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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Ludzie i krowy w "Chłopach" Władysława Reymonta

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This article presents the hitherto undescribed relationship between humans and cows in Władysław Reymont's The Peasants. The tropes used by Reymont, especially the personifications of naturę in the Young Poland style, do not include the world of animals. However, the totality of Reymont's world lies in the blurring of distinctive boundaries between species and their subsequent restoration in an anthropocentric order. The assumptions of animal studiesand ecological realism used in the article allow Brzozowska to show the influence of cows on human behavior, especially that of women. Cows appear as mothers-feeders, confidants, and creatures that suppress own aggression; they are synonymous with abundance, safety, and bodily wisdom; they ethically neutralize the theme of romance; they somatize human experience.The non-anthropomorphicdepiction ofcows proves that what is human is notsynonymous with what is noble.