Editors Introduction

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2 Editors Introduction This book results from a shared conviction of the need to advance the international discourse on criticism. Criticality has long been a significant value within the Western intellectual tradition. What originated in ancient curiosity and developing self-reflexion, became the critical thought of the modern era and then after passing through a period of theoretical and methodological doubt characteristic, some would hold, of twentieth-century existential despair developed into a program of constant intellectual contestation and struggle allied with various ideologies to subsequently become an integral part of post-structuralist culture theory and recently the New Humanities also known as post-theory. Critical Theory and Critical Genres: Contemporary Perspectives from Poland positions itself within contemporary considerations of the theory and practice of criticism. The book presents texts by established and rising scholars in Poland and both reflects their contributions to an international discussion and provides greater insights into various aspects of Polish intellectual and creative culture of the past several decades. Critical Theory and Critical Genres: Contemporary Perspectives from Poland does not purport to be a presentation of a Polish critical school because such a thing does not exist in a pure, autonomous way. Certainly, the methodologies used by Polish scholars participate in the international dialogue within the research paradigms of Western Europe and the U.S. However, this publication seeks to be an important voice in the discussion both socio-political and academic on criticism which is a dominant part of contemporary reflection by demonstrating these issues from the specific theoretical and pragmatic perspective of the debate in Poland in relation to Europe and the rest of the (post)modern world. These essays endorse the adoption of an internal theoretical meta-perspective in the humanities which seems especially crucial after the linguistic and then narrative turns which radically changed the way we practice theory and understand its relationship with praxis. The entanglement in language and narrative is, after all, shared by societies across the transnational dimension, even as we point to the specificities of particular discourses at the local level. However, we believe it is important to emphasize clearly the editors perspective and the role of Critical Theory and Critical Genres: Contemporary Perspectives from Poland. Despite the specific historical, cultural, and political challenges that have contributed to contemporary Polish critical theory and practice, no particular political position or option of critical theory is advanced here. Rather, we seek to act more as the impartial and traditional observer who in the Western culture has been a carrier of liberal modernity and enlightenment a figure perhaps more committed to rationality in the sense of Richard Rorty s and Wayne Booth s theses than grounded in rationalism understood as instrumental reason.

3 8 Editors Introduction Nevertheless, we intend to introduce the reader to Polish work and research interests that seem to exemplify significant trends in the contemporary Academy; that is, we want to emphasize the specificity of critical phenomena in the context of current Polish socio-cultural reality. Evidence of keen interest in this subject in addition to the daily activity of a number of world-class intellectuals and academic communities whose motto is criticism is the wide response from all of the major research centers in Poland to the call of the international journal The Problems of Literary Genres for contributions to the 2010 issue on criticism and criticality. As a result, the periodical (which has been guided by the demand to be critical and analytical ever since its birth more than fifty years ago) received an impressive number of important articles and consequently organized a multidisciplinary conference on Kinds and Styles of Criticism in May Selected texts which represent the most interesting and varied realizations of the conference theme are now presented here in English. They constitute an overview of critical thinking and thinking on criticism in Polish humanities scholarship. These papers show that criticism has many faces. The contributors recognize, for example, that criticality may appear to renounce its critical potential through ubiquity or superficiality, and as a result of appropriation or even balkanization (Harold Bloom s term) by radical factions of critical schools like gender and feminist studies. On the other hand, it is impossible to deny the importance of critical research that seeks to expose and overcome the symbolic oppression and violence within culture and to weaken the growing tendency of mythologizing the public space and discourse. Such mythologizing was especially apparent in 2010 in Poland. The devastating floods, the plane crash in Smolensk that killed the President and national figures, and the resulting early presidential elections all led to an increase of ritual, ceremonial, and mythological practice in place of essential debate. However, it must be remembered that a thin line divides critical defiance from the violence of its application even if only a rhetorical one. The concepts of critique and criticism, including that within the Polish tradition, have undergone significant transformations over the centuries. For instance, representations of such a process are evident in the dramatically changing definitions published in Polish language dictionaries and thesauri from the mid-nineteenth century until today. Thus, while in 1902 criticism was still close to the philosophical doctrine of Kant, subsequent explanations blurred both the origin of the term, as well as its affinity with German philosophic thought. Currently, the most popular synonyms for the word criticism, found in the thesauri are negative assessment, reproof, and claim, while the critic is seen as a mocker, scoffer, or adversary. Such a reception appears to indicate the direction in which the concept of criticism phenomena is moving.

