurraa MMaann’’iicchhii,, TTssuusshhiimmaa YYûûkkoo aanndd KKiirriinnoo NNaattssuuoo

The last years of Abe Shinzô’s leadership as prime minister of Japan were characterized by a conservative legislation and

a restrictive press code. The tendency to limit freedom of opinion led to a lower placement of Japan on the annual worldwide

press freedom index, where it ranked 72nd in 2017, 67th in 2018. A few representatives of the literary community, however,

still cling to the values of Japanese postwar democracy and state their opinions frankly. Especially when it comes to

a fictional representation of the trifold catastrophe on 11th March 2011, they precisely show aspects of an unwanted reality.

Noteworthy is first of all, the late renowned writer Tsushima Yûko 津島佑子 (1947–2016) with Hangenki wo iwatte (半減期を

祝って 2016 / Celebrating Half-time) where she refers to the German “Hitler Jugend” when she characterizes a dystopian

totalitarian Japanese society in the near future. Yoshimura Man’ichi (Borâdobyô ボラード病 2014 / The Bollard Syndrom)

and Kirino Natsuo (Baraka バラカ ) create similar dystopian systems in their texts and prove thus that Japanese

“post-disaster literature” (shinsaigo bungaku 震災後文学) has made a contribution to today’s world literature in the direction

of what was formally known as “political literature”.

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Keynote Speech 3


Language: Polish

PPrrooff.. MMaarreekk DDZZIIEEKKAANN

Department of Middle East and North Africa

UNIVERSITY OF ŁÓDŹ (Łódź/Poland)

[email protected]

KKoonncceeppccjjaa wwoollnnoośśccii ww AAll--LLiissaann aall--mmuurriibb aann ttaahhaaffuutt aall--aaddżżnnaabbii hhaawwllaa

AAll--MMaagghhrriibb MMuuhhaammmmaaddaa aass--SSuullaajjmmaanniieeggoo((11886699––11992266))

Muhammad Ibn al-Aradż as-Sulajmani należy do grupy marokańskich intelektualistów przełomu wieków XIX i XX, których

pisarstwo oraz działalność społeczno-polityczna odegrały kluczową rolę w marokańskiej nahdy. As-Sulajmani wywodził się

z Al-Mu’askaru w Algierii, ale swoje życie związał z Marokiem. Był znanym historykiem, ale jego twórczość obejmuje także

poezję i jest jednym z najwybitniejszych poetów swego kraju w XX wieku. Najważniejszym dziełem As-Sulajmaniego jest

obszerna praca historyczna „Zubdat at-tarich wa-zahrat asz-szamarich” [Masło historii i kwiat winogradu], która pozostaje

po dziś dzień w rękopisie. W 1911 roku ukazał się natomiast w Rabacie skrót tej pracy, „Al-Lisan al-murib an tahafut

al-adżnabi haula Al-Maghrib” [Język opowiadający o zniszczeniu Maghrebu przez cudzoziemców]. Niewielki traktat Ibn

al-Aradża obejmuje z jednej strony analizy historyczne, z drugiej zaś odnosi się do pewnych pojęć filozoficznych

i socjologicznych, w tym wolności (hurrijja). W zasadzie jego pojęcie wolności można uznać za bardzo zbliżone

do zachodniego rozumienia tego terminu, co w tamtych czasach nie było powszechne, a czasem nie jest i dzisiaj.

Przedmiotem wystąpienia będzie prezentacja mało znanej na zachodzie postaci As-Sulajmaniego oraz koncepcji wolności,

jaką przedstawia we wspomnianym wyżej dziele.

TThhee CCoonncceepptt ooff FFrreeeeddoomm iinn AAll--LLiissaann aall--mmuu’’rriibb ‘‘aann ttaahhaaffuutt aall--aajjnnaabbii hhaawwllaa

AAll--MMaagghhrriibb bbyy MMuuhhaammmmaadd aass--SSuullaayymmaannii ((11886699––11992266))

Muhammad Ibn al-Araj as-Sulaymani belongs to a group of Moroccan intellectuals at turn of the nineteenth century whose

literary and socio-political activity has played a key role in Moroccan nahda. Although As-Sulaymani came from Algierian city

of Al-Muʽaskar, his life became more connected to Morocco. He was well known historian, but his work also includes poetry

as he is considered to be one of the most prominent poets of his country within the twentieth century. The most important

work of As-Sulaymani is an extensive historical text “Zubdat at-tarikh wa-zahrat ash-shamarikh” [The butter of history and

the flower of vine], which remains nothing but a manuscript even today. However, a summary of this text has been published

in Rabat in 1911, under the title of “Al-Lisan al-murib an tahafut al-ajnabi hawla Al-Maghrib” [Language describing the

destruction of the Maghreb by foreigners]. A lesser treaty of Ibn al-Araj involves on one hand historical analysis, but also

touches on certain philosophical and sociological notions, including freedom (hurriyya). His idea of freedom can be essentially

understood as very similar to western understanding of this notion, a resemblance that was very uncommon in his times and

is not too common today either. The objective of this speech will be to present the character of As-Sulaymani, rarely known

in the west, along with his idea of freedom described within the text mentioned above.

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Keynote Speech 4


Language: Polish

PPrrooff.. DDaanniieell KKAALLIINNOOWWSSKKII

Institute of Polish Studies

Pomeranian University in Słupsk (Słupsk/Poland)

[email protected]

TTrrzzyy ddrrooggii ddoo bbuuddddyyjjsskkiieejj wwoollnnoośśccii ((JJaacckk KKeerroouuaacc,, JJaannwwiilllleemm van de van de

vvaann ddee WWeetteerriinngg,, AArrttuurr CCiieeśśllaarr))

Artykuł dotyczy literackich opisów doświadczeń na drodze duchowego rozwoju. Charakterystyki dokonane zostały przez

trzech autorów wywodzących się z różnych kręgów kulturowych Zachodu. Pierwszy z nich zawarty jest w powieści Jacka

Kerouaca o podróży duchowej odbywanej przez amerykańskich beatników lat pięćdziesiątych XX wieku. Druga opowieść

pochodzi od niderlandzkiego hippisa Janwillema van de Weteringa, który opisuje swoje przeżycia w japońskim klasztorze

zen w latach sześćdziesiątych i siedemdziesiatych. Trzecia narracja sformułowana została na początku XXI wieku przez

polskiego artystę, podróżnika i adepta buddyzmu tybetańskiego oraz zenu – Artura Cieślara.

TThhrreeee WWaayyss ttoo BBuuddddhhiisstt FFrreeeeddoomm ((JJaacckk KKeerroouuaacc,, JJaannwwiillll vvaann ddee WWeetteerriinngg,,

AArrttuurr CCiieeśśllaarr))

The article deals with literary descriptions of experiences on the path of spiritual development. Characteristics were made

by three authors originating from different cultural circles of the West. The first of these is contained in the novel by Jacek

Kerouac about a spiritual journey held by American beat generation of the 1950s. The second story comes from the Dutch

hippie Janwillem van de Wetering, who describes his experiences in the Japanese Zen monastery in the sixties and seventies.

The third narration was formulated at the beginning of the 21st century by a Polish artist, traveler and adept of Tibetan

Buddhism and Zen – Artur Cieślar.

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Panel 1: Freedom and Oppression in Chinese Literature


Language: English

Chair: Dr. Maciej SZATKOWSKI (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland) Papers:

1. Dr. Daniela ZHANG CZIRÁKOVÁ (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia):

Liao Yiwu – a Voice of Freedom

2. Dr. Ting Ting-Yu LEE (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland): Reflection of Identity and Freedom for Mainlanders in Taiwan

3. Dr. Paweł ZYGADŁO (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China): Face and Oppression – Lu Xun and Lin Yutang on Chinese Cult of Face

4. Dawid ROGACZ (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland; Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland): Freedom and Liberation in the Taipingjing

Panel 2: Concepts of Freedom


Language: Polish

Chair: Prof. Marcin GRODZKI (University of Warsaw, Poland) Papers: 1. Prof. Swietłana CZERWONNAJA (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń,

Poland): Symbole wolności (walki o wolność) oraz Ojczyzny w poezji Tatarów polsko-litewskich

2. Prof. Dorota KARWACKA-PASTOR (University of Gdańsk, Poland): Między wolnością a niewolą. Sytuacja kobiet w krajach muzułmańskich w twórczości Vittorii Alliata di Villafranca

3. Prof. Beata TARNOWSKA (University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland): Pustynia jako przestrzeń wolności na podstawie twórczości Jehudy Amichaja

4. Dr. Magdalena LEWICKA (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland): Koncepcja wolności przedstawicieli arabskiego odrodzenia (an-nahḍa): Rifā‘a aṭ-Ṭahṭāwī (Al-Mašriq) i Hayr ad-Dīn at-Tūnusī (Al-Maḡrib)

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Panel 3: Different Perspectives of Freedom and Oppression (1) Thursday, 28 March, 12:00-14:00 / Room 203

Language: English

Chair: Prof. Stephan GUTH (University of Oslo, Norway)

Papers: 1. Prof. Iwona MILEWSKA (Jagiellonian University, Poland): Freedom of Choice

or “Freedom of Choice”. The Custom of Svayamvara as Described in the Indian Epic Mahabharata

2. Prof. Ewa MACHUT-MENDECKA (University of Warsaw, Poland): Language

of Freedom in Arab Prose 3. Yasuo SHIMIZU (Doshisha, JAPAN): Haruki Murakami’s Sports Perspective and Sports

Event Viewing – Freedom and Oppression

4. Zofia LITWINOWICZ (University of Warsaw, Poland; University of St. Andrews, UK): The Boat of Death and the Expedition Boat: Dialectics of Enslavement. The Representations of a “Boat in Belle” and “Apocalypse Now” through Postcolonial Lenses

Panel 4: The Dimensions of Freedom in Arabic Literature Thursday, 28 March, 15:00-16:30 / Room 307

Language: English

Chair: Dr. Nihad FOTTOUH (The French University in Egypt, Egypt) Papers: 1. Prof. Arzu SADYKHOVA (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland): Some Notes

on the Tenson of Waḍḍāḥ al-Yaman (d. c. 93/712) and the Fate of the Munāẓara Genre in Arabic Poetry

2. Dr. Dominika CZERSKA-SAUMANDE (INALCO-CERMOM, France): Selected aspects of Egyptian Committed Poetry at the Turn of the 21st Century

3. Bartosz PIETRZAK (Jagiellonian University, Poland): “Muḥibbu al-H urriyya”? Concept of Freedom in Pre-Islamic Poetry. Cognitive Linguistic Approach

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Panel 5: Freedom and Religious Texts Thursday, 28 March, 15:00-16:30 / Room 309

Language: Polish

Chair: Prof. Marek DZIEKAN (University of Łódź, Poland) Papers: 1. Prof. Marcin GRODZKI (University of Warsaw, Poland): Claude Gillot i badania

nad Koranem jako tekstem literackim

2. Prof. Roman MARCINKOWSKI (University of Warsaw, Poland): Sługa kananejski w świetle wybranych tekstów literatury rabinicznej

3. Dr. Nina BUDZISZEWSKA (University of Wrocław, Poland): Anugita o wyzwoleniu

Panel 6: Discourses about Freedom Thursday, 28 March, 15:00-16:30 / Room 203

Language: Arabic

Chair: Prof. Ewa MACHUT-MENDECKA (University of Warsaw, Poland) Papers: 1. Prof. Moussa FATAHINE (University of Djilali Bounaama – Khemis-Miliana,

Algeria): The Logic of the Language in the Discourse of the Arab Heritage. Through the Contemporary Rhetorical Turn. A Debate between Abu Sa'id al-Sirafi and Abu-Bishr Mataa – Ibn Yunus as a Model

2. Prof. Ahmed Ali IBRAHIM (University of Falluja, Iraq): The Semantic Function of the Poetic Discourse of Poets

3. Prof. Ismael HAZIM (University of Mosul, Iraq): Manifestations of Rebellion in the Poetry of Vagabonds

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Panel 7: The Experience of Oppression in Contemporary Japanese Literature – Precarity, Imprisonment, Totalitarian Tendencies Thursday, 28 March, 17:00-19:00 / Room 307

Language: English

Chair: Prof. Lisette GEBHARDT (Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany) Papers: 1. Dr. Filippo CERVELLI (Durham University, UK): The Oppression of Democracy:

Political (Mis)Representation and Community in Takahashi Gen’ichirō’s writings 2. Adam GREGUŠ (University of Vienna, Austria): When Bubblonia Bursts – Kirino

Natsuo’s Politikon and its Subversive Utopia

3. Christian CHAPPELOW (Goethe-University in Frankfurt, Germany): Henmi Yô’s Approaches towards Imprisonment and Death Sentence in Japan

Panel 8: Woman: between Freedom and Oppression (1) Thursday, 28 March, 17:00-18:30 / Room 203

Language: English

Chair: Prof. Arzu SADYKHOVA (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland) Papers: 1. Prof. Roswitha BADRY (Freiburg University, Germany): A Literary Plea for Freedom

of Expression – Laylā al-’Uthmān’s Muḥākama as an Example 2. Dr. Najla KALACH (Tuscia University, Italy): Between Tradition and Change. Qatari

Women Writers and the Short Story: a Focus on Kalthum Jabr

3. Dr. Nihad FOTTOUH (The French University in Egypt, Egypt): Nawal el Saadawi: The Egyptian face of resistance

4. Dr. Weronika ROKICKA (University of Warsaw, Poland): Quest for Freedom: An Indian Female Traveller’s Struggles in Nabaneeta Dev Sen’s Travel Writings

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Panel 9: China: the Picture of Freedom and Oppression Thursday, 28 March, 17:00-19:00 / Room 309

Language: Polish

Chair: Dr. Paweł ZYGADŁO (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China) Papers: 1. Dr. Maciej SZATKOWSKI (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland):

Chińska literatura obozowa

2. Dr. Zofia JAKUBÓW (University of Warsaw, Poland): Poszukiwanie wolności

w kulturze wolnego rynku: chińscy pisarze „środkowego pokolenia”

3. Dr. Agnieszka PATERSKA-KUBACKA (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland):

Sun Wukong jako symbol buntu i wolności w kulturze chińskiej

4. Dr. Anna KOŁOS (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland): Przez Ocean Indyjski. Polscy podróżnicy w drodze do Chin (1850–1939)

Panel 10: Woman: between Freedom and Oppression (2) Friday, 29 March, 12:00-14:00 / Room 307

Language: English

Chair: Dr. Najla KALACH (Tuscia University, Italy) Papers: 1. Dr. Monika BROWARCZYK (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland): In Search

of Oppression of Freedom and Freedom from Oppression. Meena Kandasamy’s “Gypsy Goddess” and “When I Hit You or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife”

2. Maria SKAKUJ-PURI (Independent Scholar, India): Mothers, Daughters, Sisters,

Wives… Women and the 1984 trauma in Punjabi short stories by Ajeet Caur

3. Natalia GRENIEWSKA (University of Warsaw, Poland): Mongolian Female Perspective of Individual Freedom

4. Joanna GRUSZEWSKA (Jagiellonian University, Poland): Freedom through Enlightenment in the Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns

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Panel 11: The Freedom in Colonial and Postcolonial Perspective Friday, 23 March, 17:00-19:00 / Room 309

Language: English

Chair: Dr. Daniela ZHANG CZIRÁKOVÁ (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia) Papers: 1. Dr. Małgorzata SOKOŁOWICZ (University of Warsaw, Poland; Fryderyk Chopin

University of Music, Poland): The Category of Freedom in the French Colonial Literature: “L’étrange aventure d’Aguida” [The Strange Adventure of Aguida] by A.-R. de Lens

2. Alicja WALCZYNA (University of Warsaw, Poland): Write a Lived Prison Experience,

Transcribe an Experience Heard. The Comparative Study of Ben Jelloun’s “The Blinding Absence of Light” and Marzouki’s ”Tazmamart-Cell 10”

3. Aleksandra SZKLARZEWICZ (Jagiellonian University, Poland): Literature as a Testimony. Memoirs of Prison and Torture in Tahar Ben Jelloun’s “This Blinding Absence of Light” and in Fatema Oufkir’s “Les Jardins du roi”

4. Khedidja CHERGUI (Ecole Normale Supérieure of Algiers, Algeria): Nurrudin Farah, Wole Soyinka and the Not Yet Dethroned African Kongism

Panel 12: Freedom in Contemporary Arabic Literature Friday, 28 March, 12:00-14:00 / Room 203

