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Julia Sułkowska “You can’t say it that way any more”: Postmodernist Poetic Manifestos by Kenneth Koch and John Ashbery

The article analyses “Fresh Air” by Kenneth Koch, “And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name,” and “Paradoxes and Oxymorons” by John Ashbery as postmodernist poetic manifestos breaking up with the outdated modernist tradition. It focuses on both the content and the form of the poems (including the language used), stressing what the poets intended to manifest, and pointing to the innovative postmodernist form of these works. Referencing the reader-response literary theory and interpreting Ashbery’s poems from this perspective, it discusses the reader-response approach as another step away from the modernists.

Gabriela Dąbrowska Historical References to Witchcraft in Motherland: Fort Salem by Eliot Lawren

The article discusses the presence of historical depictions of witchcraft in a contemporary medium – a television series called Motherland: Fort Salem (2020–2022). Having studied the history of witches and the Wiccan culture for years, Elliot Lawrence, the writer, created a universe full of references to ancient mythology, magic, and practices connected to witchcraft. They all work to enrich the series with meaningful symbolism and redefine the power of witches. Through highlighting these elements, the article attempts to encourage a potential new audience to explore the vast and detailed lore of the series and delve into the fascinating research into the history of witches.

Aleksandra Socha The Pajamification of The Zookeeper’s Wife

The article investigates the war drama The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017) as a Holocaust narrative. It references Gwen Katz’ concept of pajamification, according to which palatable Holocaust narratives focus on privileged, non-Jewish characters and erase the uniqueness of the Holocaust. Key aspects of The Zookeeper’s Wife are analyzed and compared to Elie Wiesel’s Night in order to prove that The Zookeeper’s Wife can be read as an example of pajamification, unlike Night (1960), which shows Jewish perspective on the Holocaust narrative. The essay also links the concept of pajamification to the 2021 and 2022 book banning in the United States.

Maja Piskadło “Who were you, Subway, before you were Subway?”: Meta-Product Placement in NBC’s Community

Product placement on television shows should remain subtle, targeting the viewers’ subconsciousness. Community (2009– 2015), the NBC sitcom widely regarded as a staple for meta-storytelling, often spins this strategy. Season three’s “Digital Exploration of Interior Design” (2012) establishes a product as part of the diegesis, introducing elements such as a human embodiment of the corporation funding the advertisement. This article determines how Community’s meta approach to television alters the basic function of product placement. The discussed episode not only comments on the mechanism of product placement, but also convincingly problematizes consumerism.

Julia Pawlak Reviving a Musical with the Inclusion of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Performers: The Deaf West Theatre’s 2015 Production of Spring Awakening

This article examines the way in which deaf and hard-of-hearing performers may be included in a musical theatre production through the lens of Deaf West Theatre’s revival of Spring Awakening (2015). It explores Deaf West Theatre’s history and the organisation’s approach to the combination of American Sign Language and spoken English in a theatre play. The choice of Spring Awakening as the production material is analysed, focusing on the musical’s themes and how they were executed to represent elements of deaf history and experience. The technical challenges of producing a musical with deaf and hard-of-hearing performers are also discussed. These include translating lyrics into American Sign Language, incorporating sign language into the choreography, and ensuring that all performers stay in sync. Despite these challenges, including hearing, deaf, and hard-of-hearing performers in a musical production can create a powerful and inclusive theatrical experience that benefits everyone involved.

Maja Wandasiewicz “I’m on trial, waiting ‘til the beat comes out”: Florence and the Machine and Magic of her own Secret Ceremonials

The article explores how magic, symbolic and literal have permeated people’s artistic endeavours throughout the ages. It focuses on a contemporary artist Florence Welch, the main vocalist of a British indie rock band Florence and the Machine, and analyses her music, lyrics, and a few music videos in terms of her magic “infatuation”. It also places her art and its very specific reception in a socio-cultural context of the 21st century.

Natalia Kosakowska The Usage and Significance of Metaphors in Scientific Texts

The growing usage and significance of metaphors in scientific discourse is a subject of ongoing discussion. Whereas some scholars advocate the usage of metaphorical expressions in science, others deny their significance in the field. The article examines the usage and importance of metaphors in chosen scientific texts. It provides the theoretical basics necessary to conduct the analysis, including the very definition and features of a metaphor. Conflicting views concerning the occurrence of metaphors in the scientific field are presented, namely the views of Anthony M. Paul in contrast to those of Richard M. Roberts and Roger J. Kreuz. The analysis, conducted on select metaphors in scientific articles in English and Polish, reveals that scientific discourse is abundant in metaphors to the extent that readers no longer notice them in the texts.

Natalia Kosakowska The Translation of Culture-Specific Items in the Polish Rendering of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Mystery Story “The Red-Headed League” from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Within literature translation, culture-specific items (CSIs) are thought to constitute one of the most problematic issues. Each translator chooses different methods to render the CSIs in the target text in a manner most appropriate for the target reader. This article analyses the strategies and techniques used to translate the selected culture-specific items in the Polish rendering of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery story “The Red-Headed League” from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, such as domestication and foreignization and techniques within these strategies used in the translation of culture-specific items. The techniques include Aixela’s literal translation, repetition, orthographic adaptation, extra-textual gloss, and Nida’s functional equivalent. For the sake of clarity, the CSIs have been divided into several categories, namely proper names, places and institutions, clothing, means of transport, and third-language citations. The analysis points to the foreignization strategy as the dominant in the Polish rendering of the text.

Gabriela Piszczatowska Nobody’s Story: Polish Translation of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book as an Example of Children’s Literature                       

The purpose of this article is to analyse Paulina Braiter’s Polish translation of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book as an example of children’s literature. Looking at the background of children’s literature tradition, it discusses the child image presented in the book and its functioning in the translated text. The analysis focuses on different elements concerning translation such as wordplay, culture-specific items and phenomena, idioms and proverbs, forms of address, references to literature, non-standard language, verse translation and the style, as well as the notion of double addressee and the importance of illustrations in children’s literature.