4 Editors Introduction 9 From a larger perspective, historical changes within European culture cause one to reflect on the status of criticism and criticality and not just in literary studies, even though the term Judge of Literature appeared in the fourth century BC and is one of the first signs of the presence of critics in literature. What was identified by the ancient writers, increasingly expanded into many other areas of theory and science, and in the 1600s it encompassed the whole of literary theory and what could be called (after Renė Wellek), applied criticism. Related to crisis etymologically, because criticism and crisis have common origin, criticism came to be associated with the crisis of faith, of ideals, and of reason, as well as with overwhelming skepticism. On the continent in the 1700s it slowly lost its significance, ultimately descending to the realm of journalism with which it is generally associated today. However the term criticism spreads after the renaissance of Kantian philosophy and it is still relevant for theory in accordance with its narrow, philosophical meaning. In recent years, in addition to the critical work on modernism edited by Ryszard Nycz (e.g. Odkrywanie modernizmu, 1998; Nowoczesność jako doświadczenie, 2006) and Michal Pawel Markowski (Polska literatura nowoczesna, 2007) as well as by other researchers associated with the so-called Cracow school of culture theory a substantial number of articles and books related to criticism have been produced by scholars from all major universities in Poland. Further examples are provided by the publications of the Polish Academy of Sciences including journal Teksty Drugie and Pamiętnik Literacki, and Przestrzenie Teorii, from Poznan, as well as the already mentioned The Problems of Literary Genres, affiliated with the University of Lodz. An overview of Polish literary criticism and more broadly, critical discourse, has recently been presented by Dorora Kozicka in her book Krytyczne (nie)porządki (2012). She named Stanislaw Brzozowski ( ) not only patron of the book, but also the patron saint of Polish literary criticism, considering him the Foucauldian founder of the discourse (as was already implicit in Ryszard Nycz s thesis). Modernist critical reflection is a highly complex multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary venture. The texts themselves are often situated between literature, journalism, and science. It is difficult to construct a single cohesive history, so it is reasonable to focus on the subjective nature of the critical comments. Such polyphony and the variety of critical statements after 1956 are also very problematic because of the politics and heterogeneous positions of Polish intellectuals under communism. From our current perspective what seems to be most important are the multifaceted problems faced by Polish criticism after the democratic transformation in Critics then divided into two groups, generally conceived as the young and the old, which often held opposing views and completely different styles of critical practice (especially the younger generation, which has adopted

