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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Podróż w dalekie lata ("Zegar słoneczny" (1953) Jana Parandowskiego)

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Zegar słoneczny [trans. Th e Sundial] by Parandowski is a collection of 13 short-stories loosely based on the author’s memories of childhood and early youth spent in a Lvov school. Written in a chatty and humorous manner, with a touch of lyricism, the stories assume a form of a sentimental recollection of a journey to distant years. Lyrical phrasing, careful choice of words, and poetic images hint at the artistic profession of the author. Because of these qualities the work becomes coherent in terms of semantics and composition. Th e narrator travels through his life in all possible directions and between many diff erent planes (apartment in Lvov, neighborhood of the family house, urban areas, infi nitely big “the rest” which is connected with childhood). He ignores the succession of events and uses them to bring back the atmosphere and mo od of years long gone, and the images of his family and himself from the past. By referring to the present, the narrator also presents the continuity of tradition and existential repetitiveness, which may be discovered in a simple gesture or situation. All the above mentioned aspects of Parandowski’s work show that it belongs to the trend of double-addressee autobiographies.