Language: Polish

Chair: Dr. Hab. Elżbieta KOSSEWSKA (University of Warsaw, Poland) Papers: 1. Dr. Magdalena Kubarek (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland):

Pięć wizji kobiecego zniewolenia w dramcie „Kafas” [Klatka] Dżumany Haddad

2. Dr. Agnieszka GRACZYK (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland): W oczekiwaniu na wyrok. Wspomnienia irackich pisarzy Rifata Chadirijego i Balqis Szarary

3. Dr. Sebastian GADOMSKI (Jagiellonian University, Poland): Droga do wolności –

dramaturgia egipska wobec rewolucji 2011 roku 4. Dr. Adrianna MAŚKO (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland): Opór irackiego

intelektualisty wobec baasistowskiej propagandy i cenzury w powieści „Znaki diakrytyczne” Sināna Anṭūna

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Panel 13: Freedom and Violence in Narration Friday, 28 March, 15:00-17:00 / Room 307

Language: English

Chair: Prof. Ahmed Ali IBRAHIM (University of Falluja, Iraq) Papers: 1. Dr. Mustafa WSHYAR (University of Szeged, Hungary): Violence Representation

in “And the Mountains Echoed” by Khaled Hosseini 2. Joanna ANTONIAK (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland):

Does independence equal freedom? The Motif of Independence in M.G. Vassanji’s “No New Land” (1991)

3. Jacek SKUP (Jagiellonian University, Poland): Narratives of Struggle for Freedom in the Writings of S.C. Bose

4. Daniela SPINA (University of Lisbon, Portugal): Repressing Satyhagraha, Representing Satyhagrahis: Violence and Non-violence in a Novel by Goan Writer Orlando da Costa

Panel 14: Spheres of Freedom and Oppression between Orient and Polish Literature Friday, 29 March, 17:00-19:00 / Room 309

Language: Polish

Chair: Dr. Adrianna MAŚKO (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland) Papers: 1. Dr. Hab. Elżbieta KOSSEWSKA (University of Warsaw, Poland): Orientalizm

w literaturze polskich uchodźców w Palestynie 2. Prof. Michał KURAN (University of Łódź, Poland): Obraz niewoli turecko-tatarskiej

w literaturze polskiej wieków XVI i XVII – propaganda i stereotypy

3. Dr. Renata GADAMSKA-SERAFIN (Jagiellonian University, Poland): Polskie orientalia kaukaskie. Proza zesłańcza Michała Andrzejkowicza-Butowta

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Panel 15: Different Perspectives of Freedom and Oppression (2) Friday, 29 March, 17:00-19:00 / Room 203

Language: English

Chair: Prof. Ismael HAZIM (University of Mosul, Iraq) Papers: 1. Dr. Viktoria PÖTZL (Independent Scholar, Austria): From Pan-Asianism

to Safari-Zionism: Gender and Orientalism in Jewish-Austrian Literature

2. Marco MEDUGNO (Newcastle University, UK): Questioning Oppression and Freedom: A New Perspective on J.M. Coetzee’s “Life & Time of Michael K.”

3. Paulina STANIK (University of Warsaw, Poland): The Experience of Polish World War II Soldiers and Refugees in the Orient: the Act of Singing as an Escape to Freedom

4. Maria SZAFRAŃSKA-CHMIELARZ (University of Warsaw, Poland): Escaping to and from Orientalism: “The Count of Monte Cristo” and its Adaptations

22



ABSTRACTS

24

PANEL 1

Freedom and Oppression in Chinese Literature

DDrr.. DDaanniieellaa ZZHHAANNGG CCZZIIRRÁÁKKOOVVÁÁ

Institute of Oriental Studies

SLOVAK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

(Bratislava/Slovakia) [email protected]

LLiiaaoo YYiiwwuu –– aa VVooiiccee ooff FFrreeeeddoomm

In my paper I will present and analyze the works

of Chinese poet, writer, musician and reporter Liao

Yiwu (廖亦武; also known as Lao Wei, born in June 16

1958 in Sichuan) who started as a poet of Chinese

avant-garde in the middle of 80ties. His earlier poems

were indifferent to political events, but the composing

a long poem Massacre after hearing about

the Tiananmen Square protests, which he recorded

to audiotape in the poetic the recitation by using

Chinese ritualistic chanting and howling, invoking

the spirits of the dead, for which he has been

imprisoned, has changed him to a dissident

and a fierce critic of Chinese communist system.

Although Liao Yiwu became known mostly for the

books he wrote after being released form the prison,

as The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China from

the Bottom Up, Interviews with the Lower Strata

of Chinese Society (translated to Czech) For a Song

and a Hundred Songs: A Poet’s Journey Through

a Chinese Prison, which has been translated

to Slovak and published in Slovakia in 2018,

I am going to turn my attention to his poetry,

especially the poem Massacre. I will try to find in his

poems means of expression such as metaphors,

personifications and others in which he expresses his

essential desire for life in a free country without

political repression. Due to the fact that I met

the poet personally on the occasion of publishing his

book in Slovakia and I am in touch with him, I can

also use personal contact to clarify or supplement my

observations and conclusions.

DDrr.. TTiinngg TTiinngg--YYuu LLEEEE

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

(Warsaw/Poland) [email protected]

RReefflleeccttiioonn ooff IIddeennttiittyy aanndd FFrreeeeddoomm

ffoorr MMaaiinnllaannddeerrss iinn TTaaiiwwaann

Chinese civil war was a war fought between

Kuomintang (KMT) and Communist Party of China

(CPC) from 1945 to 1949. On 1 Octorber 1949, Mao

Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s

Republic of China (ROC) with its capital in Beijing.

Chiang Kai-shek and approximately two million

Nationalist soldiers (mainlanders 大陸人 ) retreated

from Mainland China to the island of Taiwan. 1949

was a symbolic and unforgettable year for

mainlanders in Taiwan. Since 1949 mainlanders

in Taiwan were forbidden to go back to their

hometowns in Mainland China. Thousands

of families were forced to fall into apart. Hundreds

of children became orphans because of the Chinese

civil war. Until 1987 Deng Xiaopeng and Chiang

Ching-kuo (son of Chiang Kai-shek) reopened

the gates between Taiwan strait and allowed

the mainlanders in Taiwan to visit their families

and relatives in Mainland China. Long Yingtai,

as a well-known writer in Mainland China, Taiwan

and Hongkong, has published the book 1949 Great

River and Great Sea in 2009. Long attempts to recall

and reshape the memories and histories through

the interviews and dialogues with mainlanders

in Taiwan in order to search for their identities

and the notion of freedom during their residences

in Taiwan. This article is aimed to analyze

mainlanders’ psychological transformation

in Taiwan. The notion of family root (根) is deeply

rooted in Chinese families and societies. There

are four main research questions are proposed

in this article: (1) Does mainlanders in Taiwan really

recognize Taiwan as their home or they still eager

to go back to their hometown in Mainland China?; (2)

25

How the second and third generation from

mainlanders’ families identify themselves in Taiwan;

(3) Do mainlanders in Taiwan finally achieve to their

goals to find their freedom which means democracy

in Taiwan?; (4) What price have mainlanders paid

for their freedom in Taiwan? The reflection

and finding are summarized through the fragments

from 1949 Great River and Great Sea.

DDrr.. PPaawweełł ZZYYGGAADDŁŁOO

DEPARTMENT OF CHINA STUDIES

XI’AN JIAOTONG-LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY

(Suzhou/China) [email protected]

FFaaccee aanndd OOpppprreessssiioonn –– LLuu XXuunn aanndd LLiinn

YYuuttaanngg oonn CChhiinneessee CCuulltt ooff FFaaccee

This paper is intended as an analysis of the notion

of face (Chin. mianzi), as presented in literary works

of two renewed writers of the early Republican Era

China, Lu Xun and Lin Yutang. As psychologist

David Ho claimed “It is virtually impossible to think

of a facet of [Chinese] social life to which the question

of face is irrelevant” (Ho, 1976: 883), Lu Xun (1934),

followed later by Lin Yutang (1936) were first native

Chinese who identified the degree to which face

controlled Chinese morality and social behaviour.

This paper is then an attempt towards reexamination

of the notion of face as a form of cultural oppression,

as it had been identified and expounded in the

literary works of two champions of Chinese cultural

modernisation of the Republican Era. It will argue,

taking the notion of face as a point of reference that

culturally specific values and behavioural patterns

due to they totalness can become a form of persistent

and inevitable oppression that only through artistic

sensitiveness can be identified and denounced.

Especially in the case of high-context cultures, such

as Chinese, and more subtle forms of “cultural

oppression”, such as face, more “sensitive minds” are

often indispensable factor allowing for critical

analysis of culturally specific phenomena and

subsequently for a call for change. The significance

of the literary work goes then beyond the field

of literature. As Lu’s and Lin’s analyses of face show,

it can accelerate social change and contribute

to the development of social sciences.

DDaawwiidd RROOGGAACCZZ

ADAM MICKIEWICZ UNIVERSITY (Poznań/Poland)

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY IN TORUŃ

(Toruń/Poland) [email protected]

FFrreeeeddoomm aanndd LLiibbeerraattiioonn

iinn tthhee TTaaiippiinnggjjiinngg

The Classic of the Supreme Peace 太平經 Tàipíngjīng

is one of the most important Neo-Daoist works that

was created already under the late Han dynasty.

It proclaims the advent of an era of peace, equality,

and community of goods, which eventually inspired

the Taiping Rebellion sixteen centuries later. Most

importantly, the Taipingjing offers an exceptional

theory of universal liberation from inherited guilt (承

負 chéngfù). In the state of the supreme peace slaves,

bondswomen and barbarians will be equally

recognised; violence against women will also cease.

However, as I shall show, the state of universal

freedom is only one way among many, for humankind

could also lead to its complete “annihilation” (滅盡

mièjìn). The question then arises to which extent

such vision might be called Millenarianism, as it is

proposed by contemporary studies on the Classic

of the Supreme Peace.

26

PANEL 2

Concepts of Freedom

PPrrooff.. SSwwiieettłłaannaa CCZZEERRWWOONNNNAAJJAA

Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology Faculty of History

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY IN TORUŃ (Toruń/Poland)

POLISH INSTITUTE OF WORLD ART STUDIES [email protected]

SSyymmbboollee wwoollnnoośśccii ((wwaallkkii oo wwoollnnoośśćć))

oorraazz OOjjcczzyyzznnyy ww ppooeezzjjii TTaattaarróóww

ppoollsskkoo--lliitteewwsskkiicchh

Poezja Selima Chazbijewicza, Musy

Czachorowskiego, Adasa Jakubauskasa oraz innych

współczesnych poetów pochodzących z etnicznej

grupy Tatarów litewskich i posługujących się

w swoich wierszach językami polskim, litewskim,

białoruskim, obfituje w motywy i symbole poetyczne

walki o wolność, pragnienia wolności. Patos tej poezji

rozpowszechnia się na różne epoki historyczne:

zawiera ona w sobie pamięć zbiorową Tatarów

litewskich o walecznym udziale ich przodków

w bitwie pod Grunwaldem, w obronie Wielkiego

Księstwa Litewskiego i Korony Polskiej od wrogów

z Zachodu i ze Wschodu, w powstaniu styczniowym

1863 roku, w wojnie o niepodległość Polski

(odrodzonej II Rzeczypospolitej), wreszcie – w ruchu

oporu przeciwko okupantom sowieckim (przede

wszystkim na Litwie). Ideały wolności politycznej

i duchowej są ściśle związane w poezji tych autorów

z obrazem Ojczyzny. Jest to obraz bardzo

skomplikowany, wielowarstwowy, bowiem łączy

rzeczywistość z mitami romantycznymi, obywatelską

lojalność wobec dzisiejszej Polski, Litwy, Białorusi

z mirażami fantazyjnymi – przedstawieniami

o historycznej praojczyźnie Tatarów na

przestworzach Eurazji, ze sławą imperiów

Czyngis-chana i Timura (Tamerlana). Głównym

motywem tych przedstawień romantycznych jest

krajobraz bezkresnego stepu – kolebki wolności

tatarskiej i przewagi wojennej. Porównanie tych

„wierszy stepowych” z obrazami „ziemi rodzimej”

(lasami, górami, z pięknem Morza Czarnego, Wołgi /

Idelu, Uralu) w poezji Tatarów krymskich oraz

Tatarów kazańskich ukazuje samoistność kultury

i mentalności Tatarów polsko-litewskich.

SSyymmbboollss ooff FFrreeeeddoomm ((FFiigghhtt ffoorr FFrreeeeddoomm))

aanndd tthhee HHoommeellaanndd iinn tthhee PPooeettrryy ooff tthhee

PPoolliisshh--LLiitthhuuaanniiaann TTaattaarrss

The poetry of Selim Chazbijewicz, Musa

Czachorowski, Adam Jakubauskas and other

contemporary poets from the ethnic group

of Lithuanian Tatars and speaking Polish,

Lithuanian and Belarusian in their poems abounds

in poetic motifs and symbols of the fight for freedom

and the desire for freedom. The pathos of this poetry

spreads to various historical epochs: it contains

the collective memory of the Lithuanian Tatars about

the valiant participation of their ancestors

at the Battle of Grunwald, in defense of the Grand

Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish Crown from

enemies from the West and the East, in the January

Uprising of 1863, in the war for independence

of Poland (reborn in the Second Polish Republic), and

finally in the resistance movement against the Soviet

occupiers (above all in Lithuania). The ideals

of political and spiritual freedom are closely related

in the poetry of these authors to the image

of the Fatherland. This is a very complexed,

multi-layered image, because it combines reality with

romantic myths, civic loyalty to today’s Poland,

Lithuania, Belarus with fanciful mirages – depictions

of the historical Tatar forefathers on the Eurasian

territories, the fame of Genghis Khan and Timur

(Tamerlane) empires. The main motif of these

romantic performances is the landscape of the

endless steppe – the cradle of Tatar freedom and war

superiority. The comparison of these “steppe poems”

with pictures of “native land” (forests, mountains,

with the beauty of the Black Sea, Volga / Idelu, Urals)

in the poetry of the Crimean Tatars and Kazakh

Tatars reveals the self-esteem of culture and

mentality of the Polish-Lithuanian Tatars.

27

PPrrooff.. DDoorroottaa KKAARRWWAACCKKAA--PPAASSTTOORR

Institute of Romance Studies


UNIVERSITY OF GDAŃSK (Gdańsk/Poland) [email protected]

MMiięęddzzyy wwoollnnoośścciiąą aa nniieewwoolląą.. SSyyttuuaaccjjaa

kkoobbiieett ww kkrraajjaacchh mmuuzzuułłmmaańńsskkiicchh

ww ttwwóórrcczzoośśccii VViittttoorriiii AAlllliiaattaa

ddii VViillllaaffrraannccaa

Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca jest współczesną

pisarką, dziennikarką i tłumaczką. Pochodzi

z arystokratycznej rodziny sycylijskiej. Jako

absolwentka prawa muzułmańskiego i wybitna

znawczyni krajów arabskich poświęciła większość

swoich książek sprawom społeczno-politycznym oraz

mentalności i tradycjom w krajach muzułmańskich.

Interesuje ją w szczególności sytuacja kobiet. W wielu

swych tekstach dziennikarskich oraz

w opowiadaniach, także w swojej najgłośniejszej

powieści, która odniosła międzynarodowy sukces,

Harem, memorie d’Arabia di una nobildonna siciliana,

przedstawia nie tylko sylwetkę kobiety Orientu, ale

także jej warunki życia, możliwości i aspiracje, kładąc

szczególny nacisk na kwestię wolności. Wyjaśnia też

różne konteksty słowa „harem”, ukazując blaski

i cienie życia we współczesnym haremie. Vittoria

Alliata pisze też o próbach wyzwolenia i o poczuciu

godności arabskich kobiet. Jej twórczość, analizująca

szczegółowo problem wolności i zniewolenia kobiet,

powstała w oparciu o przeprowadzone przez nią

badania i jej doświadczenia związane z długoletnim

pobytem w krajach muzułmańskich w ścisłym

kontakcie z kobietami z wpływowych arabskich

rodzin.

BBeettwweeeenn FFrreeeeddoomm aanndd EEnnssllaavveemmeenntt::

tthhee SSiittuuaattiioonn ooff WWoommeenn iinn MMuusslliimm

CCoouunnttrriieess iinn tthhee WWoorrkkss ooff VViittttoorriiaa AAlllliiaattaa

ddii VViillllaaffrraannccaa

Vittoria Alliata di Villafranca is a contemporary

writer, journalist and translator. She comes from an

aristocratic Sicilian family. A graduate of Islamic Law

and a renowned expert in Arabic countries, she has

devoted the majority of her books to the social

and political affairs as well as the mentality

and traditions of Muslim countries. She

is particularly interested in the situation of women.

