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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Literackie wizerunki chłopców i mężczyzn w prozie historycznej Antoniny Domańskiej. Między tradycją a nowatorstwem

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When depicting boys and men, Antonina Domańska is well aware of the recipients and their needs. Her fictional characters are often teenage boys who find themselves in the middle of the action. Their adventures are building blocks of the plot and encourage the recipients to read on. The author focuses on the child’s naturę in the first place, and the principles come afterwards. Domańska depicts progressive, at the time, relations between adults and children. The characters include commoners who are presented as role models (e.g. Wawrzuś), or people who improve themselves every day and are always ready to help others. Collective characters (such as pageboys) are instigators of pranks and other mischiefs, while everyone is driven by kindness and nobleness. Domańska revives well-known character types: a child artist and an orphan. While in the representational layer the author faithfully follows the pattems of fairy tale and historical novel, the change occurs in the psychological layer. The protagonists undergo a process of “modernisation”, which brings them closer to the child’s naturę. The teenage characters follow a hierarchy of moral values appropriate for their age. The historical characters do not alter the flow of the story and they act as a historical background for the plot. A few character types clearly dominate: a good-natured ruler, a wise and just ruler, a heroic leader. Each of these types is a literary realisation of the golden legend - the idea of powerful and influential Poland.