Until the political breakthrough of 1989/90, the cultural heritage of Wrocław was the subject of an irresolvable historical and ideological dispute between Germany and Poland, which strained their mutual relations. The exclusive use of the national paradigms by both sides in their approach to the city’s history, made a rapprochement of positions impossible. The author shows this dis­pute against the background of the general Polish attitude to the phenomenon of German cultural heritage in Poland after World War II and explains its evolu­tion in Wrocław and Silesia.

In this essay, the author tries to establish the order of literary forms undertaken by Olga Tokarczuk and indicate the moment when she reached for the essay. According to the author, the essay has become a substitute or auxiliary genre for her. Considerations typical of the discursive parts of poems, while looking for a larger space, found it in the essay. Subsequently, these essayistic attempts began to demand the possibility of even more elaborate imagery, becoming a bridge between short stories and an extensive novel. Olga Tokarczuk took the essay very seriously, treating it as a testing ground for the emerging style and maturing thought. The author discusses the three essay books of the writer, pointing to their similarities and differences, as well as the visible develop­ment in the scope of the topics he undertakes, which at the beginning concerned psychology, mythology, literature, and then ecology, philosophy of culture and feminism. Thus noticed, the evolution of interests and views led the essayist to a deep social and political commitment.

Article describes the fate of the famous Silesian library after the death of its founder Max Pinkus, who was a well‑known manufacturer, philanthropist and a patron of culture from Prudnik. This publication examines the problems that arose around the issue of the sale of the library after World War II and includes comments and deliberations of Pinkus’s inheritors. It explains the circumstances and doubts related to the transfer of Pinkus‘s collection to two public librar­ies – the Staats‑und Universitätsbibliothek zu Breslau and Oberschlesische Landesbibliothek in Racibórz (from 1938 in Bytom). The events described in this article were presented in the context of increasing persecutions of Jews in the Third Reich. Attached to the article follow press materials from 1935–36 that describe the process of transfer of Pinkus’s library to Wrocław and Racibórz.

The article discusses the new bilingual edition of the German Sagen und Märchen aus Oberschlesien (“Legends and Tales from Upper Silesia”) by Elisabeth Grabowski, a Silesian writer from the early 20th century, acknowledged for her folklorist achievements in the German literature but little known to Polish readers outside of Upper Silesia. The Polish translation by Tobiasz Janikowski is analysed both as a separate achievement and in the context of col­lecting and editing oral folktales as initiated by the Brothers Grimm. From the perspective of translation studies, the discussed bilingual edition is a good ex­ample for the significance of the global translation strategy and for the need of paratextual explanations.

The article is an attempt to look at the work of August Scholtis (1901–1969), a German writer from Silesia, the Hlučín Region (now part of the Moravian‑Silesian Region in the Czech Republic), through the prism of his debut novel Ostwind [The Wind from the East]. The contribution takes note of reviews, discussions and critical voices present in the Polish press from the 1930s to the 1970s. The anniversary of the publishing of the novel and the avail­ability of the Polish translation were occasions to recall the work of the slightly forgotten prose writer.

The primary aim of the article is to present a scientific description of the main toposes of childhood (home, garden, play) and the archetypal figures of grandmother, mother and father that appear in Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s autobiographical prose entitled Z mojego życia. Zmyślenie i prawda. During the remembering time of early youth is transformed, in an important way, into a literary creation. The image of this author’s childhood, inspired by the ideas of Rousseau and the Enlightenment concepts of the education, becomes mythi­cised. It is transformed into Arcadia, the land of happiness, to which a way back is incessantly looked for. The recall of his boyhood is motivated by another important reason: an attempt to self‑identification at the end of the writer’s life and answer to the questions about existence.

The aim of this article is to introduce the reader to the image of Poland that appears in Wiplinger’s poetry. His journey through Poland takes place mainly in the footsteps of the sites of memory, especially Auschwitz, the former con­centration camp and it is a multidimensional experience.

