Proza żołnierska I wojny światowej i jej «re-kreacje» w "Lekcji martwego języka" Andrzeja Kuśniewicza

Abstract

World War I soldier’s prose and its «re-creation» in Andrzej Kuśniewicz’s Lekcja martwego języka

Polish prose of the First World War is mostly associated with the Polish Legions. Agnieszka Prószyńska has established that works showing battles of the Polish Legions and other national volunteer formations have similar qualities, so they can be considered a separate genre of literature. Narration specifications, motives and axiological context that demonstrate genological specificity of the Legions-oriented prose, are also visible in works written by Poles who were fighting on the frontlines as soldiers of regular armies. That is why introducing the concept of “Soldier’s Prose of the World War I” is reasonable. Andrzej Kuśniewicz’s novel Lekcja martwego języka (Lesson of a Dead Language) includes many motives from soldier’s literature. The most characteristic are: railway, soldier, child, and landscape destroyed by war. These motives are developed in Kuśniewicz’s prose by the adaptation laws, described by Iwona Puchalska as «re-creation».