In many of her journalistic texts and stories,

including her most famous, internationally

successful novel Harem, memorie d’Arabia di una

nobildonna siciliana she has presented not only

a portrait of the Oriental woman, but also

the conditions in which such a woman lives,

the opportunities and aspirations, with particular

emphasis on the question of freedom. She also

explains the various contexts of the word harem,

showing the advantages and disadvantages of living

in a contemporary harem. Vittoria Alliata also

describes the attempts at liberation and the feeling

of dignity of Arabic women. Her works analyzing the

problem of freedom and enslavement of women have

been created on the basis of the research she

conducted and her experiences of long-term stay

in Muslim countries in direct contact with the women

from influential Arabic families.

PPrrooff.. BBeeaattaa TTAARRNNOOWWSSKKAA

The Institute of Polish Studies and Speech Therapy

UNIVERSITY OF WARMIA AND MAZURY IN OLSZTYN

(Olsztyn/Poland) [email protected]

PPuussttyynniiaa jjaakkoo pprrzzeessttrrzzeeńń wwoollnnoośśccii

nnaa ppooddssttaawwiiee ttwwóórrcczzoośśccii JJeehhuuddyy AAmmiicchhaajjaa

Tematem wystąpienia „Pustynia jako przestrzeń

wolności – na podstawie twórczości Jehudy

Amichaja” jest relacja człowiek – pustynia ukazana

w dziele izraelskiego poety, a szczególnie tomu

poetyckiego Nof Galui Ejnajim [Krajobraz otwarty dla

oczu] z 1992 roku. W utworach Jehudy Amichaja

pustynia funkcjonuje zarówno w aspekcie

geograficzno-przestrzennym, jako obszar

percypowany zmysłowo, jak i w kontekście

filozoficzno-kulturowym. Pustynny krajobraz z jednej

strony odsyła do (oddalonych w czasie) wydarzeń

z dziejów narodu żydowskiego, jak opisana w Biblii

czterdziestoletnia wędrówka z Egiptu przez pustynię

28

czy stacjonowanie na pustyni żydowskich oddziałów

militarnych podczas wojny w Mandacie Palestyny

oraz wojny o niepodległość. Natomiast z drugiej

strony – stanowi miejsce absolutnej wolności od

wszelkich więzów i ograniczeń, jakie związane są

z funkcjonowaniem człowieka w społeczeństwie. To

poczucie wolności, ewokowane przez pejzaż pustyni

jako przestrzeni niepoddającej się zamiarom

człowieka, łączy się z mistycznym przeżyciem pustki

będącej najgłębszą prawdą istnienia.

TThhee DDeesseerrtt aass aa SSppaaccee ooff FFrreeeeddoomm –– oonn tthhee

BBaassiiss ooff YYeehhuuddaa AAmmiicchhaayy’’ss WWoorrkk

The topic of the paper is the relationship between

man and a desert, presented on the basis of Yehuda

Amichay’s poems, especially his volume of poetry

entitled Nof Galui Ejnajim [Open Eyed Land] (1992).

The desert is examined in this volume from two

aspects: the geographical-spatial, as an area

perceived by senses, and the philosophical-cultural

one. On one hand, the desert-like landscape refers to

the historical events of the Jewish nation, such as

Israelits’ wandering through the wilderness for 40

years, described in the Bible, or the stay of the Jewish

troops on the desert during the civil war at the end

of the British Mandate of Palestine and Israeli war

of independence. On the other hand, it is also a place

of absolute freedom from every ties and limitations

which are imposed on an individual by society. This

feeling of freedom is evoked by the view of a desert as

the space independent from the human activity and it

is merged with the mystical experience of emptiness

as the deepest truth of existence.

DDrr.. MMaaggddaalleennaa LLEEWWIICCKKAA

Arabic Language and Culture Center

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY IN TORUŃ (Toruń/Poland)

[email protected]

KKoonncceeppccjjaa wwoollnnoośśccii pprrzzeeddssttaawwiicciieellii

aarraabbsskkiieeggoo ooddrrooddzzeenniiaa ((aann--nnaahhḍḍaa))::

RRiiffāā‘‘aa aaṭṭ--ṬṬaahhṭṭāāwwīī ((AAll--MMaaššrriiqq)) ii HHaayyrr

aadd--DDīīnn aatt--TTūūnnuussīī ((AAll--MMaaḡḡrriibb))

Referat poświęcony będzie koncepcji wolności w myśli

reformatorskiej przedstawicieli arabskiego

odrodzenia (an-nahḍa): działającego na obszarze

Arabskiego Wschodu (Al-Mašriq) Rifā‘y aṭ-Ṭahṭāwīego

oraz reprezentującego Arabski Zachód (Al-Maḡrib)

Hayr ad-Dīna at-Tunūsīego. Jako pionierzy odnowy

w świecie arabsko-muzułmańskim postulowali oni

koncepcję rozwoju cywilizacyjnego (at-tamaddun),

którego atrybutami miało być poszanowanie prawa

muzułmańskiego (aš-šarī‘a al-islāmiyya) oraz

przejęcie od Zachodu nauk i sztuk (al-‘ulūm

wa-al-ma‘ārif), a więc pójście jego śladem, co było

możliwe tylko dzięki otwarciu się świata

muzułmańskiego na zdobycze europejskiej kultury

i cywilizacji. Byli jednymi z pierwszych myślicieli

arabskich, którzy z ogromną wnikliwością i głęboką

świadomością obserwowali nowożytną cywilizację

zachodnią, jednak ich poglądy na temat państwa

i społeczeństwa nie były prostą refleksją idei

zapoznanych zagranicą, ani też powtórzeniem

tradycyjnego religijnego światopoglądu, lecz próbą

wypracowania kompromisu pomiędzy wzorcami

europejskimi a szariatem i osadzenia go w tradycji

muzułmańskiej, w celu pogodzenia z islamem i jego

teorią polityczną. U podstaw tej metody legła

konieczność udowodnienia, że po pierwsze –

europejska wiedza i nauki należały do świata

arabsko-muzułmańskiego, zanim przejął je Zachód,

a po drugie – nie ma sprzeczności pomiędzy wiarą

i nowoczesnością, przeciwnie – rozwój państwa

i społeczeństwa należy do religijnych obowiązków

władzy, która winna dbać o realizację dobra

powszechnego, pomnażanie dóbr i rozwój sfer

użyteczności publicznej, panowanie sprawiedliwości

oraz eliminowanie niesprawiedliwości i ucisku,

zapewnienie swobód obywatelskich, wspieranie

działalności gospodarczej i aktywności społecznej.

Doktryna społeczno-polityczna obu myślicieli oparta

została o idee Wielkiej Rewolucji Francuskiej oraz

o zasadę, że naród powinien korzystać z przywilejów

wolności politycznej i osobistej, zaś mechanizmy

29

regulujące relacje pomiędzy władzą i społeczeństwem

winny opierać się na poszanowaniu praw, a co za tym

idzie – w kręgu ich zainteresowań znalazła się kwestia

wolności (al-ḥurriyya) i swobód obywatelskich,

określanych mianem wolności powszechnych

(al-ḥurriyyāt al-‘āmma) bądź praw cywilnych

(al-ḥuqūq al-madaniyya), będących podstawowym

warunkiem rozwoju (al-umran).

Rifā‘a aṭ-Ṭahṭāwī jest autorem szeregu dzieł

i artykułów, których opracowania podjął się

Muḥammad ‘Amāra w Al-A‘amāl al-kāmila li-Rifā‘a

aṭ-Ṭahṭāwī [Dzieła zebrane Rifā‘y aṭ-Ṭahṭāwīego]

opublikowanych w 1973 roku, zaś punkt wyjścia

do sformułowanej przez niego koncepcji reformy

władzy i społeczeństwa stanowi Kitāb taẖlīṣ al-ibrīz fī

talẖīṣ Bārīz [Wydobycie czystego złota czyli krótki opis

Paryża] z 1834 roku. Hayr ad-Dīn at-Tunūsī

natomiast swoje koncepcje zreformowania świata

muzułmańskiego wyłożył w dziele Aqwam al-masālik

fī ma‘rifat aḥwāl al-mamālik [Najprostsza droga

do poznania sytuacji w królestwach] wydanym

drukiem w 1868 roku.

TThhee CCoonncceepptt ooff FFrreeeeddoomm

iinn RReepprreesseennttaattiivveess ooff AArraabb RReennaaiissssaannccee

((AAnn--NNaahhḍḍaa))::

RRiiffāā‘‘aa aaṭṭ--ṬṬaahhṭṭāāwwīī ((AAll--MMaaššrriiqq)) aanndd HHaayyrr

aadd--DDīīnn aatt--TTūūnnuussīī ((AAll--MMaaḡḡrriibb))

The paper will be devoted to the concept of freedom

in the reformatory thought of representatives of Arab

Renaissance (An-Nahḍa): Rifā‘a aṭ-Ṭahṭāwī active in

the Mashriq, i.e. the eastern part of the Arab world

(Al-Mašriq) and Hayr ad-Dīn at-Tunūsī who

represented the Maghreb (Al-Maḡrib). As pioneers

of revival in the Arab-Muslim world, they advocated

a programme of political, social and economic

development (at-tamaddun) that was meant to

respect Islamic law (aš-šarī‘a al-islāmiyya) while

assimilating the achievements of Western civilisation,

arts and sciences (al-‘ulūm wa-al-ma‘ārif) and

applying them appropriately in the Muslim world.

They were among the first Arab thinkers to observe

modern Western civilisation so thoroughly and with

such a deep awareness even though their views on

the state and society were neither a simple reflection

of ideas learnt abroad nor a repetition of the

traditional religious views. They attempted to find

a compromise between European models and the

Sharia law, and to embed this compromise in the

Muslim tradition in order to reconcile it with Islam

and its political theory. This method was based on

the necessity to prove that, firstly, European

knowledge and sciences had belonged to the Arab

and Muslim world before the West took them over

and, secondly, there was no contradiction between

faith and modernity. Quite the contrary, the

development of the state and society was part of the

religious duties of the government that should ensure

the pursuit of the common good, development

of public assets and public services, rule of justice,

elimination of injustice and oppression, respect

of civil liberties and support of economic activity and

civic engagement. Thus, the socio-political doctrine

of these thinkers was based on the ideas of the Great

French Revolution and the principle that the nation

should benefit from political and personal freedom

while the mechanisms regulating the relations

between the government and society should be based

on respect for the laws. Consequently, their interests

included the question of freedom (al-ḥurriyya) and

civil liberties, described as universal liberties

(al-ḥurriyyāt al-‘āmma) or civil rights (al-ḥuqūq

al-madaniyya), constituting the basic condition of

development (al-umran).

Rifā‘a aṭ-Ṭahṭāwī is the author of several works and

articles that were collected and edited by Muḥammad

‘Amāra in Al-A‘amāl al-kāmila li-Rifā‘a aṭ-Ṭahṭāwī

[Collected Works of Rifā‘y aṭ-Ṭahṭāwī] published

in 1973. Kitāb taẖlīṣ al-ibrīz fī talẖīṣ Bārīz [Extraction

of pure gold or a short description of Paris] from 1834

is the starting point of his concept of reforming

government and society. Hayr ad-Dīn at-Tunūsī

expounded his ideas for reforming the Muslim world

in Aqwam al-masālik fī ma‘rifat aḥwāl al-mamālik

[The Simplest Path to Recognise the Situation in the

Kingdoms] published in print in 1868.

30

PANEL 3

Different Perspectives

of Freedom and Oppression (1)

PPrrooff.. IIwwoonnaa MMIILLEEWWSSKKAA

JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY (Kraków/Poland) [email protected]

FFrreeeeddoomm ooff CChhooiiccee oorr ““FFrreeeeddoomm

ooff CChhooiiccee””.. TThhee CCuussttoomm ooff SSvvaayyaammvvaarraa

aass DDeessccrriibbeedd iinn tthhee IInnddiiaann EEppiicc

MMaahhaabbhhaarraattaa

In the paper I discuss the topic of Indian custom

of svayamvara as described in the epic Mahabharata.

According to the meaning of the word itself the term

svayamvara should mean “self-choosing”. Together

with the word kanya it should stand for “a girl who

chooses her husband herself”. In the Mahabharata

there are several shorter or longer descriptions

of different svayamvara-s. The word itself appears

in the epic, in various contexts, about fifty times. On

the basis of some chosen examples I would like

to show the complexity of the problem. Are the

heroines of svayamvara-s free in their choices of their

future husbands or are they strictly limited by the

rules of tradition till the edge of not choosing them

independently? What is the role of their fathers

as shown in the different contexts? Is it really

freedom of choice as suggested by the meaning of the

word used for the custom or is it an artificial “freedom

of choice” as may be concluded from the analysis

of some of the examples?

PPrrooff.. EEwwaa MMAACCHHUUTT--MMEENNDDEECCKKAA

Faculty of Oriental Studies

UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW (Warsaw/Poland)

[email protected]

LLaanngguuaaggee ooff FFrreeeeddoomm iinn AArraabb PPrroossee

Ancient The contemporary Arab prose from the turn

of the 19th and 20th centuries is permeated

by opposing and complementary concepts of freedom

and violence which are expressed on the one hand

by a realistic language, representing the natural

reality, on the other – symbolic and ambiguous.

Realism includes combat prose, directly and bluntly

expressed, especially armed struggle and

underground activities. In the realistic prose of the

prominent writers: Naguib Mahfouz (1911–2006)

from Egypt, Hanna Mina (1924–2018) from Syria,

Abdul Rahman Majeed al-Rubai (1939) from Iraq and

many others, it is a struggle for national freedom

of their countries – their own homelands, expressed

in meaningful images, death is a concrete thing and

also an extreme suffering. In the prose of Arab writers

the heroes are dying and fighting for homeland.

Realism, sometimes bordering on naturalism, at the

same time illustrates the struggle for personal

freedom, the images of surveillance, prisons and

humiliation are horrifying. In turn, the symbolic

prose of freedom has been using allegory,

camouflage, understatement or absurdity. An

example is the prose of Abdul Rahman Munif (1933–

2004) from Jordan and Salim Barakat from Syria

(born 1951).

YYaassuuoo SSHHIIMMIIZZUU

DOSHISHA UNIVERSITY (Kyoto/Japan) [email protected]

HHaarruukkii MMuurraakkaammii’’ss SSppoorrttss PPeerrssppeeccttiivvee

aanndd SSppoorrttss EEvveenntt VViieewwiinngg

–– FFrreeeeddoomm aanndd OOpppprreessssiioonn

Haruki Murakami is a runner and a player

of triathlon. How is a sportsman Murakami Haruki

looking at Japanese sports events? Based on the

essays and interviews about triathlon, marathon,

Olympic etc. I thought about Murakami Haruki’s

sports event view and sports view. Also I also studied

Murakami literature from there. The results are

31

as follows. From various books it seems that his

running is trying to break down the stereotyped

novelist view. Also, Haruki Murakami’s view of the

Olympic Games is “Sydney!” [“Sydney!”] In detail. The

book states that the Olympic Games are boring and

enduring boredom. That boredom can be said to be

suppressed boredom peculiar to the Olympic Games.

It can be said that this book reveals that he is

confronted with the suppressed boredom feeling.

In addition, he mentioned the difference between the

Japanese marathon race and the American marathon

race in the “sad foreign languages”, and opinions are

given to the Japanese marathon contest. There are

criticisms of suppressed formalism and

authoritarianism of Japanese society. Also, his

favorite marathon is the Boston Marathon, his

favorite running course is the course of the Charles

River. This will also be affected by American society

where liberty is respected. That is reflected in the

style of Murakami novel. I would like to mention

about that as well.

ZZooffiiaa LLIITTWWIINNOOWWIICCZZ


UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS (St. Andrews/UK) [email protected]

TThhee BBooaatt ooff DDeeaatthh aanndd tthhee EExxppeeddiittiioonn

BBooaatt:: DDiiaalleeccttiiccss ooff EEnnssllaavveemmeenntt..

TThhee RReepprreesseennttaattiioonnss ooff aa BBooaatt

iinn ““BBeellllee”” aanndd ““AAppooccaallyyppssee NNooww””

tthhrroouugghh PPoossttccoolloonniiaall LLeennsseess According to DeLoughrey, each landscape should be

regarded not only as a setting for human experience,

but a true actor, a participant in a historical process.

