Published: 2022-12-30

The bizarre Worlds of Olga Tokarczuk

Barbara Zwolińska Logo ORCID
Section: interpretations – exegeses – analyses
https://doi.org/10.31261/errgo.12502

(A research article in Polish/ Artykuł w języku polskim)

Abstract

The bizarre Worlds of Olga Tokarczuk

The article takes up the theme of truth and mystery based on two “bizarre” stories by Olga Tokarczuk: “Transfugium” and “Calendar of Human Holidays.” The reference is made to other issues of interest important for the author of The Flights: they include eco- and gynocritical threads, evident in “Transfugium,” which tells, among other things, about the pitfalls of the anthropocentric position and the suggested exit in the form of the metamorphosis of humans into animals, specifically into a wolf. In the second
of the analyzed stories, the focus is on the place of religion, the Church and faith in our lives, including faith in revealed truth and a miracle, and on how it may lead to a reevaluation of patterns and dogmas imposed by the institution of the Church, also in terms of the place of women in the established order by Church hierarchs. Although the focus of my attention remains on Tokarczuk’s two short stories, I also make contextual references to the works of the Hungarian writer Sándor Márai and to the short story of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, who, in a sense, dialogue with each other on the issue of understanding
truth, mystery, and the human need for miracle, and thus probably unintentionally refer
to Tokarczuk’s futurological reflection.

Citation rules

Zwolińska, B. (2022). The bizarre Worlds of Olga Tokarczuk: (A research article in Polish/ Artykuł w języku polskim). Er(r)go. Theory - Literature - Culture, (45), 165–183. https://doi.org/10.31261/errgo.12502

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Er(r)go 45 (2/2022)

No. 45 (2022)
Published: 2023-01-03


ISSN: 1508-6305
eISSN: 2544-3186
Ikona DOI 10.31261/errgo

Publisher
University of Silesia Press | Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego i Wydawnictwo Naukowe "Śląsk"

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