The aim of the article is to analyze the image of the Teutonic Order in contem­porary Polish novels published after 2000. “Zawisza Czarny” by Jakub Ćwiek, “Zawisza Czarny” by Jacek Komuda and the book series „Cykl Krzyżacki” by Dariusz Domagalski will be analyzed according to the following criteria: type of an organization, character traits, weaponry and means of transport, ap­pearance, fighting style, enemies as well as distinctive marks. The analysis is supposed to prove to which extent modern reception of the Teutonic Order shows similarity to the Sienkiewicz’s idea or how it is different from it, as well as to provide the reasons behind indirect reference to Sienkiewicz’s perception of the Order in modern literature. The concept of intertextuality will be applied as a research method in order to indicate the impact of “Krzyżacy” by Henryk Sienkiewicz on authors of contemporary Polish literature.

The article presents ways of creating the space of the North in the works of Mariusz Wilk. The author of „The Wolf’s Notebook”, following the idea of Kenneth White’s geopoetics, combines history, philosophy, culture and nature into one whole. The North is a place of contemplation, a journey into oneself, a meeting point between the world of people and ghosts. Most of all, however, it is a source of meanings that Wilk arranges into a unique path, his trail.

The article presents comparison of Huelle’s Merdeces‑Benz reception (novel published in 2001) with Piórkowska’s Kraboszki and Morska’s Znikanie (novels from 2019 and 2020). Character known from Merdeces‑Benz (doctor Elefant) was a reason for a scandal in Gdańsk medical academy. The texts of Piórkowska and Morska present even more scandalous cases from the disease‑histories of authors/narrators, but did not cause a scandal. It is proposed in the article, what could be a reason for such difference in literary reception.

This article presents the contribution of Hubert Orłowski, a well-known literary scholar and stereotype researcher, to the popularisation and study of the liter­ature of the German Democratic Republic. These activities, which represent only a small part of his scholarly and literary criticism output, have immensely contributed to presenting numerous valuable works by East German writers to the Polish audience.

The aim of this article is to present the figure and postulates of Louise Otto‑Peters, one of the most important women’s rights activists in Germany. In the 19th century she courageously fought against social injustice and postulated a number of social and legal changes. In her treatise Das Recht der Frauen auf Erwerb (Women’s Right to Employment) she proclaimed the need to introduce equality, to fundamentally change the education system, and to expand women’s earning opportunities. She sharply criticized society’s behavior. Louise Otto‑Peters also proclaimed the neces­sity to improve the professional situation of women, which would guarantee their independence and thus the development of their own personalities.

The first part of the paper serves as an introduction to more detailed analyses and focuses on three issues relevant to digital communication: (1) qualitative and quantitative understanding of the „digitalization process”, (2) relations between „media” and „communicating”, „media” and „information”, (3) char­acteristics of the emerging information society. The second part of the paper discusses the role of electronic media in shaping public opinion. The examination of selected Web portals leads to the conclu­sion that the abundance of information available in the Internet does not result in well‑informed or well‑balanced opinion of the public. In addition, the com­mercialization of the Internet does no longer seem to ensure its benevolent role towards the society.

The aim of the article is showing the network of connections in the sphere of mo­tives and ideas in between The Visit of the Old Lady by Friedrich Dürrenmatt and the popular youth series Riverdale (Netflix production). The analysis mainly concerns the creation of the heroines of both cultural texts – Klara Zachanassian and Penelope Blossom. In this perspective, the famous tragicomedy of the Swiss writer appears as a hypotext on Riverdale, which is hypertext. A vengeance theme that has existed since ancient times, recorded in various works of art, it manifests itself in an inter­esting way in the similar actions and attitudes between the heroines indicated in the theme of the works, genologically and aesthetically different from each other.