A boat, as an element of this postcolonial landscape,

particularly reflects on the representation

of postcolonial and neocolonial situations

of enslavement in “Apocalypse Now” (dir. Frank

Coppola, 1979) and “Belle” (dir. Amma Asante, 2013).

In the light of the transatlantic trade, the connotation

of a boat englobes both the colonised and the

coloniser. It is at once the boat of death, symbolising

the horror of the Middle Passage of the slaves

transported from Africa to America, and expedition

boat, standing for the British imperial power. Both

of these representations are present in the “Belle”

and “Apocalypse Now”, which, as films, whose

aesthetic and factual tissue differ from that of literary

work, offer different methodological views on the

topic than solely literature. I will therefore analyse,

compare and contrast the narrative space of a boat in

these two films through postcolonial lenses. In the

first part I will focus on the representations of the

boat of death in “Belle”: as a metaphor for colonial

power; as a symbol of the Middle Passage and

triangular trade; and as “presence in absence” in the

particular case of the Zong ship. The first two are

intrinsically related to each other, as the imperial

power arose from the triangular trade. In the second

part I will analyse different representations of the

expedition boat in “Apocalypse Now”: as a space

of violence towards the virgin land; as a sanctuary

and shelter; as a space of death (both literal and

metaphorical). Finally, I will draw conclusion on how

this comparison reflects on the ambivalent role of the

boat as a symbol of enslavement in the postcolonial

(“Belle”) and neocolonial (“Apocalypse Now”) space.

32

PANEL 4

The Dimensions of Freedom

in Arabic Literature

PPrrooff.. AArrzzuu SSAADDYYKKHHOOVVAA

ADAM MICKIEWICZ UNIVERSITY (Poznań/Poland) [email protected]

SSoommee NNootteess oonn tthhee TTeennssoonn ooff WWaaḍḍḍḍāāḥḥ

aall--YYaammaann ((dd.. cc.. 9933//771122)) aanndd tthhee FFaattee

ooff tthhee MMuunnāāẓẓaarraa GGeennrree iinn AArraabbiicc PPooeettrryy Among the poetic heritage of Waḍḍāḥ al-Yaman (d.c.

93/712), one of the famous love poets of the

Umayyad period who became popular due to his fatal

love to the caliph’s wife Umm al-Banīn and his tragic

death in the chest-coffin, there is a remarkable short

poem, the so-called tenson, or debate poem,

or dialogue poem, i.e. munāẓara in Arabic. This poem

consists of ten lines and was devoted to his former

beloved Rawda, but the style, poetic meter and

composition of the poem could be considered as the

demonstration of some influence of the pre-Islamic

Persian Poetry on the Arabic one. However, these

arguments could not be considered as final and

undiscussable, due to some specific features of the

local Yemenite culture. Nevertheless, the latest

researches in the field of modern poetry in Arabic

dialects revealed several interesting facts which shed

the light on the further fate of the munāẓara genre

in Arabic poetry.

DDrr.. DDoommiinniikkaa

CCZZEERRSSKKAA--SSAAUUMMAANNDDEE

INALCO-CERMOM (Paris/France) [email protected]

SSeelleecctteedd AAssppeeccttss ooff EEggyyppttiiaann CCoommmmiitttteedd

PPooeettrryy aatt tthhee TTuurrnn ooff tthhee 2211sstt CCeennttuurryy My research is a study of the historical references

and social commitment of Egyptian poets in the

second half of the 20th century and at the beginning

of the 21st century, in the poetic works of Fārūq

Ǧuwayda, Fārūq Šūša – writing in Literary Arabic and

Ah mad Fu’ād Nigm, Salāh Ǧāhīn – writing

in Egyptian dialect. These poetic productions are

analysed on several levels: historical, social, political

– on the one side – and literary focus on language and

poetics – on the other side. These various levels cross

and influence one another in every poem, creating its

unique form and content in each work involved

in historical themes and social issues. By the means

of sociological criticism and poetic studies I have

analysed the selected poems of these four poets,

which constitute the framework of my research. Each

poet has different social origins and curriculum vitae,

as well as education that bring various tinctures to

the commitment in their poetry.

BBaarrttoosszz PPIIEETTRRZZAAKK


““MMuuḥḥibbu alibbu al--HH uurrrriiyyyyaa””?? CCoonncceepptt

ooff FFrreeeeddoomm iinn pprree--IIssllaammiicc ppooeettrryy..

CCooggnniittiivvee LLiinngguuiissttiicc AApppprrooaacchh Frequently, researchers of Arabic culture suggest

freedom to be one of the central values for pre-Islamic

Arabs. However, the modern lexeme used in reference

to freedom – ḥurriyya – does not occur within the

corpus of pre-Islamic poetry and, moreover, does not

seem to refer to what one usually understands

as freedom. The study aims to present a detailed

description of the pre-Islamic Arabic

conceptualization of freedom. It employs cognitive

linguistics based analysis in order to better

understand pre-Islamic Arabic thinking on this

value. Firstly, the semantic items,which might

be seen as referring to the concept of freedom, were

selected on the basis of kutub al-alfāḍ (topic-based

33

dictionaries). The items were then analyzed based

on Classical Arabic dictionaries, which allowed

demonstration of semantic relations between them,

as well as the metaphors employed in the

conceptualization they refer to. As a result,

hypothetical explications of the items were proposed.

Consequently, the proposed explications are to be

validated against the corpus of pre-Classical and

Classical Arabic poetry. At the current stage, the

research results suggest that the pre-Islamic

conceptualization of freedom consisted of two

conceptual categories: “freedom from” as in the

concepts of tabarruˀᵘⁿ and salāmᵘⁿ, and “freedom

as political dominance” as in the concept of {liqāḥᵘⁿ}

and dakalaᵗᵘⁿ. Additionaly, based on the dictionaries

explication, one can add the third category – “freedom

as NON slavery” – which consists of the concept

of ḥurriyyaᵗᵘⁿ. Consequently, the results reveal the

pre-Islamic Arabic understanding of freedom

as an individual value, which requires power to be

sustained. These findings are in accordance with

anthropological data on pre-Islamic society. The

results indicate that the employment of cognitive

linguistics methods might enhance the

understanding of pre-Classical Arabic semantics and

pre-Islamic Arabic culture.

34

PANEL 5

Freedom and Religious Texts

PPrrooff.. MMaarrcciinn GGRROODDZZKKII

Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies

UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW (Warsaw/Poland) [email protected]

CCllaauuddee GGiilllloott ii bbaaddaanniiaa nnaadd KKoorraanneemm

jjaakkoo tteekksstteemm lliitteerraacckkiimm Claude Gillot (ur. 1940) – znany arabista

i islamoznawca, przedstawiciel współczesnej

francuskiej szkoły koranistyki badającej najstarsze

zabytki piśmiennictwa arabsko-muzułmańskiego.

Jego naukowe dociekania koncentrują się wokół

Koranu jako tekstu literackiego, Gillot poszukuje jego

źródeł literackich i ideowych, bada dostępnymi

metodami naukowymi jego historię oraz tradycje

przekazu ustnego i pisemnego z nim związane.

Znajdując wyraz we wzniosłej formie literackiej,

upatruje w tekście Koranu wielowymiarowy kres

pewnej epoki historycznej (w dziejach Arabów

i, szerzej, historii człowieka) i dojście na nowo

do głosu pewnych ponadkulturowych idei, motywów

i duchowości cyrkulujących od wieków na Bliskim

Wschodzie.

CCllaauuddee GGiilllloott aanndd tthhee QQuurr’’aann

aass aa LLiitteerraarryy TTeexxtt Claude Gillot (b.1940) – a known French scholar

of Arabic & Islamic studies, representative of the

modern French school of Qur’anic studies, focusing

on the oldest Arabic-Muslim writings. His academic

investigations tackle the Qur’an as a literary text.

Gillot seeks out its literary and ideological sources,

explores its history and traditions of oral and written

transmittance, using available scholarly methods.

Finding expression in an exalted literary form, he

sees in the Qur’an’s text a multidimensional end

of a certain historical epoch (of the history of Arabs

and, more broadly, man’s history) and coming a new

to voice of certain supra-cultural ideas, motifs and

universal spirituality circulating in the Middle East

for centuries before.

PPrrooff.. RRoommaann MMAARRCCIINNKKOOWWSSKKII


[email protected]

SSłłuuggaa kkaannaanneejjsskkii ww śśwwiieettllee wwyybbrraannyycchh

tteekkssttóóww lliitteerraattuurryy rraabbiinniicczznneejj Święte teksty judaizmu z Biblią hebrajską włącznie

odróżniają sługę hebrajskiego (ewed iwri)

od nieżydowskiego niewolnika (ewed kenaani – dosł.

‘sługa kananejski’). Na temat traktowania tego

pierwszego wypowiada się Tora: „Gdyż dobrze mu

[było] u ciebie” (Pwt 15,16), która głównie w Księdze

Wyjścia (21,2 nn.) oraz w Księdze Kapłańskiej (25,39

nn.) określa jego prawa. Talmud stara się je zwykle

interpretować na korzyść hebrajskiego sługi, stąd też

zapewne wzięło się talmudyczne powiedzenie: „Kto

nabywa hebrajskiego niewolnika, kupuje sobie pana”

(Kid 20a). Jak literatura rabiniczna określa status

nieżydowskiego niewolnika? Wprawdzie nie zaliczano

go jako rzeczywistego członka do społeczności Izraela,

to jednak pod wieloma względami do niej należał.

Skoro mieszkał w jego domach, to na pewno musiał

podporządkować się określonym obowiązkom

i prawom. Pierwszym obowiązkiem, jakiemu

podlegał, było obrzezanie, ale nawet i to nie

zrównywało go w prawach z Izraelitą i nie dawało mu

równego z nim statusu społecznego czy religijnego.

Referat omawia najważniejsze aspekty pozycji

społeczno-religijnej sługi kananejskiego pośród

Izraela w świetle wybranych tekstów literatury

rabinicznej.

TThhee CCaannaaaanniittee SSeerrvvaanntt iinn tthhee LLiigghhtt

ooff CChhoosseenn RRaabbbbiinniicc WWrriittiinnggss The sacred texts of Judaism, including the Hebrew

Bible, make a distinction between Hebrew servant

(eved ivri) and non-Jewish slave (eved kenaani – lit.

35

‘Canaanite servant’). Torah speaks about the

treatment of the former in the following way: “Since

it [was] good [for him to be] with you” (Deuteronomy

15:16); it lays down their rights mainly in the Book

of Exodus (21:2 ff.) and in the Book of Leviticus

(25:39 ff.) The Talmud usually tries to interpret them

in favour of Hebrew servants, and hence the

Talmudic saying: ”One who buys a Hebrew slave buys

a master for himself” (Kid 20a). How does the rabbinic

literature set out the status of a non-Jewish slave?

Although he was not regarded as a true member

of the Israeli community, he belonged to it in many

respects. Since he lived in their houses, he certainly

had to obey certain laws and to fulfil certain

obligations. His first obligation was the circumcision

but even this did not give him equal rights with an

Israelite or equal social or religious status. The paper

discusses the most important aspects of social and

religious position of a Canaanite servant in Israel

in the light of chosen texts of rabbinic writings.

DDrr.. NNiinnaa BBUUDDZZIISSZZEEWWSSKKAA

UNIVERSITY OF WROCŁAW (Wrocław/Poland)

[email protected]

AAnnuuggiittaa oo wwyyzzwwoolleenniiuu The Anugita, zawarta w XIV. ks. Mahabharaty,

określana jest jako powtórzona tajemna nauka

Kriszny. Nauka ta dotyczy kwestii najważniejszej

dla jogi, tj. wyzwolenia – warunków jego osiągnięcia,

specyfiki tegoż aktu oraz podmiotu dokonującego

wyzwolenia w sensie tak ontologicznym, jak

epistemicznym. Chociaż soteriologiczna treść Anugity

jest niezwykle interesująca, to dzieło to

w indologicznych badaniach nadal pozostaje mało

znane.

TThhee AAnnuuggiittaa oonn FFiinnaall LLiibbeerraattiioonn The Anugītā, a didactic part of the XIV. Book of the

Mahābhārata, is defined as a repetition of the hidden

teaching of Kṛṣṇa. His divine instructions concern the

most important yogic question – the final liberation:

its conditions, its specificity and the subject

achieving the liberation in an ontological

and epistemological sense. Although the soteriologial

content of the Anugītā is fascinating, the work

is merely known in the indological studies.

36

PANEL 6

Discourses about Freedom

PPrrooff.. MMoouussssaa FFAATTAAHHIINNEE

UNIVERSITY OF DJILALI BOUNAAMA

(Khemis Miliana/Algeria) [email protected]

TThhee LLooggiicc ooff tthhee LLaanngguuaaggee

iinn tthhee DDiissccoouurrssee ooff tthhee AArraabb HHeerriittaaggee..

TThhrroouugghh tthhee CCoonntteemmppoorraarryy RRhheettoorriiccaall

TTuurrnn.. AA DDeebbaattee bbeettwweeeenn AAbbuu SSaa''’’iidd

aall--SSiirraaffii aanndd AAbbuu--BBiisshhrr MMaattaaaa IIbbnn YYuunnuuss

aass aa MMooddeell In this paper I examine the extent to which the logic

of language is present in literary discourse when

trying to persuade or to seek persuasion. Since life is

full of communication and dialogue between a source

and a recipient, a linguistic or rhetorical solution has

become necessary for every attempt at persuasion,

victory, demolition, refutation or, at least, influence

in the other. Is there in the literary heritage confirms

the convergence between the logic of language

(reason) and the language of logic, or between the

Agumentation rhetoric and reason? Is there

a functional interaction between the links

of argumentation in the construction and

demolition? In this context comes the lines

of research, highlighting the role played by the

rhetoric in the discourse mechanisms; when the

aesthetic taste to the arena of pilgrims and

persuasion, to influence the other, to prove the

opinion or the demolition, or at least upset. And

in the debate (Abu Said Al-Sirafi 284 AH 364 AH) and

Mattaa Ibn Younis Al-Qinai what fulfills this purpose,

and reveals the facts and results became topics

of research in the science of argumentation and

tongues. Rather, the same problems posed

by contemporary logic and new rhetoric

in contemporary philosophical and literary

discourse. In texts on freedom, justice, aesthetics,

values and truth. A discourse that appreciates the

persuasion and an argumentation and invites him

to come to bring the views closer to each other in all

areas, philosophical, literary, political, social and

even linguistic and Semitic.

PPrrooff.. AAhhmmeedd AAllii IIBBRRAAHHIIMM

UNIVERSITY OF FALLUJA (Falluja/Iraq) [email protected]

TThhee SSeemmaannttiicc FFuunnccttiioonn ooff tthhee PPooeettiicc

DDiissccoouurrssee ooff PPooeettss

Tramps hair represents a unique phenomenon in the

Arab poetry path, because it carries a revolutionary

experience in the social and technical levels and

refused to one evaluates the non-same basis. The

revolutionary movement has reached at Urwa ibn

roses phase of honesty reflected the same poetic, he

took mostly advantage of other properties, in motion

and narration by war and fiction character, as well as

philosophical and ideological character, and his

vision in the face of poverty, power and rebellion

against the norm. The discourse of poetic activity

is communicative deliberately influence, because the

ultimate goal vested by this letter is to influence the

recipient impact achieved with specific objectives and

targets drawn to his speech in line with the contexts

communicative, in which the poet seeks to Alavham

and persuasion, and influence in the recipient by

language and speech, and the argument mental logic

and evidence, and therefore need the poet Tramp to

employ the value of the speech and authority / text

and its ability to act and achieve the benefit and

efficacy, and the significance of purposes, so

mediated effect in the recipient and persuade him

and touched his feelings and emotions towards the

objectives and behavior unique and own convictions.

This study adopted the rhetoric and technical

analysis of the methods and means of persuasion

speech in defense of the idea or situation, through

certain methods and mechanisms persuasive

multiple orbital reflect the ideology of the poet, so the

37

search will turn behind the text and turned to see the

side Baaah.

PPrrooff.. IIssmmaaeell HHAAZZIIMM

UNIVERSITY OF MOSUL (Erbil/Iraq) [email protected]

MMaanniiffeessttaattiioonnss ooff RReebbeelllliioonn iinn tthhee PPooeettrryy

ooff VVaaggaabboonnddss This research examines the manifestations

of rebellion in the poetry of vagabonds. The vagabond

poets embodied their suffering in a creative manner.

