| Project title |
Contact Zone Identities: Lemkovshchyna in the Poetry of Jerzy Harasymowicz |
| Summary |
This project explores problems of cultural identity in the work of the twentieth-century Polish poet Jerzy Harasymowicz (1933–1999). It provides the first post-1989 book-length study of the poet, aiming to shed new light on issues of otherness and diversity in twentieth-century Polish literature and to demythologise the (mis)conception of a monolithic and clear-cut Polishness imposed by official discourses in the communist period. The study focuses on a selection of poems set in the Carpathian region of Lemkovshchyna, which before World War II was one of Poland’s multicultural areas (inhabited by Poles, Ukrainians and Lemkos). It examines the relationship between Harasymowicz’s articulation of identity and his representation of the region’s distinctive features, such as its Eastern Christian architecture, iconography and saints, its landscape and its languages.
Combining the literary category of ‘poetic persona’ with two theoretical concepts from post-colonial studies, Stuart Hall’s notion of ‘cultural identity’ and Mary Louise Pratt’s idea of ‘contact zone’, the thesis investigates Polish, Lemko, Ukrainian and Soviet interaction in the contact zone of Lemkovshchyna. Thus, it focuses on the region’s intrinsic power dynamics and colonial-like relations, and investigates how these impinge upon the representation of Harasymowicz’s poetic identity.
The bulk of the thesis consists of a detailed, sustained textual analysis of Harasymowicz’s articulation of contact zone identities. The study adopts a synchronic-thematic approach, centring on four problems: Self, gender, home(land) and history. These are further organised into two groups which represent the two key spheres of the contact zone: the private (Self and gender) and the public (homeland and history). This facilitates an exploration of the poet’s different perspectives on power, otherness and colonisation.
The application of a conceptual framework drawn from post-colonial studies enables me to explore how the poetic persona becomes a platform through which the cultural and ethnic make-up of post-war, pre-1989 Poland is disclosed in its full diversity and heterogeneity. As a result, the thesis challenges the received view of this hitherto neglected poet and provides a long-overdue reinterpretation of his oeuvre.
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| Funding Agency |
University of Manchester/MNiSW |
| Programme |
Full time |
| Type of Project |
PhD Research |
| Date from |
September 2006 |
| Date to |
April 2010 |
| Person Months |
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| Project title |
Online Materials Enhancing Oral Fluency in Polish |
| Summary |
This project provides two sets of online teaching materials which will enable postgraduate students at Beginners’ (A1/A2) and Intermediate (B1) levels of Polish to develop skills needed to communicate effectively in a wide range of situations and to enhance understanding of the social context in which language is being used. Each set of materials consists of 24 units which are meant to supplement the current language instruction by providing a stimulus for a range of dynamic and communicative activities, including surveys, information gap tasks, interviews, role plays, interactive card, board and cultural games, as well as discussions and debates. The activities can be conducted in a variety of learning situations that enhance and encourage students’ oral proficiency, such as pair, group and class work. Additionally, sample set of materials (Units 1-4 at beginners and 1-4 at intermediate level) has been adapted for individual student’s use. |
| Funding Agency |
CEELBAS, UK |
| Programme |
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| Type of Project |
Language Project (University of Manchester) |
| Date from |
March 2010 |
| Date to |
June 2010 |
| Person Months |
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| Ewa Stanczyk, Contact Zone Identities in the Poetry of Jerzy Harasymowicz, forthcoming 2012 with Peter Lang |
| Ewa Stanczyk, Polish Contact Zones: Silesia in Works of Adam Zagajewski and Tomasz Rozycki, Slovo, 21, (2), 2009, p50 - 63 |
| Ewa Stanczyk, W poszukiwaniu ekfrastycznego przejscia. Ikona w Wierszach milosnych Jerzego Harasymowicza, Ruch Literacki, 50, (3), 2009, p263 - 282 |
| Ewa Stanczyk, Ukraine and Kresy in Tomasz Rózycki’s Dwanascie stacji. Postcolonial Analysis, Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich, 52, (1-2), 2009, p102 - 122 |
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Last Updated:16-MAY-2012 |