5 10 Editors Introduction the strong position of rejection of any authority). Their attitude strongly affirmative (the old ) and aggressively critical (the young ) to Czeslaw Milosz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980, perfectly illustrates this division. Suspicion of all things given, which is a legacy of the years of dependence on others, shapes critical reflection of the 90s. The Academy itself was subjected to this critique. Discredited in the time of the People s Republic of Poland, it needed several years to regain trust and justify its claim to be an apolitical space although whether it really can be apolitical is in question since all scholars must ask whether today s science and theory are ideology-free (if indeed they ever were). However, the turn against the university after 1989 did not last long. The initial critical spirit of rejection of oppression turned critics towards other dangerous enemies the market and the media. Searching for freedom again challenged the academy. But even there it is difficult to escape from the pressures of the media and the fact that any public stance is inherently political, especially now that the academic world not only in Poland but across the EU and the United States is increasingly regulated by the market, and the management of universities every year manifests ever-expanding corporate practices. During a time of growing involvement in political attitudes, the need to accept a (meta)critical view is crucial. Critical discourse becomes a space of desacralization of mythical areas and concepts. In this spirit recent methodologies such as feminism, gender, and queer theory, postcolonialism or ecocriticism are strongly influential. Yet because they themselves are associated with political commitment they are often marginalized and are criticized (however rightly) for their use. Such desacralization in Poland is especially evident for example, in the attempts to deconstruct the traditional model of the family, the image of Polish mother or Pole-Catholic with the help of gender and women studies. (In this context Krytyka Polityczna is important to mention the new Polish intellectual left which in recent years has grown into a major political civil force movement of young Poles, identifying with the left-wing liberalism.) Similarly, studies in oral history have provided new perspectives on familiar and general facts. Postcolonial and queer critiques challenge Polish claims to be colonized and to dispute its images of national martyrdom. They analyze Polish history, investigate the basic concepts of the Polish language, and review the established literary canon to challenge its great narratives. Such attempts to redefine rigid notions and values necessarily raise the issue of the nature and degree of transgression. Criticism inherently involves the challenging of certain boundaries but does so in the name of freedom and independence of mind an understanding that reaffirms a Kantian definition of criticism. Given that hate speech (as well as a speech of meanness) is considered by some these days as a kind of criticism, it is necessary to address the criticality of criticism

6 Editors Introduction 11 itself and re-evaluate the problem. Certainly, such a re-evaluation and boundary crossing are figures basic to modernity and lead to the criticism of sources and ultimately to self-criticism. Still, the question of the limits of criticality remains a major problem. Significant in this regard is meta-reflection, concerning not only the kinds, but also the different styles of criticism. The change is especially noticeable in rhetoric, whose methods of expressing criticality in the discourses of speech, literature and culture seem to change, to a large extent due to an increasing meta-critical and self-awareness of genres. Critical Theory and Critical Genres: Contemporary Perspectives from Poland presents such a theoretical reflection on the field of criticism, as well as selected examples of critical interpretation, all of which reflect aspects of Polish humanist thought in recent years. In particular, the main object of reflection and discussion in this publication is criticism of the praxis and tradition which are inscribed in literary genres and styles. We have tried to encourage many research perspectives in connection to varied meanings of the concept of criticism. Our goal has been to emphasize the (post)modern forms of critical experience, even while considering the long and fruitful history of critique and criticism from Ancient Greece to the present. Many theorists of literature and culture have linked the critical approach of certain literary genres and styles to the tradition and status quo of social discourses. Some view the origins of such criticism in the rebellion of the author. Nevertheless, since Immanuel Kant, modernity can be defined as critique of the myths and symbols of tradition. In this context appear such concepts as criticism (Michel Foucault), analyticity (Stanley Fish), rationality (Richard Rorty), secularisation (Charles Taylor) and disenchantment (Weber). We are primarily interested in criticism and scepticism, not necessarily that which leads to violent revolution; what is more, we often find the ideas of criticism and critical attitudes to be metaphorical mirrors of our contemporary existence. Together with all the authors, we would like to consider the styles, genres, and discourses, which clearly consist of criticism, doubt, and, also, autoscepticism. Among them we often mention novels or essays but these are only some of the most typical examples in this untypical issue. Discussing literary genres and styles in comparison to other cultural discourses, the articles argue that all of us are surrounded by many different aspects and applications of what we may perceive as critical. We decided to present the papers in two groups. The first presents texts which approach criticism as a cultural and literary phenomenon and explore its contemporary status. In the second section, we present articles which offer different case studies of critical approaches to literature as well as literary theory s perspectives on criticism and its role in the literary discourse.