They recorded the details of their life, and what they

suffered under the tribal society which abhors and

disrespect them. Therefore, they bore the banner

of revolution against this oppression and the social

differentiation. The psychological aspect had a deep

impact in drawing the map of this poetry through

artistic and psychological means which are very clear

in their poetry. Rebellion was a means to repress

weakness and surrender, and a means

of self-affirmation. Rebellion is a strong psychological

desire to change the lived reality, and to turn it into

an active reality. This topic is represented

in measuring the extent of using the stylistic aspects

aesthetically in the literary texts, the psychological

analysis depends on a number of the methodological

rules among which are focusing on ways

of expressing the linguistic aspect about the view

of the text, especially in relation to vocabulary and

structures, the discovery of the expressionist forms

of these poets by seeing their poems through the

criticism of the psychological factor, which

constitutes the basis of this study.

38

PANEL 7

The Experience of Oppression

in Contemporary Japanese Literature – Precarity,

Imprisonment, Totalitarian Tendencies

DDrr.. FFiilliippppoo CCEERRVVEELLLLII

DURHAM UNIVERSITY (Durham/UK) [email protected]

TThhee OOpppprreessssiioonn ooff DDeemmooccrraaccyy:: PPoolliittiiccaall

((MMiiss))RReepprreesseennttaattiioonn aanndd CCoommmmuunniittyy

iinn TTaakkaahhaasshhii GGeenn’’iicchhiirrōō’’ss WWrriittiinnggss

In both his fiction and non-fiction, Takahashi

Gen’ichirō is attentive to social and political issues.

This commitment to discuss current events and

organizations is also underscored by the fact that

Takahashi was a political activist himself, and was

even imprisoned in his youth. Across sources

manifesting his standpoint on contemporary

Japanese and world politics, Takahashi describes

a contemporary society where citizens are not

represented adequately by politicians, who do not act

in their best interests. Often, they use ambiguous

language to divert attention from important issues

such as the reevaluation of war responsibility or the

comfort women case. This is a form of oppression,

because the citizens are at loss for representation,

since the official channels do not tackle their needs

clearly, nor do they seem to address the complexities

in their lives.

A comparable notion emerges also from Takahashi’s

literature. In numerous narratives a similar

oppression is visible, where characters are not given

a chance to identify with overarching ideologies, that

fail to represent them. Political slogans too only

promote messages for immediate one-sided benefits,

failing to grasp the reality of everyday life. Within this

context, the citizens isolate themselves in their

localized realities, privileging what is of immediate

concern to their survival, without considering

communal issues. This misrepresentation is

experienced crucially at the level of communication,

where words only amount to tools to convey one

portion of individual reality that does not achieve

mutual understanding with others.

This study focuses on Takahashi’s treatment

of political misrepresentation in everyday life.

By analyzing essays, articles and two novels, Koi suru

genpatsu [The Nuclear Plant in Love, 2011] and

Sayonara Cristopher Robin [Goodbye, Christopher

Robin, 2012], this paper proposes a double

movement between the author’s fiction and

non-fiction, so as to illustrate how an influential

author contributes through different ways and media

to articulating oppression, and showing how freedom

may be achieved through a collective redefinition

of democracy and the reestablishment of community.

AAddaamm GGRREEGGUUŠŠ

UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA (Vienna/Austria) [email protected]

WWhheenn BBuubbbblloonniiaa BBuurrssttss –– KKiirriinnoo NNaattssuuoo’’ss

PPoolliittiikkoonn aanndd iittss SSuubbvveerrssiivvee UUttooppiiaa

One of Japan’s most enduringly popular authors,

Kirino Natsuo, has made a name for herself with her

unflinching depictions of Japan’s post-bubble

society. Although not identifying as a political writer,

themes of systemic oppression, gender inequality,

precarious life conditions and struggles of lower

classes, among other societal ills, form the core of her

writing. In her novel Politikon (2011), Kirino tackles

the framework of utopian fiction, and the fictional

commune in which the novel takes place ostensibly

serves as a refuge from the shackles of Japanese

39

society. Yet as Kirino portrays it through the lens

of a male insider and a female outsider, the

commune becomes a stage of power play and political

intrigue which none of the inhabitants can escape.

In my talk, I will focus on Kirino’s dismantling

of utopian idealism, as well as her portrayal of its two

protagonists in and outside of this society and how it

relates to her socially critical writing. I will also

highlight Kirino’s engagement with social and

economic issues through her construction of a failing

utopia and her possible outlook for Japan at large.

CChhrriissttiiaann CCHHAAPPPPEELLOOWW

GOETHE-UNIVERSITY IN FRANKFURT

(Frankfurt/Germany) chappelow at em.uni-frankfurt.de

HHeennmmii YYôô’’ss AApppprrooaacchheess ttoowwaarrddss

IImmpprriissoonnmmeenntt aanndd DDeeaatthh SSeenntteennccee

iinn JJaappaann In April 2012 NHK Educational Television (ETV)

showed a documentary following author and

journalist Henmi Yô 辺見庸 (1944) to the death tract

of a Japanese prison. Henmis intention was to visit

and to talk to convicted leftist terrorist Daidôji

Masashi 大道寺将司 (1948-2017), whose involvement

in attacks by the East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front

[東アジア反日武装戦線, Higashi Ajia Hannichi Busô

Sensen] led to his death sentence in 1987. Henmi

had two goals in mind: To highlight the plight

of death convicts in Japan, and to make public the

haiku writing Daidôji produced during his time

in prison.

Henmis critical approach towards imprisonment

and death sentence has its roots in a fundamental

and cultural critique of Japanese society at the turn

of the 21st century. His essayistic writings after

winning the Akutagawa price in 1991, with the

seemingly unmarketable thesis of Japan falling back

into totalitarian and neo-fascist tendencies, can

be read as an antithesis to the increasingly

commercialized and apolitical literature of the

Heisei-Era.

This paper aims to discuss the topic of prison

literature in the context of Henmi’s literarily and

intellectually constructed critique of the post war

system. Special focus will be given to his televised

encounter with Daidôji, which further raises

questions into the reach of artistic engagement and

the place of what could be described as undesirable

topics like death sentence and leftist terrorism

in contemporary Japanese literature.

40

PANEL 8

Woman: between Freedom

and Oppression (1)

PPrrooff.. RRoosswwiitthhaa BBAADDRRYY

FREIBURG UNIVERSITY (Freiburg/Germany) [email protected]

AA LLiitteerraarryy PPlleeaa ffoorr FFrreeeeddoomm ooff EExxpprreessssiioonn

–– LLaayyllāā aall--’’UUtthhmmāānn’’ss MMuuḥḥāākkaammaa

aass aann EExxaammppllee

This paper will focus on the novel Al-Muḥākama [The

Trial] by the prominent Kuwaiti author Laylā

al-‘Uthmān which was published in 2000

in Damascus and reprinted twice (2001, 2005). The

first-person narrative is based on the writer’s

personal experiences between 1996 and 2000 when

two Takfīr (accusation of unbelief) cases were

initiated against her because of the allegedly indecent

contents of two of her early short-story collections

printed in 1979 and 1980. The first Takfīr case only

led to an interrogation by the public prosecutor

in 1996, but the second resulted in the court

proceedings of 1999/2000. The novel presents

a mixture of genuine facts and fiction. It not only

depicts the investigations against the

narrator-protagonist and her worries, feelings, and

actions connected with them. Following the

technique of de-concentration in Derridean terms, it

also gives attention to seemingly unimportant,

marginal aspects, such as minor daily problems

or what is said in small talk. The analysis of the novel

will demonstrate that despite these digressions, the

call for freedom of expression and other fundamental

liberties figures prominently in Al-Muḥākama. This is

also true for other autobiographical texts by Laylā

al-‘Uthmān which will partially be taken into

consideration.

DDrr.. NNaajjllaa KKAALLAACCHH

TUSCIA UNIVERSITY (Viterbo/Italy) [email protected]

BBeettwweeeenn TTrraaddiittiioonn aanndd CChhaannggee.. QQaattaarrii

WWoommeenn WWrriitteerrss aanndd tthhee SShhoorrtt SSttoorryy::

aa FFooccuuss oonn KKaalltthhuumm JJaabbrr Literature, as a means to express freedom

and oppression, has been played an important role

in the Arabic Literature. The purpose of my speech is

to highlight how writing provided the opportunity for

some important Qatari women writers (since 1970’s)

to present, through the short story, the image of the

woman in the Arabian Gulf who looks for freedom

and autonomy and who struggles with the traditional

and tribal structures of the Arab society. The

presentation will focus on one of the most important

Qatari writer, Kalthum Jabr, who has been able with

her simple and expressive language to greatly

describe the role of women in Qatar and the

conflicting feelings that arose between past and

contemporary world.

DDrr.. NNiihhaadd FFOOTTTTOOUUHH

THE FRENCH UNIVERSITY IN EGYPT (Cairo/Egypt) [email protected]

NNaawwaall eell SSaaaaddaawwii:: TThhee EEggyyppttiiaann FFaaccee

ooff RReessiissttaannccee “All the men I did get to know, every single man

of them, has filled me with but one desire: to lift my

hand and bring it smashing down on his face. But

because I am a woman I have never had the courage

to lift my hand. And because I am a prostitute, I hid

my fear under layers of make-up” Fardus Those

words begin Nawal el Saadawi’s Women at Point Zero

(1982). Saadawi is an Egyptian feminist who has paid

the price of her independences from her personal and

public life. In 1972 Saadawi was removed from her

position as the Director of Health Education and the

41

Editor-in-Chief of “Health magazine” after the

publication of Women and Sex. She was imprisoned

in Qanatir (women’s prison) in 1981 for political

offenses. The paper answers the question do women

have freedom or any choice at all? Saadawi presents

Fardus, the novel’s protagonist as an example

of every woman living in the Middle East who lives

performing a life that is carefully designed for her by

the Patriarchal Middle eastern society, she lives to

satisfy everyone and is taught to ignore her desires,

however when she chooses to refuse she pays it from

her life. The paper thus joins Saadawi in her

questions of freedom and liberation to women,

through examining Women at Point Zero as

a representation of every woman in the Middle East,

especially Egypt.

DDrr.. WWeerroonniikkaa RROOKKIICCKKAA


QQuueesstt ffoorr FFrreeeeddoomm:: AAnn IInnddiiaann FFeemmaallee

TTrraavveelllleerr’’ss SSttrruugggglleess iinn NNaabbaanneeeettaa DDeevv

SSeenn’’ss TTrraavveell WWrriittiinnggss Travelling is often associated with exercising

freedom, overcoming barriers and limitations. Even

more so if it is a woman who goes on a journey

breaking patriarchal norms, challenging

gender-based prejudice. This paper will aim

at analysing selected travel writings of Nabaneeta

Dev Sen, one of most eminent Indian Bengali female

writers of 20th century. Apart from being

a successful author of fiction Dev Sen is also a keen

traveller and has a number of travel books to her

credit. Travelling alone or in a group she goes to

different parts of India, sometimes remote and other

time overcrowded. In her writings along with

observations and reports from the journeys she

shares her feelings and thoughts on freedom,

womanhood, family and culture. This paper will focus

on this part of Nabaneeta Dev Sen’s travel writings

that examines personal experience of being an Indian

female traveller. What motivates her to take to the

road? What image of the society and of herself does

she create through her writings?

42

PANEL 9

China: the Picture of Freedom

and Oppression

DDrr.. MMaacciieejj SSZZAATTKKOOWWSSKKII

Chinese Language and Culture Center


NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY


CChhiińńsskkaa lliitteerraattuurraa oobboozzoowwaa Referat jest próbą opisu miejsca literatury obozowej

na mapie współczesnej literatury chińskiej.

Wspomnienia z chińskich obozów pracy

w zdecydowanej większości nie zostają wydane

w oficjalnym obiegu wydawniczym na terenie

Chińskiej Republiki Ludowej. W ostatnich latach

rząd ChRL zakazał niemal całkowicie publicznych

dyskusji na temat kampanii antyprawicowych

z czasów rządu Mao Zedonga, po których 1,2 miliona

ludzi zostało uwięzionych w chińskich obozach pracy,

tzw. laogaiach (劳改 ‘reedukacja poprzez pracę’).

Wielu badaczy (np. Frank Dikötter) twierdzi, że Mao

Zedong założył obozy, wzorując się na radzieckich

gułagach. Podobnie jak w Związku Radzieckim,

w chińskich laogaiach znalazło się w latach 50. wielu

intelektualistów, w tym także tych lewicujących

i wiernych komunistów. Było to pokłosie kampanii

antyprawicowych oraz „kampanii stu kwiatów”, które

były okazją do pozbycia się wszelkich przejawów

myśli krytycznej wobec władzy i zdławienia opozycji.

Wielu z osadzonych zmarło, a ci, którzy przeżyli

nierzadko 20-letnią odsiadkę, wyszli zrehabilitowani

dopiero po śmierci Mao Zedonga. Zazwyczaj milczeli

na temat doświadczeń obozowych, bojąc się

kolejnych represji. Nieliczni zdecydowali się na

wydanie wspomnień obozowych, często w drugim

obiegu lub poza Chinami kontynentalnymi. W języku

polskim ukazały się dwa opowiadania Zhang

Xianlianga: Zupa z trawy i Zielonodrzew, Zimny wiatr.

Pamiętnik z lat spędzonych w chińskim gułagu

Harrego Wu oraz W poszukiwaniu ojczyzny:

wspomnienia z chińskiego obozu pracy Gao Ertaia,

które będą przedmiotem szerszej analizy.

CChhiinneessee LLaabboorr CCaammpp LLiitteerraattuurree

The presentation focuses on Chinese labor camp

literature and its place in Chinese modern literature.

Prison-camp memoirs usually can not be published

officially in the People’s Republic of China. In the

recent years Chinese government prohibits almost all

public discussions of the “Anti-Rightist campaign”,

which can lead to national amnesia and new shaping

of the collective memory. After Maoist campaigns (e.g.

The Hundred Flowers Campaign) around 1,2 million

people were sent to labor camps, so called laogai (劳

改 reform through labor).

Many scholars believes (e.g. Frank Dikötter) that Mao

Zedong established laogai by following the example

of Soviet gulags. As in the case of Soviet Union,

in Chinese prison-camps many leftist and

communist activists were imprisoned.

Many of the political prisoners died in laogai, and

those who survived were set free after 20 years

of imprisonment, after Mao Zedong’s death. Usually

they did not share their experience from the labor

camp with public and lived in fear of the next

persecution. Only a few decided to publish their

memoirs from laogai, mostly outside of PRC. In my

speech I intend to analyze those few memoirs

translated into Polish, i.e. Zhang Xianliang’s Zupa

z trawy [Grass Soup] and Zielonodrzew [Mimosa],

Harry Wu’s Zimny wiatr. Pamiętnik z lat spędzonych

w chińskim gułagu [Bitter winds: a memoir from my

years in China’s Gulag] and Gao Ertai’s

W poszukiwaniu ojczyzny: wspomnienia z chińskiego

obozu pracy [In Search of My Homeland].

DDrr.. ZZooffiiaa JJAAKKUUBBÓÓWW

43

Department of Chinese Studies Faculty of Oriental Studies


[email protected]

PPoosszzuukkiiwwaanniiee wwoollnnoośśccii ww kkuullttuurrzzee

wwoollnneeggoo rryynnkkuu:: cchhiińńssccyy ppiissaarrzzee

„„śśrrooddkkoowweeggoo ppookkoolleenniiaa”” Współczesna literatura chińska powstaje

w warunkach systemu gospodarczego określanego

czasem jako kapitalizm o chińskiej specyfice albo

wręcz przeciwnie: socjalizm o chińskiej specyfice.

Niejednoznaczność dotknęła także sfery

ideologicznej, w której spotkały się wprawdzie różne

orientacje, ale poczesne miejsce zajmuje

neoliberalizm z wizją teleologicznego, dobiegającego

właśnie końca, rozwoju historycznego, nakazem

uczestnictwa w przypominającej walkę pogoni

za pieniądzem, korzystania z indywidualnej wolności

i dźwigania odpowiedzialności za siebie. Refleksję

nad obecnym stanem chińskiego społeczeństwa

i kultury uprawia tzw. „środkowe pokolenie”

chińskich pisarzy – literaci urodzeni zbyt późno, by

pamiętać „rewolucję kulturalną”, ale i zbyt wcześnie,

by całkowicie, bezkrytycznie zanurzyć się w świecie

konsumpcji, w którym żyje albo do którego aspiruje

część mieszkańców chińskich wielkich miast. Choć

neoliberalizm ma w nazwie upragnioną po latach

socjalistycznej kontroli wolność, bohaterowie

powieści pisarzy „środkowego pokolenia” nie tylko nie

wydają się zadowoleni, ale wręcz odczuwają rodzaj

zniewolenia i bezsilności wobec tych mechanizmów.