In this article I would like to point out a problem of interpersonal communica­tion we tend to experience more often, not only in personal life but also in public utterances, which can be classified as a verbal form of violence. Presented here the concept of nonviolent communication highlights the skill of having an em­pathic conversation focused on facts, expressing needs and requests instead of judging, comparing and demanding. NVC is a way of communicating with each other, which thanks to focusing on certain aspects of the speakers message, as well as your own, and also using specific forms of the language allows you to completely eliminate or at least reduce the chance of verbal violence, appear­ing in physical or psychological way. In other words NVC is communicating with respect to the other speaker, even when we don’t necessarily agree with them.

The following research section outlines the ongoing theoretical divagations on what language functions have individually a greatest impact on personal, group, and social communication situations and rituals having in mind the act of translation. Assuming that the multicultural pot of today’s interlingual con­tacts does not effectively weaken firm ties between language and the individuals using it, the act of translation cannot be simplistically reduced to mechanical language operations on a text’s surface level, without paying greater atten­tion to subtle semantic shades of meaning possibly represented by more than one lexical unit of the target language text to reexpress the original’s content. It is here that the Genus vs. Differentia major differences have been discussed in terms of what interpretation moves have to be employed to achieve utmost accurate translation effect satisfying the target text’s planned receiver.

The present text includes a description of philosophical theories concerning commonly known normative‑ethical concepts. In its first part the author pre­sents the scientific approaches: Thomistic, empirical, materialistic, relativistic, utilitarian, transcendental and metaethical. The indicated interpretations were confronted with the objects of research and their narrative layer in the second part of the article. Then the dialogue lists and the visual message of the series „The 100” (CW.tv, 2014–2020) were examined. It was established that the cre­ators of the popcultural message presented a simplified argumentation, drawing from a few theories described in the theoretical part of the article.

In the article, the authors analyse the strategies and techniques adopted in the process of translating into English and German mining short stories by Gustaw Morcinek. Out of many short stories touching upon the writer’s youthful ex­periences as a miner, only two have been translated into English: „Silence” in 1934 and „Faith” in 1935. Both translations were done by Monica Gardner, an English translator of Polish literature. More mining short stories have been translated into German. The analysis covers the translations by Henryk Bereska of two short stories: „Silence” and „Bootleg mining” („Na bieda‑szybie”). All three short stories are part of the first book by Gustaw Morcinek, a collection of short stories. Never before had a literary work offered us such a powerful and vivid image of miners at work. The short stories in question are interesting not only literary‑wise but also as a testimony to the life of miners and as a tribute to their tenacity, courage, and goodness

Certified translation represents a particular type of translation which is per­formed by sworn translators in line with concrete translation rules. The most common case is that sworn translators prepare translations of source documents; however, it might happen that the client will not have a source document, but merely a certified translation thereof. In such case, the translator must reverse the certified translation, which intends to recreate the source document. This article outlines the problems occurring while preparing a back translation, with particular emphasis on the impact of (non)compliance with the rules for prepar­ing certified translation on the translation process.

The study pertains to the prose of Johanna Spyri, considered on the example of a series of novels: Heidis Lehr-und Wanderjahre (1880) and Heidi kann brauchen, was es gelernt hat (1881), which in their Polish translation appeared under the common title: Lata nauki i wędrówek Heidi (1st Edtion, 1927). The paper discusses, inter alia, the origins and reception of the series about Heidi’s adventures, its connections with the nineteenth‑century mountain fiction nov­el (Bergroman) and sentimental literature for girls, the Swiss writer’s interest in mountain tourism and, finally, the theme of personal experience of high moun­tain settings and knowledge of the realities of highlanders’ life. The potential for reading Spyri’s novels in the perspective of ecopoetics is verified in the study using biographical sources (e.g. Regine Schindler, Dieter Richter, Ernst Halter), as well as sources pertaining to ecocriticism (e.g. Przemysław Czapliński, Peter Barry) and ethnography (e.g. Jacek Kolbuszewski). Impressionistic and veristic descriptions of alpine nature in Spyri’s novels intertwine with her reflection on the threats to the ecosystem posed by metropolitan civilization. A friendly attitude towards natural environment seems to be the only acceptable approach assumed by the author of the series about Heidi, while manifestations of hos­tility towards nature, even trivial (such as picking flowers by the protagonist), not to mention deliberately destructive acts, are positioned in the sphere of an­ti‑values.