7 12 Editors Introduction The first section opens with Ewa Szczęsna s critical thoughts on critical thinking and criticism as such. Her paper, Criticism of Criticism, observes that in recent decades the very term has become so widely applied in various fields of intellectual and cultural activity that it is now hard to establish its basic meaning. The author distinguishes among three main areas in which competing notions of criticism and critical thinking are used with particular frequency: education, academic discourse, and art and culture. In his Kant s Redefinition of Reason: Critique, Freedom, Enlightenment, Paweł Łuków argues the need to revisit Kant s understanding of the relationship of criticism and reason, arguing that all too often scholars have failed to note how Kant s conception of reason is greatly different from that of Descartes and have, therefore, developed inaccurate criticisms of Kant s philosophy and of the Enlightenment project. In Elżbieta Winiecka s paper, Distance the Figure of Modernity, the concept of distance is presented as one of the cultural universals in the modern reflection on subjectivity and representation. Winiecka argues that distance is traditionally connected with an analytical approach to the subject, based on the cognitive position of an observer, not a participant. But, alternatively, this seemingly ubiquitous word also relates to alienation, separation, and otherness, which make the term polysemous and imprecise, however much it is one of the key issues for contemporary culture. Marek Kaźmierczak s article presents the relations among theory of literature, deontology, and epistemology. His main hypothesis in Literary Theory as Critical Epistemology and Deontology: Notes on the Concerns in Fiction in Relation to the Images of the Holocaust in Mass Media is that the theory of literature becomes a source of the multi-discursive tools of description and explanation of social problems, which are perceived under the influence of mass media. He supports this hypothesis by discussing the representations of the Holocaust in the contemporary culture. Olga Płaszczewska s article, Comparative Literature: Metacriticism and its Paradoxes, focuses on the problem of the self-critical discourse of a discipline which constantly expresses the necessity of development and progress. The Case Studies section of this book begins with Danuta Ulicka s paper on Russian formalism. In The Protocol and the Magazine. Two Styles of Literary Criticism in the So-called Russian Formalism she discusses two different and competing styles of criticism: academic and market-based. They emerged at the same time in two schools of Russian formalism the Moscow Linguistic Circle and OPOJAZ from St. Petersburg. The differences between the two schools one primarily formalist and purely scientific, the other grounded in a socio-political context are manifested not only in the styles and genres of their members critical statements but also in their biographies. The aim of Danuta Szajnert s article, The Subversive Potential of an Apocryphon, is to show that the main characteristics of the construction of any apocryphal text which include intertextual media-

8 Editors Introduction 13 tisation rely on the explicit communication of a world view from the perspective of some other canonical text as well as the confrontation of their mediums and manners. Thus, every apocryphon possesses a critical and subversive potential. Natalia Lemann in Could We Conserve Ourselves From the Past? discusses the genres of alternate history and uchronias and their subversive potential as a literary aporia of politics and of the historical knowledge which forces us to become more critical about the past as well as the present. Magdalena Bednarek, in Leaving the Tower. Feminist Rewriting of Fairy Tales in the Contemporary Polish Prose since 1989, shows the crucial role of re-writing as a way of both criticising the old and building a new feminist order. Bednarek argues that as a literary technique it is one of the most significant and distinguishable elements of feminist poetics and not only in Polish literature. The Ecological Novel as a Critical Genre by Izabella Adamczewska analyses the environmental novel as a critical genre. Another genre-focused paper is Michał Wróblewski s The Evolutionary Potential of Metacriticality in Reference to Watchmen the Graphic Novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in which he discusses the impact of self-awareness and metacritical tendencies within the texts of popular culture on the development of genres in the politypical chain. The topic of graphic cultural phenomena finds its continuation in Logo-visual Genres: From Criticism of Language to Social Critique, the paper by Agnieszka Karpowicz who writes about logo-visual genres. She claims that critical reflection on language and systems of representation when one medium is reflected by the other one in a single work makes the spectator s reception of the work critical and non-automatic. Charles Russell, Rutgers University, Newark Arne Melberg, University of Oslo Jaroslaw Pluciennik, University of Lodz Michal Wroblewski, University of Lodz

Humanities Learning Outcomes

Humanities Learning Outcomes University Major/Dept Learning Outcome Source Creative Writing The undergraduate degree in creative writing emphasizes knowledge and awareness of: literary works, including the genres of fiction, poetry,