Stąd ich poszukiwanie sposobów uwolnienia się

od dominujących wartości, przybierające najczęściej

formę powrotu do tradycji, ucieczki z metropolii,

do domu rodzinnego, do religijności i lokalnych

wzorców osobowych.

SSeeaarrcchh ffoorr FFrreeeeddoomm iinn tthhee CCuullttuurree

ooff tthhee FFrreeee MMaarrkkeett:: CChhiinneessee WWrriitteerrss

ooff tthhee ““MMiiddddllee GGeenneerraattiioonn”” Contemporary Chinese literature is written under the

conditions of an economic system sometimes termed

“capitalism with Chinese characteristics” and

at other times, on the contrary, described

as “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.

Ambiguity characterizes the ideological sphere

as well. While it has become the space where various

orientations meet and merge, an especially

prominent position has been occupied by

neoliberalism with its vision of teleological, by now

nearly complete, historical development, its precepts

of participation in the fierce pursuit of money,

experiencing individual freedom and shouldering the

full responsibility for oneself. Reflections on the

current state of the Chinese society and culture can

be found in the writings of the so called “Middle

Generation” of Chinese authors. They were born too

late to remember the Cultural Revolution and too

early to completely and uncritically immerse

themselves in the world of consumerism – the world

that has become the living place of some of the

big-city dwellers or at least the object of their

aspirations. Neoliberalism nominally entails liberty

much needed after years of socialist control.

However, the characters created by the “Middle

Generation” writers not only feel unhappy, but even

experience a sense of enslavement and helplessness

in the face of those mechanisms. Hence their search

for methods of liberating themselves from the

dominating values, most often embodied in the form

of a return to tradition, religion, locally generated role

models, and to their home towns far from the modern

metropolises.

DDrr.. AAggnniieesszzkkaa

PPAATTEERRSSKKAA--KKUUBBAACCKKAA


SSuunn WWuukkoonngg jjaakkoo ssyymmbbooll bbuunnttuu

ii wwoollnnoośśccii ww kkuullttuurrzzee cchhiińńsskkiieejj Tadeusz Żbikowski we wstępie do powieści Małpi

bunt pisze: „Odmiennie od kręgu kultury

europejskiej, małpa w krajach Dalekiego Wschodu

nie była zwierzęciem pogardzanym czy wręcz

utożsamianym z siłami nieczystymi. W wielu

kulturach wschodnich, zwłaszcza w Indiach,

na wyspach Archipelagu Malajskiego, a także

44

niektórych rejonach Chin, otaczano ją nimbem

świętości, małpokształtnym bogom budowano

świątynie, składano ofiary, zanoszono do nich modły.

Nierzadko małpa bywała bohaterką utworów

literackich”. Rzadko czy często, sądzę, że nikomu

dotąd nie przyszło do głowy sprawdzać, ile małp

wystąpiło w głównej roli w chińskiej literaturze.

Dlaczego? Ponieważ wszystkie i tak zostałyby

przyćmione przez tę jedną, najważniejszą – Małpiego

Króla Sun Wukonga. „Obrońca maluczkich,

szlachetny buntownik”, wulkan energii,

niewyczerpane źródło mniej lub bardziej szalonych

pomysłów. Nie ogranicza go ani przestrzeń, ani

powierzchowność, kiedy chodzi o realizację jego

marzeń. Nieustannie w akcji, często najpierw robi,

później myśli o skutkach, łamie wszelkie normy

i działa wbrew zasadom, ale zawsze w dobrej wierze

i z reguły z pozytywnym skutkiem. Bohater filmów,

seriali i sztuk, odnalazł się również we współczesnym

świecie reklamy. Postać nie do zastąpienia i nie do

wyeksploatowania, wciąż żywa w świadomości

Chińczyków. Jakie jego cechy sprawiły, że stał się

nieśmiertelnym (jak pragnął) symbolem buntu

i wolności? Na to pytanie spróbuję znaleźć

odpowiedź.

SSuunn WWuukkoonngg aass aa SSyymmbbooll ooff RReebbeelllliioonn

aanndd FFrreeeeddoomm iinn CChhiinneessee CCuullttuurree In the preface to the novel called Monkey rebellion

Tadeusz Żbikowski wrote: “Unlike the European

culture, in the Far East monkey was not an animal

despised or even identified with unclean forces.

In many eastern cultures, particularly in India,

on the islands of the Malay Archipelago and in some

parts of China, the monkey was considered a saint,

people built temples for ape-like gods, offered them

sacrifices and sent prayers to them. Often monkey

was the hero of literary works”. Rarely or often,

I think it has never occurred to anyone to count how

many monkeys have played the lead in Chinese

literature. Why? Because all of them would

be dimmed by this one, the most important – the

Monkey King Sun Wukong. “Defender of the little

ones, noble rebel”, volcano of energy,

an inexhaustible source of more or less crazy ideas.

He is never limited neither by the space, nor by his

appearance, when it comes to fulfill his dreams.

Incessantly in action, often he first do, then think

about consequences, brakes all the principles and

acts against the rules, but always in good faith and

usually with positive results. The hero of the movies,

series, dramas and plays, he found his place also

in the modern world of advertisement. The character,

that cannot be replaced and the mark that will never

be used up, still alive in Chinese minds. Which

qualities caused him to become immortal (as he

wished) symbol of rebellion and freedom? This

question I will try to answer.

DDrr.. AAnnnnaa KKOOŁŁOOSS


PPrrzzeezz OOcceeaann IInnddyyjjsskkii.. PPoollssccyy ppooddrróóżżnniiccyy

ww ddrrooddzzee ddoo CChhiinn ((11885500––11993399))

Przed drugą połową XIX wieku polscy podróżnicy

docierali do Chin niemal wyłącznie jedną drogą,

mianowicie przez rosyjską Syberię. Chociaż nie wszyscy

spośród nich byli zesłańcami, typ narracji

martyrologicznej, zawierającej elementy

podróżopisarstwa na Daleki Wschód, stał się

dominujący w polskiej kulturze. Znacznie mniej

wiadomo natomiast o innych polskich rodzajach

podróży do Chin. W niniejszym wystąpieniu

chciałabym skupić się na polskich podróżnikach,

którzy przebywali Ocean Indyjski, by odwiedzić

południowe wybrzeża Chin. Otwarcie Kanału

Sueskiego w 1869 roku, a w szczególności przejęcie

go przez Brytyjczyków w 1882 roku, znacząco

ułatwiło transport morski do Indii i Azji

Południowo-Wschodniej. Doprowadziło to do

ekspansji usług komercyjnych parowców, które

spopularyzowały podróże handlowe i nowoczesną

turystykę w tej części globu. Przed podróżnikiem

stanęły nagle do dyspozycji różne możliwości,

a ośrodki portowe między Kanałem Sueskim

45

a Japonią stały się wszystkie łatwo dostępne. W dużej

mierze były one również kontrolowane przez

europejskie mocarstwa, dzięki czemu trasa ta była

w pewnej mierze homogeniczna. Podróż mogła być

kojarzona z podziwianiem kolejnych stopni

kolonizacji, a kontakt z lokalnymi kulturami był

ograniczony do minimum. W 1939 roku Aleksander

Janta-Połczyński deklarował, że statki przeznaczona

dla masowych turystów przypominały „pływającą

Europę” i chroniły podróżnych przed interakcjami

z pozaeuropejskimi kulturami. Moim celem jest

porównanie wybranych opisów podróży morskiej

z drugiej połowy XIX wieku (Julian Fałat, Karol

Lanckoroński, Paweł Sapieha, Czesław Karol

Petelenz, Lucjan Jurkiewicz) i z okresu

międzywojennego (Julian Bandrowski,

Janta-Połczyński), by wyciągnąć z nich ogólniejsze

wnioski mówiące o świadomości tych podróżników,

ich percepcji Chin oraz stosunku do kolonializmu

wraz z ich poglądami politycznymi dotyczącymi

opresji, co jest szczególnie istotne dla polskich

podróżników przed 1918 rokiem.

CCrroossssiinngg tthhee IInnddiiaann OOcceeaann.. PPoolliisshh

TTrraavveelleerrss oonn TThheeiirr WWaayy ttoo CChhiinnaa

((11885500––11993399))

Before the second half of the 19th century there was

hardly any other route to China for Polish travelers than

the one leading from Russian Siberia. As much as not all

those travelers were exiles, this sort of martyrologic

narratives concerning travels to the Far East became

prevailing in the Polish culture. Much less is known

about other types of Polish journeys to China. In this

paper I would like to elaborate on the topic of Polish

travelers who crossed the Indian Ocean to get to the

southern coasts of China. The opening of the Suez Canal

in 1869 and, in particular, Britain’s seizure of it in 1882

significantly facilitated maritime transport to India and

East Asia. This led to the expansion of commercial

steamship services that made travel accessible for trade

and modern tourism alike. This mode of travel suddenly

allowed one to choose from a range of destinations: port

towns between the Suez Canal and the coast of Japan

were all accessible. These hubs had predominantly been

given over to European control. As a result, this route

depicted the world as somewhat homogeneous. The

journey was associated with visiting the progressive

stages of colonization, and contact with local cultures was

limited to a minimum. In 1939 Aleksander

Janta-Połczyński declared that the ships for the masses

of tourists resembled of “floating Europe” and protected

tourists from interactions with non-European cultures

of Asia. In the paper I would like to compare several

accounts of maritime journeys from the second half of the

19th century (J. Fałat, K. Lanckoroński, P. Sapieha. C.K.

Petelenz, L. Jurkiewicz), from around the interwar period

(J. Bandrowski, Janta-Połczyński). I would like to draw

some conclusions on the awareness of those travelers,

their perception of the Chinese and their approach

to colonialism along with their political opinions

regarding oppression, which is particularly crucial for the

Polish travelers from before 1918.

46

PANEL 10

Woman: between Freedom

and Oppression (2)

DDrr.. MMoonniikkaa BBRROOWWAARRCCZZYYKK

Department of Asian Studies

Faculty of Modern Languages and Literatures


IInn SSeeaarrcchh ooff OOpppprreessssiioonn ooff FFrreeeeddoomm

aanndd FFrreeeeddoomm ffrroomm OOpppprreessssiioonn.. MMeeeennaa

KKaannddaassaammyy’’ss GGyyppssyy GGooddddeessss aanndd WWhheenn II HHiitt YYoouu oorr,, AA PPoorrttrraaiitt ooff tthhee WWrriitteerr

aass aa YYoouunngg WWiiffee

Meena Kandasamy, holder of a PhD

in sociolinguistics and a Dalit activist, had several

collections of poetry to her credit when in 2014 she

debuted with her first novel, Gypsy

Goddess that smudged the line between powerful

fiction and fearsome critique in narrating the 1968

massacre of forty-four landless untouchable men,

women and children striking for higher wages in the

village of Kilvenmani

(https://www.kandasamy.co.uk). Her second novel,

narrated in the first-person When I Hit You or,

A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife of 2017

portrays an abusive marriage of a female protagonist

who happens to be a writer. Kandasamy accepts the

novel as being partly autobiographical, but restrains

from providing an estimate of “autobiographical

element” in it. In these narratives Kandasamy

debates Indian visions of womanhood, talks about

female sexuality and writing. The paper seeks

to outline the question of freedom and oppression

in these unique narratives of caste and domestic

violence in India.

MMaarriiaa SSKKAAKKUUJJ--PPUURRII

INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR (India) [email protected]

MMootthheerrss,, DDaauugghhtteerrss,, SSiisstteerrss,, WWiivveess……

WWoommeenn aanndd tthhee 11998844 TTrraauummaa iinn PPuunnjjaabbii

SShhoorrtt SSttoorriieess bbyy AAjjeeeett CCaauurr

Military operation (June 1984) ordered by the Prime

Minister, Indira Gandhi, aimed at flushing out

Jairnail Singh Bhindrawale and his cohort from the

Golden Temple, left hundreds of people dead. The

desecration of the temple and the bloodshed

committed within its walls shook the Sikh

community and led to the assassination of Indira

Gandhi by her Sikh body-guards (31 October 1984).

This was followed by anti-Sikh riots and

an unprecedented growth of militancy in Punjab.

Punjabi literature, especially the short story,

addressed the matter, trying to make sense of the

traumatic event and its aftermath. The present paper

proposes to examine some short stories authored

by a well-known Punjabi writer, Ajeet Caur,

juxtaposing narratives describing what happened in

Delhi (ex. Navaṁbar ćurāsi / November 1984) with

those whose action takes place in Punjab

(eg. Nā māro / Dead-end; Kuṭṭe/ Bloodhounds, Ćuṭṭi

/ On vacation), with special focus on women, their

fate and their coping strategies when confronted with

violence. As most of the stories were written and

published only years after the 1984 events, one

is faced again, as was the case with the Partition

of 1947, with the question of how to come to grips

with the memories of a traumatic past. The paper

tries to answer this question.

NNaattaalliiaa GGRREENNIIEEWWSSKKAA

Faculty of Oriental Studies


MMoonnggoolliiaann FFeemmaallee PPeerrssppeeccttiivvee

ooff IInnddiivviidduuaall FFrreeeeddoomm

The main subject of the present paper will be female

perspective of individual freedom in Mongolian

47

literature. I will focus on works of one of the most

famous and important Mongolian contemporary

writer and poet – Ulziitogs, which reflect modern

Mongolian society. She vividly describes the daily,

unequal struggle of Mongolian women for equal

rights, equal treatment and their individual freedom.

She often shows the image of the oppressed woman

and her relationship with society and attempts

to gain independence. At the same time, she

underlines the perspective of a Mongolian woman –

writer, attempts to realize herself as an independent

author and her struggle for creative freedom.

Literature of Ulziitogs is well received by the

Mongolian society judging from the number of the

sold copies of her books. Since her works were

translated into numerous languages it can

be assumed that she is perceived as a writer

of universal subjects. In the paper, I will draw

on examples of novellas by the writer from her last

two books entitled The urban tales and The images

seen in glasses.

JJooaannnnaa GGRRUUSSZZEEWWSSKKAA


FFrreeeeddoomm TThhrroouugghh EEnnlliigghhtteennmmeenntt

iinn tthhee PPooeemmss ooff tthhee EEaarrllyy BBuuddddhhiisstt NNuunnss

The Therīgāthā [Songs of the Elder Nuns], a collection

forming a part of the Earliest Buddhist canon,

is an anthology of verses ascribed to the ancient

Buddhist nuns. Those poems describe the life stories

of nuns and their way to the highest Buddhist goal –

the enlightenment. The enlightenment and the

monastic way of life are often described as freedom:

freedom from fear, from desire, from the circle

of rebirth and sometimes also as freedom from

an unhappy marriage or hardships of life before the

ordination. In two cases the epithet “freed” (muttā)

even serves as the name of the nun to whom the

poem is ascribed (Therīgāthā 2 and 11). The aim

of the proposed paper is to analyze selected verses

of the Therīgāthā in terms of in which contexts the

notion of “freedom” is used and in which terms

it is explained, taking into account the context of the

socially ascribed gender norms of ancient India and

the early Buddhist notions of liberation.

48

PANEL 11

The Freedom in Colonial

and Postcolonial Perspective

DDrr.. MMaałłggoorrzzaattaa SSOOKKOOŁŁOOWWIICCZZ

FRYDERYK CHOPIN UNIVERSITY OF MUSIC

(Warsaw/Poland)


TThhee CCaatteeggoorryy ooff FFrreeeeddoomm iinn tthhee FFrreenncchh

CCoolloonniiaall LLiitteerraattuurree:: LL’’ééttrraannggee aavveennttuurree

dd’’AAgguuiiddaa [[TThhee SSttrraannggee AAddvveennttuurree

ooff AAgguuiiddaa]] bbyy AA..--RR.. ddee LLeennss

Due to its occupation by Arabs, firstly, and relations

with the Ottoman Empire, secondly; in the 19th

century, the North Africa was considered to be a part

of the Oriental world, the world which was usually

depicted in literature and art as a certain projection

of European dreams and desires. This way

of representing the North Africa persists in the

colonial literature but is also enriched by new

contents. In my speech I would like to focus on a book

by Aline Réveillaud de Lens (1881–1925), a French

woman painter and writer living in Tunisia

(1911–1913) and Morocco (1913–1925), a newly

created French protectorate. L’étrange aventure

d’Aguida is composed of three short stories

describing the life of three Moroccan people: Aguida,

a girl kidnapped from her native village to be sold

as a slave in a city; Marouf, a blind boy who looses

his family and is forced to become a beggar; and

Omar, a slippers’ seller who is wrongfully accused

of stealing money. In all the stories Moroccans

become those who oppress and limit the freedom

of their fellow countrymen while French people help

them to regain freedom. But what is this freedom

like? What does it mean to be free under the colonial

rule? How does the French colonial literature

influence the perception of freedom and define “the

white man’s burden”? May we talk about the category

of freedom in the French colonial literature? Those

are the questions I would like to answer

in my speech.

