Edited by Elwira M. Grossman

This collection of inter-disciplinary essays offers a new approach to Polish culture. The authors elucidate those intrinsic aspects of Poland's cultural make-up which have long been ignored or omitted by scholars in Poland and/or underestimated by academic critics abroad. Thus a variety of phenomena, relating to language, literature, drama, theatre, art and religion is grouped under the notion of "the other", but its relation to what has been traditionally perceived as quintessential "Polishness" is re-examined and questioned. The volume concentrates on three key areas: language (semantic, lexical and socio-linguistic problems); literature and the arts (prose, poetry, drama and theatre); and cultural mythology (gender roles as well as ethnic and religious stereotypes). The major themes of the collection include: the significance of well-masked Polish religious and sexual prejudices and the cultural implications of this bias; the importance of gender and ethnicity in creating Polish cultural landscape; and artistic reactions to imposed ideological concepts.

This pioneering project, being the first book on the question of "the Other" in Polish culture, represents a ground-breaking contribution to the field of Polish studies and offers an intellectually stimulating reading for an academic public interested in Slavonic Studies, Comparative Slavonic Philology, Cultural Studies, Gender and Identity Studies, as well as Drama and Theatre.

publication date: August 2002
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