Obraz pensjonarki w literaturze popularnej początku XX wieku na podstawie powieści „Płomyk. Z pamiętnika instytutki” Eugenii Żmijewskiej

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the character and mentality of adolescent girl from a family of landowners, on the example of the heroine of a novel “Płomyk. Z pamiętnika instytutki” of 1907, originating from the mainstream of so-called ‘trivial’ literature. This novel (in the form of a diary) could be regarded as an interesting example to follow, set in the second half of the 20th century patterns of realistic positivist prose. Eugenia Żmijewska, the author of that piece, on one hand, refers to the positivist model under the sign of Orzeszkowa and Sienkiewicz, on the other hand, Żmijewska deftly combines the aesthetics of the novel with a plot of schoolgirl. The result of this syncretism is the character of Dola Żalińska. In the personality of that heroine — passing a difficult period of adolescence — interweare and collide patterns of landowner education, strict school education and dilemmas of adolescence. This paper will pose a question of pararrels between literary portrait of young lady and cultural image of schoolgirl raised in the late 19th and early 20th century.