AAlliiccjjaa WWAALLCCZZYYNNAA

Institute of Romance Studies


WWrriittee aa LLiivveedd PPrriissoonn EExxppeerriieennccee,,

TTrraannssccrriibbee aann EExxppeerriieennccee HHeeaarrdd..

TThhee CCoommppaarraattiivvee SSttuuddyy ooff BBeenn JJeelllloouunn’’ss

TThhee BBlliinnddiinngg AAbbsseennccee ooff LLiigghhtt aanndd

MMaarrzzoouukkii’’ss TTaazzmmaammaarrtt--CCeellll 1100 Tazmamart-Cell 10 (Paris: Éditions

Paris-Méditerranée, 2000) have been written from

two distinct perspectives : the first author rewrites

the prison experience heard from one of the

Tazmamart’ survivors and the second one,

writer-survivor reveals his own experience

of Tazmamart. The question is to approach the way

they treat the subject of human oppression, physical

and psychological sufferance and the inner strength

of human being to survive. The two authors choose

distinctive linguistic strategies to present prison: Ben

Jelloun uses poetic language while Marzouki’s

writing sticks to the reality employing another range

of vocabulary. I will show that these two testimonies,

direct and indirect, diverge but prove to be equally

powerful.

AAlleekkssaannddrraa SSZZKKLLAARRZZEEWWIICCZZ

Institute of Oriental Studies


LLiitteerraattuurree aass aa TTeessttiimmoonnyy.. MMeemmooiirrss

ooff PPrriissoonn aanndd TToorrttuurree iinn TTaahhaarr BBeenn

JJeelllloouunn’’ss TThhiiss BBlliinnddiinngg AAbbsseennccee ooff LLiigghhtt

aanndd iinn FFaatteemmaa OOuuffkkiirr’’ss LLeess JJaarrddiinnss dduu rrooii

49

In the early 1970’s, the Moroccan military has staged

two unsuccessful coups d’état against King Hassan

II. In the aftermath, thousands of dissidents were

tortured, imprisoned or forcibly disappeared.

For years, the atrocities which occurred at that time

were a secret well-kept from the public. Tahar Ben

Jelloun, a critically acclaimed Moroccan writer,

presents a true story of a former inmate

of Tazmamart, a secluded secret prison. The

protagonist is a young cadet who has been jailed for

participation in the failed coup of 1971. This Blinding

Absence of Light is a dramatic tale of injustice

and above all about the persistence of human dignity

and will. In 2000, Fatema Oufkir, the widow

of General Mohammad Oufkir, published her

autobiography in which she unfolds the events that

led to her imprisonment in the so-called King’s

gardens. The aim of the presentation is to compare

how literature can serve as a testimony of oppression

and how the protagonists cope with harsh conditions

to which they have been subjected.

KKhheeddiiddjjaa CCHHEERRGGUUII

ECOLE NORMALE SUPÉRIEURE OF ALGIERS

(Bouzaréah/Algeria) [email protected]

NNuurrrruuddiinn FFaarraahh,, WWoollee SSooyyiinnkkaa

aanndd tthhee NNoott YYeett DDeetthhrroonneedd

AAffrriiccaann KKoonnggiissmm

Totalitarian regimes with their destructive scenarios

had been sweeping most post-independence African

countries in innumerable guises and tactics. These

regimes shaped many literary works on the part

of African intellectuals who found themselves at the

forefront as denunciators and political activists.

In this paper, I intend to articulate the

anti-totalitarian literary discourse as shaped

by writers like Wole Soyinka and Nurrudin Farah

in their reaction to various forms of political tyranny

and neo-imperialism which have overtaken many

post-independence African nations with a particular

emphasis on Soyinka’s political dramaturgy of the

80’s and 90’s together with his prison writings and

Nurrudin Farah’s internally shattered Somalia

as depicted in his Dictatorship Trilogy. The paper

brings to light the possible literary modes

of counter-discourse emanating from both writers’

works pointing to the political contexts within which

they emanated and to which they actively responded

identifying patterns of oppression and resistance.

While Soyinka’s shot-gun-writing aesthetics manifest

in plays like King Baabu and A Play of Giants

constituting a vehement cry of anguish over a corrupt

post-independence African politics, Farah projects,

throughout the trilogy, his country Somalia since

Syad Barre’s coup of 1969 and the new political

totalitarianism to which Somalia has drifted over the

years.

50

PANEL 12

Freedom in Contemporary

Arabic Literature

DDrr.. MMaaggddaalleennaa KKUUBBAARREEKK

Arabic Language and Culture Center




PPiięęćć wwiizzjjii kkoobbiieecceeggoo zznniieewwoolleenniiaa

ww ddrraammcciiee KKaaffaass [[KKllaattkkaa]]

DDżżuummaannyy HHaaddddaadd

Referat analizuje współczesne manifestacje kobiecego

zniewolenia przedstawione w dramacie Dżumany

Haddad (Joumana Haddad). Urodzona w 1970 roku

libańska poetka, pisarka, dziennikarka tłumaczka,

aktywistka walcząca o prawa kobiet w swoich

utworach podejmuje tematykę prawa jednostki do

wolności i samostanowienia niezależnie od płci,

religii, rasy czy pozycji społecznej. Jej odwaga

i bezkompromisowość w wyborze tematyki i sposobie

jej przedstawienia, która nierzadko ociera się

o prowokację, wielokrotnie spotykały się z krytyką

i potępieniem ze strony kręgów konserwatywnych.

Do swojej bogatej i uznanej twórczości poetyckiej

i eseistycznej Haddad dołączyła w 2014 roku dramat

zatytułowany Kafas [Klatka], którego bohaterki

(lesbijka, prostytutka, „grubaska”, stara panna, oraz

„zakwefiona”) tkwią w klatce zbudowanej

z ograniczeń narzuconych przez obowiązujące normy

społeczne i kulturowe.

FFiivvee VViissiioonnss ooff WWoommeenn’’ss OOpppprreessssiioonn

iinn tthhee DDrraammaa KKaaffaass [[TThhee CCaaggee]]

bbyy JJoouummaannaa HHaaddddaadd

The paper analyzes modern manifestations

of women’s oppression presented in the drama Kafas

[The Cage] by Joumana Haddad (b. 1970). In her

works, the Lebanese poet, writer, translator

journalist, activist fighting for women’s rights takes

up the subject of the individual’s right to freedom and

self-determination regardless of sex, religion, race

or social position. Her courage and uncompromising

attitude in choosing the issues and the way of their

presenting – which is often close to provocation – has

repeatedly met with the criticism and condemnation

from conservative circles.

In 2014, Haddad added the drama Kafas [The Cage]

to her rich and well-recognized poetic and essayist

works. Its protagonists (the lesbian, the prostitute,

“the fat”, the old maid, and “the veiled”) are stuck

in a cage built of restrictions imposed by prevailing

social and cultural norms.

DDrr.. AAggnniieesszzkkaa GGRRAACCZZYYKK



WW oocczzeekkiiwwaanniiuu nnaa wwyyrrookk.. WWssppoommnniieenniiaa

iirraacckkiicchh ppiissaarrzzyy RRiiffaattaa CChhaaddiirriijjeeggoo

ii BBaallqqiiss SSzzaarraarryy Irak, lata siedemdziesiąte XX wieku. Okres reżimu

wojskowego i zwalczania opozycji. Czas, kiedy wielu

obywateli było represjonowanych, aresztowanych

i ginęli w niewyjaśnionych okolicznościach. Wśród

nich był jeden z najbardziej znanych arabskich

architektów, Rifat Chadirji, któremu zarzucono

współpracę z Amerykanami i skazano na dożywocie.

Wpływy rodzinne i sytuacja w kraju doprowadziły

do jego uwolnienia. Jednakże okres dwóch lat, kiedy

przebywał w więzieniu, gdzie był torturowany,

głodzony i prześladowany przez współwięźniów wyrył

w jego świadomości niebagatelne piętno.

Równocześnie jego żona, Balqis, która pozostała

sama, opuszczona przez przyjaciół, którzy obawiali

się kontaktów z rodziną skazańca, zmuszona była

mierzyć się z trudną sytuacją rodzinną i społeczną.

Ich wspólna opowieść pt. Dżidar bajna zulmatajn

[Ściana między dwiema ciemnościami, 2003), oparta

na autentycznych faktach, spisana po wielu latach

na emigracji, przedstawia ich losy, ale jednocześnie

51

ukazuje jak każdy z nich przeżywał lata rozłąki,

niepewność i samotności. Konfrontacja dwóch

narracji, męża i żony, jednocześnie omawiających ten

sam okres ich życia, jest niezwykle ważnym

dokumentem, który zwraca uwagę zarówno na

przeżycia więźnia, ale również, co rzadko się zdarza,

na los najbliższych, mimo iż wolnych, uwięzionych

w strukturach społecznych i ograniczonych sytuacją

polityczną.

WWaaiittiinngg ffoorr tthhee SSeenntteennccee.. MMeemmoorriieess

ooff IIrraaqqii wwrriitteerrss RRiiffaatt CChhaaddiirrjjii

aanndd BBaallqqiiss SShhaarraarraa Iraq, 1970s. The period of the military regime and

opposition. A time when many citizens were

repressed, arrested and died in unexplained

circumstances. Among them was one of the most

famous Arab architects, Rifat Chadirji, who was

accused of working with the Americans and

sentenced to life imprisonment. Family connections

and the situation in the country led to his release.

However, the period of two years, when he was

in prison, where he was tortured, starved and

persecuted by his inmates, engraved a significant

mark in his consciousness. At the same time, his

wife, Balqis, who remained alone, abandoned by

friends who feared contact with the convict's family,

was forced to face a difficult family and social

situation. Their shared story Jidar Bayna

Dhulmatayn [A Wall Between Two Obscurities, 2003]

based on authentic facts, written down after many

years in exile, presents their fate, but also shows how

each of them experienced years of separation,

uncertainty and loneliness. The confrontation of two

narratives, husband and wife, simultaneously

discussing the same period of their lives,

is an extremely important document that draws

attention both to the prisoner's experiences, but also,

what happens rarely, to the fate of their relatives,

free, but imprisoned in social structures and limited

by the political situation.

DDrr.. SSeebbaassttiiaann GGAADDOOMMSSKKII


DDrrooggaa ddoo wwoollnnoośśccii –– ddrraammaattuurrggiiaa eeggiippsskkaa

wwoobbeecc rreewwoolluuccjjii 22001111 rrookkuu Wydarzenia, które miały miejsce w Egipcie

na początku 2011 roku wstrząsnęły życiem

społeczno-politycznym w całym kraju. Uliczne

wystąpienia i demonstracje nie tylko doprowadziły

do zmian na szczytach władzy, ale sprowokowały

otwartą debatę na temat kondycji społeczeństwa, jego

świadomości politycznej i poczucia odpowiedzialności

za własną ojczyznę. Środowiska artystyczne

reprezentowane przez poszczególnych twórców

towarzyszyły wszystkim etapom egipskich przemian,

aktywnie włączając się w spontaniczny ruch, który na

nowo definiował swoją tożsamość obalając skostniały

system, w którym obywatelski głos utracił swoją moc

i znaczenie. Utwory dramatyczne, które powstawały

w przededniu rewolucyjnego zrywu, a także w jego

trakcie i tuż po nim stały się żywym świadectwem

żmudnego procesu zdobywania wolności

i dojrzewania do niej. Ich historyczno-literacka

wartość przejawia się nade wszystko

w autentyczności przekazu, który odzwierciedla

głębokie pragnienie społeczno-politycznej zmiany

i niestrudzone podążanie za głosem wolności.

WWaayy ttoo FFrreeeeddoomm –– EEggyyppttiiaann DDrraammaattuurrggyy

TToowwaarrddss tthhee RReevvoolluuttiioonn ooff 22001111 The events that took place in Egypt at the beginning

of 2011 shook social and political life throughout the

country. Street protests and demonstrations have not

only led to changes at the summit of power, but have

provoked an open debate on the condition of the

society, its political awareness and sense

of responsibility for its own homeland. Artistic milieu

represented by individual artists took part in all

stages of Egyptian transformations, actively joining

a spontaneous movement, which redefined the

national identity by refuting the ossified system

in which the civic voice lost its power and meaning.

Dramatic works, which were created on the eve of the

revolutionary uprising, as well as during and after

52

it became a living testimony to the arduous process

of gaining freedom and maturing to it. Their

historical-literary value manifests itself above all

in the authenticity of the message, which reflects the

deep desire for socio-political change and the tireless

pursuit of the voice of freedom.

DDrr.. AAddrriiaannnnaa MMAAŚŚKKOO



OOppóórr iirraacckkiieeggoo iinntteelleekkttuuaalliissttyy wwoobbeecc

bbaaaassiissttoowwsskkiieejj pprrooppaaggaannddyy ii cceennzzuurryy

ww ppoowwiieeśśccii ZZnnaakkii ddiiaakkrryyttyycczznnee

SSiinnāānnaa AAnnṭṭūūnnaa W powieści Iʻǧām [Znaki diakrytyczne, 2003] Sinān

Anṭūn odbija w krzywym zwierciadle ironii głównego

bohatera, studenta literatury angielskiej na

Uniwersytecie Bagdadzkim, realia życia

intelektualistów w Iraku w cieniu dyktatury

Saddama Husajna w latach 80. XX wieku, kiedy to

ingerencja aparatu Partii Baas w codzienne

funkcjonowanie obywateli sięga już zenitu. Autor

powieści obrazuje, w jaki sposób wbija się

Irakijczykom do głowy dziesiątki sloganów mających

inspirować ich do nieustannego poświęcania się dla

przywódcy i partii. Przytacza dziesiątki przykładów

słów i fraz składających się na propagandową

retorykę. Wskazuje różne absurdalne powody

stosowania cenzury. Przedstawia konsekwencje

krytycznych wypowiedzi pod adresem reżimu.

Wreszcie ukazuje stosowane przez intelektualistów

formy cichego oporu. W moim referacie chciałabym

zaprezentować zarówno sposób, w jaki Anṭūn opisał

w swojej powieści funkcjonowanie baasistowskiej

propagandy i cenzury, jak i strategie, do jakich

ucieka się główny bohater, by wymknąć się spod

wszechobecnej kontroli państwa. Rozważania

dotyczące literackiej reprezentacji funkcjonowania

totalitarnej machiny władzy chciałabym poprzedzić

informacjami o charakterze faktograficznym.

IIrraaqqii IInntteelleeccttuuaallll’’ss RReessiissttaannccee ttoo BBaaaatthhiisstt

PPrrooppaaggaannddaa aanndd CCeennssoorrsshhiipp iinn tthhee NNoovveell

DDiiaaccrriittiiccss bbyy SSiinnaann AAnnttoooonn

In the novel I’ǧām [Diacritics, 2003], Sinan Antoon

reflects in the crooked mirror of the main character’s

irony, a student of English literature at the University

of Baghdad, the realities of life of Iraqi intellectuals

under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in the 1980s.

At the time, the Baath Party apparatus’ interference

in everyday life of Iraqi citizens is already at its

zenith. The author of the novel depicts how Iraqis are

attacked with dozens of slogans inspiring them

to sacrifice themselves for the leader and the party.

He cites dozens of examples of words and phrases

which make up the rhetoric of propaganda. He

indicates various absurd reasons for using

censorship. He presents the consequences of saying

or writing critical words towards the regime. Finally,

he shows some forms of silent resistance used

by Iraqi intellectuals. In my paper, I would like

to present the way in which Antoon shows in his

novel the functioning of Baathist propaganda and

censorship, as well as some strategies to which the

main character resorts in order to escape from the

ubiquitous control of the state. My considerations

regarding the literary representation of the

functioning of the totalitarian machine of Hussein’s

power, I would like to precede by some factual

information.