This article is the first comprehensive discussion of the presence of belles‑lettres in the journalistic texts of the conservative thinker Caspar von Schrenck‑Notzing. The article shows systematically and chronologically how Schrenck‑Notzing used examples from fictional literature in his criticism of the German society after 1945. In Schrenck‑Notzing‘s social and political criticism, this most often critical exemplification of literature highlighted the phenomena related to the birth of telecration, mediocracy, and the “couch elites” educated in the process of re‑education, which dominated the political and cultural panorama of West Germany after 1945. In the article one can find an interpretation of these pro­cesses in the eyes of one of the most important conservative publicists that is surprisingly rarely included more widely in scientific works on conservative writers and publicists.

The Russian poet Pushkin has been given a special place in Poland, in Polish literature, culture, and tradition. Thus he is present to most Polish‑speaking readers concerning his personality as a great poet and freedom fighter as well as a gifted poet. Due to history and the rebellion against the tsarist regime in Russia, Pushkin’s reception has been in Poland especially a political one. Pushkin himself did respond generously and openly to Polish culture and lit­erature. But behind Pushkin’s thoughts of Poland there stood first of all the presence of the Polish national poet, Adam Mickiewicz. There has been a no­table mutual impact on their literary works as well as on their political attitudes concerning first of all the significance of the Slavic question for the Russian Empire and Poland’s struggle for national independence. The Polish nation­al uprising of 1830/1831 turned into a vehement dispute between both poets. That’s the reason, why Pushkin transformed Poland into a troublesome younger Slavic cousin, too. Nevertheless the ambivalent friendship of both poets became a symbol for reconciliation and friendship between the two Slavic nations. The poetic friendship of Pushkin and Mickiewicz as well as the literary reflections in some selected literary works of the Polish writer Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz are presented as expressive and paradigmatic models of literary and artistic inspira­tion and imagination.

The present article is an attempt to analyze the collection of letters ‘Postlose Wochenenden gab es selten bei uns’. Heinz Piontek’s letters to his family and Margit Dürring, published by A. Hirner and H. Wiedow (H.P.Archiv in Lauingen) in 2020, and once again, apart from the editors who have already done it in the collection, to point out focal points of Heinz Piontek’s corre­spondence available there. The author pays special attention to the literary and extra‑literary friendships of Piontek, which were highlighted in the letters. The author traces Piontek’s attempts to promote not only himself as a writer but also others, to find valuable works with an excellent “literary nose”, to popu­larize them or to translate them into German. The collection of Piontek’s letters serves as a basis to check out Piontek’s relationship with publishers, but also privately, to faith and tradition, to see him in it not only as a literary man con­cerned about his fame, but also as a man with his infirmities, feelings of aging and states of depression, which he communicated in letters to those who were close to him.

