Parabola czy paraboliczność? Problematyka sposobu istnienia niektórych gatunków w prozie XX w.

Abstract

In the Polish theory of literary kinds a parabole, also referred to as a "parable", belongs to the so-called didactic or moralizing literature which is not usually treated as a separate literary genre (only Stefania Skwarczyńska treats in this way) and which, strictly speaking, does not belong to literature at all. But a parable - as a pranthetica! structure - existed at best until yhe I9th century, while allegory, related to the parabole, functions to this day, starting from medieval times through the Baroque, the Romantic period, the period between two Polish I9th century uprisings, late positivism, Young Poland and the 20 year period between the two world wars and including the literature written after World War Two. The allegory creates genre variants oi narrative prose in the literature oi the I9thand 20th century, especially as far as the novel, the novella and the short story are concearned. It is connected with the question of "parabolity" a category Michał Głowiński uses to deline one of the variants of narrative fiction. Jan Trzynadlowski believed that this category belonged to "intergeneric phenomena”. Parabolity differs from other types of fiction because - according to the concept oi possible worlds - its presented worłd may be reached only through the first of the worlds created by it which exists on the literal level. Contemporary development of the epic and narrative forms of popular fiction leads the author to believe that one day - when the differences between the novel, the novella, the short story and other epic genres distinguished according to their lengthwill become even more problematic and insignificant - a new genre shall come into being, a genre that we could call today a parabolic variant of narrative prose, in short, a parabole.