53

PANEL 13

Freedom and Violence

in Narration

DDrr.. MMuussttaaffaa WWSSHHYYAARR

UNIVERSITY OF SZEGED (Szeged/Hungary) [email protected]

VViioolleennccee RReepprreesseennttaattiioonn iinn AAnndd tthhee

MMoouunnttaaiinnss EEcchhooeedd bbyy KKhhaalleedd HHoosssseeiinnii This paper explores the topic of violence

as it is represented in Khaled Hosseini’s And the

Mountains Echoed (2013). My aim is to look at the

possibilities of translating violence into fictional

context. I will accordingly analyze the novel in order

to see how nonfiction/reality of violence

is represented in a narrative form. For this I will

apply Johan Galtung’s theory on violence triangle.

These include incipient forms of violence defined

by Galtung as invisible violence; structural and

cultural violence will be revealed by certain

consequences, leading to the existence of the visible

violence, the so-called direct violence that can

be prevented by stopping or treating violence as it is

in its early stages.

JJooaannnnaa AANNTTOONNIIAAKK



DDooeess IInnddeeppeennddeennccee EEqquuaall FFrreeeeddoomm??

TThhee MMoottiiff ooff IInnddeeppeennddeennccee

iinn MM..GG.. VVaassssaannjjii’’ss NNoo NNeeww LLaanndd ((11999911)) For the citizens of the colonies or those deprived

of their own country, the moment of gaining

independence is seen as a glorious and important

event. The motifs of independence and freedom are

strongly present in M.G. Vassanji’s novel No New

Land. In the text, the author explores the complexity

of the connection between freedom and

independence, showing that the relation between the

two is not as straightforward as it may appear to be.

Vassanji presents this discussion against the plight

of the immigrants from the British Raj who move

from country to county trying to find freedom and

independence and, at the same time, become the

victims of the situations in which independence

is awarded to others. The aim of this presentation

is to discuss the depiction of freedom and

independence in the novel with a particular focus

on the way in which they impact the members of the

diaspora.

JJaacceekk SSKKUUPP


NNaarrrraattiivveess ooff SSttrruuggggllee ffoorr FFrreeeeddoomm

iinn tthhee WWrriittiinnggss ooff SS..CC.. BBoossee Subhas Chandra Bose (1897–1945) known as Netaji

(revered leader) was one of the leaders of the Indian

independence movement. In the 1930s he left the

Indian National Congress due to disagreements

concerning the methods of obtaining independence,

which led him to the creation of the All-India Forward

Bloc. Later he became the leader of armed struggle

for free India supported by the Axis powers. The aim

of the proposed paper is to provide characteristics

of his thought concerning national and social

liberation of India and its’ evolution through the

years. The material analysed in order to deliver

conclusions, will be mainly provided by Bose’s own

autobiographical narrative covering the period

between 1920 and 1942, and supported by his

articles and speeches. The analysed material will

be presented in a wider perspective of nationalist

currents in British India (i.e. svaraj movement,

Indian nationalism, Hindu nationalism and Muslim

Indian Nationalism).

54

DDaanniieellaa SSPPIINNAA

Centre for Comparative Studies

Faculty of Arts

UNIVERSITY OF LISBON (Lisbon/Portugal) [email protected]

RReepprreessssiinngg SSaattyyhhaaggrraahhaa,, RReepprreesseennttiinngg

SSaattyyhhaaggrraahhiiss:: VViioolleennccee aanndd NNoonn--vviioolleennccee

iinn aa NNoovveell bbyy GGooaann WWrriitteerr OOrrllaannddoo

ddaa CCoossttaa

The enduring Portuguese rule in Goa, Daman and

Diu (1505–1961) was the final colonial rule

to be overthrown in India. The idea of soft

colonialism, spread by the Portuguese propaganda

during the Estado Novo – António de Oliveira

Salazar’s dictatorship (1933–1974) –, enabled

representations of the liberation of Goa by the Indian

Union army, in 1961, as an invasion, an action

of force and violence towards a people who identified

themselves as a part of a great Portuguese nation.

Goan freedom fighters narratives disprove this vision

and enable us to rethink the Goan freedom struggle

as an authentic moment of taking a stance against

the colonial power of Portugal. The aim of this paper

is to revisit the repression of the first satyhagraha –

a non-violent protest inspired by Gandhi – in Goa,

in 1946, through a reading of the novel O Último

Olhar de Manú Miranda [The Last Gaze of Manú

Miranda], by Goan writer Orlando da Costa (2000).

The author represents the violence against

thousands of satyhagrahis – the non-violent

dissidents – through the perspective of Manú

Miranda, a young Goan in the middle of an identity

crisis, due to his condition as colonial subject.

55

PANEL 14

Spheres of Freedom and Oppression between

Orient and Polish Literature

DDrr.. HHaabb.. EEllżżbbiieettaa KKOOSSSSEEWWSSKKAA


OOrriieennttaalliizzmm ww lliitteerraattuurrzzee ppoollsskkiicchh

uucchhooddźźccóóww ww PPaalleessttyynniiee

Palestyna zajmowała wyjątkowe miejsce w życiu

Polaków. Była jednym z największych i ważniejszych

centrów życia cywilnego i wojskowego polskiego

wychodźstwa na Bliskim Wschodzie w czasie (1939–

1948). Światy zasiedziałych mieszkańców Palestyny,

zwłaszcza tych pochodzących z Polski, i polskich

uchodźców wzajemnie się przenikały w przestrzeni

politycznej, kulturalnej i społecznej. Życie

wychodźstwa polskiego, w szczególnym miejscu

jakim jest Palestyna, daje wyjątkowo interesującą

panoramę problemów etnicznych i religijnych

(chrześcijaństwa, judaizmu i islamu). W Palestynie

polscy uchodźcy prowadzili niezwykle aktywną

działalność wydawniczą i pisarską. Powstała bogata

literatura piękna i podróżnicza. Celem referatu będzie

przedstawienie dorobku literackiego polskich

uchodźców, w szczególności tego odnoszącego

się do Orientu.

OOrriieennttaalliissmm iinn tthhee LLiitteerraattuurree ooff PPoolliisshh

RReeffuuggeeeess iinn PPaalleessttiinnee

Palestine occupied a unique place in the life of Poles.

It was one of the largest and most important centres

of civil and military life for displaced Poles in the

Middle East during the period from 1939 to 1948.

The worlds of settled Palestinians, especially those

from Poland, and Polish refugees permeated each

other in the political, cultural and social spheres. The

life of Polish emigrants in such a unique place

as Palestine provides an exceptionally interesting

panorama of ethnic and religious problems

(concerning Christianity, Judaism and Islam).

In Palestine, Polish refugees were extremely active

in publishing and writing. This resulted in a vast

wealth of fiction and travel literature. The aim of this

paper will be to present the literary output of Polish

refugees, particularly works pertaining to the Orient.

PPrrooff.. MMiicchhaałł KKUURRAANN

Institute of Polish Philology Faculty of Philology

UNIVERSITY OF LODZ (Łódź/Poland) [email protected]

OObbrraazz nniieewwoollii ttuurreecckkoo--ttaattaarrsskkiieejj

ww lliitteerraattuurrzzee ppoollsskkiieejj wwiieekkóóww XXVVII ii XXVVIIII

–– pprrooppaaggaannddaa ii sstteerreeoottyyppyy

Celem referatu jest ukazanie środków perswazji, jakie

wykorzystywano w staropolskiej publicystyce

antytureckiej wieków XVI i XVII, by zachęcić

społeczeństwo do udziału w międzynarodowych

krucjatach antytureckich, jak i zachęcić do walki

w obronie terenów zagrożonych najazdami

tatarskimi. Konstruując argumenty, publicyści

i pisarze odwoływali się do stereotypowego obrazu

niewoli, jaki w tej literaturze się uformował. Referat

ma ukazać przykładowe argumenty wykorzystujące

stereotypowe ujęcie obrazu niewoli. Pochodzą one

zarówno z tekstów mówiących o porywaniu

do niewoli, jak i z relacji zbiegłych niewolników,

a także pisanych z politycznych pobudek. Mowa

będzie o obrazie uformowanym między innymi

w twórczości Stanisława Orzechowskiego, Bartosza

Paprockiego, Marcina Paszkowskiego.

TThhee IImmaaggee ooff TTuurrkkiisshh--TTaattaarr SSllaavveerryy iinn tthhee

PPoolliisshh LLiitteerraattuurree ooff tthhee 1166tthh aanndd tthhee 1177tthh

CCeennttuurriieess –– PPrrooppaaggaannddaa aanndd SStteerreeoottyyppeess

The purpose of the paper is to show the means

of persuasion used in the old Polish anti-Turkish

journalism of the 16th and the 17th centuries,

to encourage society to participate in international

anti-Turkish crusades, and also to encourage to fight

56

in the name of defending threatened by Tatar

incursions lands. In creating the arguments

publicists and writers referred to the stereotypical

image of slavery, which had been formed in this

literature. The paper presents examples of arguments

using stereotypical view of the image of slavery. They

are derived from both texts about kidnapping

for enslavement, as well as relations of escaped

slaves, and also relations written of political motives.

The paper presents image formed, i. a. in the works

of Stanisław Orzechowski, Bartosz Paprocki and

Marcin Paszkowski.

DDrr.. RReennaattaa GGAADDAAMMSSKKAA--SSEERRAAFFIINN

Faculty of Polish Studies


PPoollsskkiiee oorriieennttaalliiaa kkaauukkaasskkiiee..

PPrroozzaa zzeessłłaańńcczzaa MMiicchhaałłaa

AAnnddrrzzeejjkkoowwiicczzaa--BBuuttoowwttaa Orientalia kaukaskie stanowią ciekawy i nieodkryty

do tej pory wątek literatury polskiej XIX wieku.

Przedmiotem wystąpienia będą wątki orientalne

zawarte w prozie polskiego zesłańca na Kaukaz –

Michała Andrzejkowicza-Butowta, absolwenta

Uniwersytetu Wileńskiego, uczestnika spisku

Szymona Konarskiego, zesłanego wyrokiem carskim

„w sołdaty” w latach 30. XIX wieku. Andrzejkowicz

spędził na Kaukazie aż 18 lat (jako żołnierz walczący

pod przymusem z plemionami kaukaskimi).

Gruntownie poznał kulturę Gruzji i Dagestanu,

w tym świat kaukaskiego islamu. Na wygnaniu uczył

się miejscowych języków, dobrze opanował język

tatarski. Jego Szkice Kaukazu (Warszawa 1859)

to ciekawe studium poznawcze ukazujące świat

kaukaskiego Orientu uwikłanego w zmagania

z rosyjskim najeźdźcą.

PPoolliisshh CCaauuccaassiiaann „„oorriieennttaalliiaa””.. TThhee EExxiillee

PPrroossee ooff MMiicchhaałł AAnnddrrzzeejjkkoowwiicczz--BBuuttoowwtt Caucasian “orientalia” are the plot of the Polish

19th-century exile literature – interesting and

undiscovered until now. The subject of the statement

will be the oriental plots in the prose of the Polish

exile to the Caucasus: Michał Andrzejkowicz-Butowt,

the graduate of the Vilnius University and the

member of the Szymon Konarski’s conspiracy,

banished to Caucasus „w sołdaty” by the Russian

Emperor’s verdict of guilty in the eighteen thirties.

Andrzejkowicz has spent in Caucasus mountains

as many as 18 years (as a soldier lighting, under

compulsion, with the Caucasian tribes). At that time

he got to know the culture of Georgia and Dagestan

thoroughly, also the Caucasian Islam’s world. On the

exile he had been studying the local languages and he

learnt to speak Tatar well. His Szkice Kaukazu

(Warsaw 1859) is an interesting study showing the

world of the Caucasian Orient embroiled in the war

with the Russian invader.

57

PANEL 15

Different Perspectives of Freedom and Oppression

(2)

DDrr.. VViikkttoorriiaa PPÖÖTTZZLL

INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR (Austria) [email protected]

FFrroomm PPaann--AAssiiaanniissmm ttoo SSaaffaarrii--ZZiioonniissmm::

GGeennddeerr aanndd OOrriieennttaalliissmm

iinn JJeewwiisshh--AAuussttrriiaann LLiitteerraattuurree

The picture of “the Orient” is a discursively produced

image, reproduced through language and thus

analysed here through literature. Like gender, “the

Orient” serves as a category of analysis throughout

this study. Following Said, I use the term “Orient”

to refer to a violent discursive praxis and a construct

in desperate need of deconstruction. I analyse how

“the Orient” served and still serves as an opposition

to the global North/West. Taking into account early

critiques of Said’s Orientalism (Al-Azm 1981) as well

as queer and feminist critiques (Hastings 1992,

Yeğenoğlu 1998, Abu-Lughod 2001), this paper

probes representations of Palestine

in Jewish-Austrian literature and analyses the

influence of (gendered) Zionist narratives. My

presentation discusses Moshe Ya’akov Ben-Gavriêl

texts Jerusalem wird verkauft oder Gold auf der

Straße: Ein Tatsachenroman (Tagebuch 1917), as well

as Die Pforte des Ostens (1923). I highlight the impact

of the rise of antisemitism and nationalisms in the

Austro-Hungarian Monarchy on (Zionist)

Jewish-Austrian thought. My main argument is that

of a return of the Palestinian Subject and

a decolonization in Jewish-Austrian Literature,

as opposed to violent non-representations and

misrepresentations.

MMaarrccoo MMEEDDUUGGNNOO

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY (Newcastle/UK) [email protected]

QQuueessttiioonniinngg OOpppprreessssiioonn aanndd FFrreeeeddoomm::

aa NNeeww PPeerrssppeeccttiivvee oonn JJ..MM.. CCooeettzzeeee’’ss LLiiffee && TTiimmee ooff MMiicchhaaeell KK..

This paper aims to explore how the challenging

notions of freedom and oppression are represented

in J.M. Coetzee’s Life & Time of Michael K. (1983).

By focusing on the concept of “personaggio assoluto”

(absolute character), developed by scholar Enrico

Testa (2009), this lecture suggests a revisited

perspective on the novel, thus showing how the

protagonist may be considered – paradoxically –

as both the embodiment of oppression and, at the

same time, the personification of freedom. These two

coexisting and antithetical elements find a place

in the novel in the depiction of the rebellion and

alienation of the protagonist, but also the portrayal

of the serene relationship between Michael K. and

nature. Therefore, this lecture aims to study the

different layers in which the novel displays both

oppression and, at the same time, freedom according

to the different perspectives in which the protagonist

may be analysed. The dystopian South Africa’s

background in which the novel is set, characterised

by internal displacements of people and refugee

camps, raises universal questions about belonging

and individuality that result still predominant and

unsolved in the present-day global context

of migration.

PPaauulliinnaa SSTTAANNIIKK


TThhee EExxppeerriieennccee ooff PPoolliisshh WWoorrlldd WWaarr IIII

SSoollddiieerrss aanndd RReeffuuggeeeess iinn tthhee OOrriieenntt::

tthhee aacctt ooff SSiinnggiinngg aass aann EEssccaappee ttoo FFrreeeeddoomm World War II saw thousands of Poles exiled to Siberia

where they were to spend long months struggling

58

for survival. Among them, were the future soldiers

of the II Polish Corps who travelled across the Middle

East and North Africa as well as women and children

who found a welcoming home in India. All of them

experienced previously unknown landscapes which

were supposed to be only stops on their way back

to an independent country. Along that way,

surrounded by the unfamiliar, they sang and the act

of doing so seemed powerfully liberating. In this

study I analyze excerpts from selected World War II

memoirs which concern the act of singing and

present that practice as one having more than

an entertaining value.

MMaarriiaa SSZZAAFFRRAAŃŃSSKKAA--CCHHMMIIEELLAARRZZ

Institute of English Studies


EEssccaappiinngg ttoo aanndd ffrroomm OOrriieennttaalliissmm::

““TThhee CCoouunntt ooff MMoonnttee CCrriissttoo””

aanndd iittss AAddaappttaattiioonnss The aim of this paper is to investigate how Alexandre

Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) employs

elements of Mediterranean culture to shape Edmond

Dantes’ identity. Through making him into a an avid

orient-ethusiast, the book explains his morally gray

actions and allows him to exact his revenge without

labeling him as a villain. The oriental subplot in the

book also introduces characters such as Ali and

Haydee, who both reinforce Dantes’ own belief that

he is, in fact, a good man. Interestingly, both

characters are absent from American movie

adaptations of the novel, and from the musical Der

Graf der Monte Cristo (2009), showing that

orientalism has morphed from an idea to which one

can escape to, into a trope that the authors escape

from, trying to shape Dumas’ character into a purely

European vigilante, instead of a morally ambiguous

character who abandons his French nationality.

orient in literature literature of the orient...international conference on oriental literatures and...

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