The aim of the paper is to discuss the articles devoted to the life and work of the German‑Jewish writer Arnold Zweig (1887–1968) that were published in the Quarterly Journal „Schlesien” (1956–1996, edited by Karl Schodrok and later by Eberhard Günter Schulz). The paper begins with a brief description of the journal and the presentation of its most important programme objectives. The articles analysed include: Nachruf auf Arnold Zweig [Obituary of Arnold Zweig] (1969) by Peter Hamm, Arnold Zweig, Glogau und die Kattowitzer Schülerzeitschrift „Die Gäste“ [Arnold Zweig, Glogau and the Katowice Student Magazine „Die Gäste“] (1987) by Klaus Täubert and Arnold Zweig – Leben und Werk. Zum 100. Geburtstag des Schriftstellers [Arnold Zweig – Life and Work. On the 100th birthday of the writer] (1988) by Klaus Hildebrandt. In addition, the reviews of two books published in the journal are discussed: Eberhard Hilscher‘s monograph Arnold Zweig. Leben und Werk [Arnold Zweig – Life and Work] (1971) by Klaus Hildebrandt as well as Arnold Zweig’s Die Zeit ist reif [The Time is Ripe] (1986) by Albin Lenhard. The paper focuses on selected aspects of the above‑mentioned publications with particular empha­sis on issues related to the writer‘s Silesian origins.

The subject of the presented article is an extensive review by Ernst Cassirer about Lotte in Weimar by Tomasz Mann. It is titled „Thomas Manns Goethe‑Bild. Eine Studie über “Lotte in Weimar”, and it appeared shortly after Cassirer’s death in the „Germanic Review” (October 1945). The philosopher’s study al­lows to confront the names of Cassirer and Mann. First of all, the following article is a reflection on the novel by Mann from the perspective of Cassirer’s review. It mentions also the common elements for both thinkers, which find their expression in the concern with Goethe. I am also trying to answer the question – what constitutes the background for the literary‑philosophical meet­ing (in a figurative sense) of Cassirer and Mann. The answer to this question lies in the political situation before and after the year 1933 and, as well, in the political involvement of both thinkers. Therefore, Davos is the framework of the presented article, where on one hand the Mann’s Zauberberg action takes place, and on the other hand, where the legendary dispute between Cassirer and Heidegger took place.

The article recalls the last great wave of refugees at the end of the Second World War, based on Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine and the huge influx of refugees into neighbouring countries, especially Poland. The reason for further deliberations is the novel Niemandsland by Wolfgang Bittner, whose first‑person narrator had to flee his homeland with his parents as a child, seems to have had a significant influence on his later life.

The article presents the contemporary German writer and poet Wolfgang Bittner, his biography and generativity. The writer’s personal background, in­cluding his experiences during the Second World War, travels to Canada, books that he read, and contacts with other people, had an important influence on his identity, which is more dimensional. The interview with the writer occurred in his 80th year of age.

The paper deals with the principles of translation by Karl Dedecius (Vom Übersetzen, 1986), analysed by the students of German at the University of Wrocław 2019–21. After a short presentation of Dedecius’ biography, the author of the article deals with several translation models by Dedecius and their reception in the in Polish‑German classes. Afterwards follows an analy­sis of several poems of Tadeusz Różewicz and their translations by Dedecius in various versions created between 1965 and 1999. The students noticed that the changes in the following versions went most often towards a more detailed translation and its closer relation to the original. They were further inspired not only by various translation principles and their realisation, but also by Dedecius’ idea to correct his own translations.

Until now, no higher education institution in Poland has offered degree programmes specifically designed for aspiring sworn translators. However, candidates for sworn translators may try to find degree programmes that will prepare them better than other ones for the sworn translator examination and for the job. Therefore, the au­thors have examined English and German degree programmes in translation studies at six selected universities in order to evaluate how useful they are for candidates. Only full‑time Master’s degree programmes have been subject to analysis as the authors believe that such programmes are best suited for teaching prospective sworn translators because the students may focus only on learning and the number of teaching hours is sufficient. Moreover, considering the curricula of Master’s de­gree programmes in translation studies, the authors have proposed a framework for a Master’s degree programme for sworn translators.

