Współczesna (anty)saga rodzinna – nowy gatunek, nowe teorie? Szkic na przykładzie Piaskowej Góry Joanny Bator

Abstract

This paper is to be considered as an attempt to answer the questions: whether the author, who knows literary/cultural theory and its methodologies, can suggest an interpretation or a method of reading to scholar and how the cultural turn in literary studies influenced the development of texts and genres. In relation to the problem Joanna Bator’s novel “Piaskowa Góra” is analyzed and compared to other Polish literary texts. The first part of the article is a critical reading of the novel based on gender studies’ concepts. Most of all a relationship in the family (especially relationship between mother and daughter), a perception of sexuality and gender stereotypes are described. The important key here is Bator’s theoretical knowledge background on the second wave feminism (i.e. Luce Irigaray, Julia Kristeva) and psychoanalysis. The novel’s genre classification is the subject of the second part of the article, where “Piaskowa Góra” is described as an “avry saga”, antisaga. In comparison with traditional family saga, it reverses values (such as inheritance and blood ties) and classical structure of the saga - in respect of chronology and narration). The findings about the author’s influence on a shape of texts and genres as a result of writers’ awareness in connection with cultural turn in the theory may be used for purposes of other interpretations of Polish contemporary literature.