This paper analyzes the way in which the idea of masculinity and possible solu­tions to its perceived crisis are presented in the science‑fiction novel Spartan Planet (1968) by Arthur Bertram Chandler. At the center of this novel is a sepa­rate male single‑sex society, in which the opposite sex remains an unknown concept. The men’s planet is modeled after the ancient Sparta, and its society is strongly based on the old mythological archetypes of manhood. Arguably, the concept of a mythologized single‑sex society may serve some writers as a tool to explore gender differences but also to propose mythological reinterpretations of masculinity. Such a portrayal may also be interpreted within the historical context of second‑wave feminism, as an attempt to find the inner male self – the so‑called “Deep Masculine”–by revitalizing the ancient, mythologized, instinc­tive male world. On the other hand, in Spartan Planet the possible mythological reinterpretations of masculinity are being criticized by the novel given its dys­topian characteristics and the irony. Arguably, in the case of Chandler’s text mythologized men‑only worlds is used to ironically criticize masculinists sepa­ratist ideas, misogynist tendencies and antifeminist backlash.

The following paper discusses the most common problems within the scope of foreign business language learning regarding the following fields of stud­ies: economics, logistics, administration and national security. The author of the article concentrates on three issues that are usually the most troublesome: insuf­ficient background knowledge when it comes to a certain study field, speaking barrier due to shyness and low self‑esteem concerning not only foreign busi­ness language learning, but also a so called life lethargy and depressive attitude towards many different aspects. The above‑mentioned problems are described with details. Moreover, some solutions are also suggested.

Sada Yacco is probably the first ‘modern’ actress in Japan. She was recognised as such for her role as Desdemona in the Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello in 1903. This was a great revolution because in traditional Japanese Kabuki theatre, female characters were played by transvestite actors. Although the law had already abolished this constraint in the theatre (1890), no one knew how to proceed if the tradition of learning the actor’s craft based on ‘imitation’ was abandoned. This unlikely revolution, however, was made possible by the great tour of the theatre company directed by Otojiro Kawakami, Sada Yacco’s husband, to North America and Europe between 1899 and 1901, a financial, social and artistic success. This tour, which offered an adaptation of Kabuki theatre to local tastes, was a great success, with Sada Yacco embodying, through her exoticism, an ani­mated etching. However, an analysis of the views of Parisian critics and artists, who were more amazed by these theatre performances than by other attractions proposed at the 1900 Universal Exhibition, reveals that this geographically and temporally distant form had a mirror function: it was a kind of reflection of what no longer existed on the French scene, or of what some artists were looking for to renew their register of expression. This work shows some examples of these comings and goings that allowed an opening on both sides of the world, and proposes to reread cultural history in this perspective of the reflection that the Other brings us.

In this paper, we present the results of an exploratory linguistic analysis of the opinions collected during our interviews conducted in 2015 with the managers of five French translation SMEs. It is a quantitative descriptive and qualita­tive study which explores the possibilities of measuring the conceptualisation of translation (in terms of intralingual, interlingual and intersemiotic transla­tion) through the lexical level of the statements of our interlocutors (semantic field and textual meaning of the word « TRADUCTION »). We come to the conclusion that the translation service providers interviewed are aware of the impact of intralingual and intersemiotic translations, but that their general con­ception of translation remains a traditional conception, based on interlingual translations. However, a methodological explanation of this conclusion is also possible: references to natural languages, as the most evident indicators of the interlingual conception of translation, are far easier to be identified comparing to the indicators of two other types of translation; a fine‑tuned operationalisation of these two types of translation would be thus necessary.

In this paper, we will focus on the various types of screen translation, in­cluding subtitling, dubbing and voice‑over, and analyse these three methods of translation using a semiotic approach. After a short presentation of the main types of screen translation (section 2), we will look at subtitling (3), followed by a section on revoicing (4), encompassing dubbing and voice‑over. In the concluding part (5), we will revisit some critiques raised against dubbing and subtitling, and expose our counter‑arguments. Finally, the features of the three main types of screen translation will be compared, and their advantages from the user’s viewpoint will be highlighted. At the very end, we review some prom­inent now‑classical publications – and more recent ones – on screen translation and suggest further readings (6 and 7).