During the first fourteen years of transformation, 1989-2003, according to surveys by the author of the paper hereby, there have been erected in Kraków the twelve new churches. Author already published the result of survey depending the first six of therm. So herewith there are last six shrines described. The way of creating them is significant and characteristic for contemporary Polish architecture in general, and particular typical for the trend of a new ecclesiastic architecture. Itr is a special mixture of the tradition, hence completed with aesthetic of Late Modernism, Post-Modernism, and the newest incorporation of Modernism – of the XXI C.

The article tackles issues of the pedagogy of place, with a special emphasis on the urban context. On the basis of fundamental theses asserting that a city is a text (Vladimir Toporov) and that places are pedagogical (Maria Mendel) – the author concentrates on symbols. Definition of this concept, as well as de3 nitions of its particular exemplifications, create a theoretical basis for further practical considerations. Presenting methodology of a research project Reading the City (Czytanie miasta) conducted in the years 2015–2016, the author creates new research challenges for pedagogues. Presentation of wide variety of city symbolism, encompassing both cultural manifestations (towers, bridges) and a realm of nature (mountains, river), leads to proposed educational applications. Descriptions of realized animations based on research form a summary of this article.

The paper describes the political use of symbols of childhood and orphanhood in the current policy of the Russian authorities. At the beginning of the Bolshevik regime, homeless children (bezprizorni) became a subject of interest for the security apparatus organized by F. Dzerzhinsky. At that time, A. Makarenko developed his innovative pedagogical approach. These activities were designed to create a “new Soviet man”. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia again faced the problem of homeless children. After several years, however, children and orphans are now being used as a symbol of vulnerability in the government policy of the Kremlin. As an answer to the so-called “Magnitsky Act”, the Russian authorities implemented the “DimaYakovlev law” prohibiting adoptions of Russian children to the United States. In addition to this, the child as a symbol of innocence and vulnerability is an invariant element in the policy of the Russian authorities. This combines symbolism associated with bravery, dedication and sacrifice, allowing justification of the current political course of power in Russia.

Although currently pole dancing is growing in popularity due to its sport dimension, it seems that such a form of expression is still commonly associated with strip clubs and connotes above all the erotic performance of a woman in front of a male audience. And yet, as one can find by frequenting dance studios that teach pole dancing, it is practiced not only by women, but also by men and children. Thus keeping in mind the ambiguity that arises at the intersection of competing optics in decoding the pole dance—with regard to “perpetuate interpretation logic” and the everyday experience of people undertaking the activity—the aim of this paper is to reflect on the issue of constructing and interpreting the meanings of actions and processes within the context of pole dancing. These processes can be seen as a reflection of the everyday life in which they occur.

There are three Latin texts of the Bible. The ancient vetus latina version used by the Christian writers before Jerome, the Vulgate of st. Jerome and the Neo-Vulgate. Our article deals with the formation and the characteristic features of each version and a special impact the Vulgate had on the Christian literature. We focus our presentation on three periods: the golden age of the patristic literature in the IV- V centuries; the transitional period in the VI-VII centuries and the middle ages, mainly XII-XIII centuries. We present the authors of the most important commen- taries, sermons and other works connected with the Bible and approach some problems connected with the interpretation and meaning of Scripture.

The chuch dedicated to The Holy Spirit, erected in Wrocław, in housing estate Huby, was created during the communist period, hence it was very difficult to design it, and to build. But it was also the period close to the collapse of this regime, so communist leaders were pressed to be more tolerant towards human rights than before, including the religious freedom and towards building new churches. The author of the church mentioned – a very active political oppositionist – when designing the strongly innovative church building, was simultaneously forced by fate to fight formal difficulties caused by oppressive rulers. Author makes the reader closer to those complicated double troubles: artistic, parallel to the political. Finally, the church building was happily completed, then became widely popular and accepted.

The protagonists of Rachilde's novels often have unwavering will and great strength of character. However, they are not free from the desires they sometimes succumb to. The paper tackles the analysis of will, strength and desire in the novel L’Heure sexuelle (1898), in order to compare them to the theory of creative excellence presented in the novel, and to the concepts based on the philosophy of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the image of a garnet bracelet in the story of the same name by Aleksandr Kuprin. The grant bracelet is considered as a complex, multidimensional image with intentionally contradictory semantics. This is a kind of amulet of Zheltkov, along with which he gives his life to Princess Vera. Red and yellow garnet stones symbolize the near death of the donor, and the power of his love, and eternal life. The giving of the bracelet at the same time symbolizes the conclusion of a mystical marriage between its owner and Vera Sheina. Complex symbolic meanings arise due to references to various texts and plots, especially the myth of Pluto and Persephone (the parallel is based on the homonymy of garnet-mineral and pomegranate-fruit in Russian). In the symbolis of Kuprin's story, a kinship with the poetics of Russian symbolism is traced.

The main thesis of this paper is the assertion that, in contrast to the prevailing opinion about the decline or deep crisis of the intelligentsia, it is precisely this social group—and especially its elite—that is the dominant actor in social life. This thesis emerges from an analysis of the role of the intelligentsia, using ‘longue durée’ categories and also the broader international perspective of ‘world system theory’, in which Poland is assigned to the (semi)-periphery. Elements of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory, particularly the idea of cultural capital and the field of power, are an important theoretical poin in the author’s argument. In this view, the structurally privileged position of the intelligentsia in Poland is understood as an aspect of the specific configuration of the Polish field of power, in which—at least since the end of the First World War—cultural capital turns out to be the strongest and most stable dimension in the creation and reproduction of elite social positions.

The article is an attempt at contemporary interpretation of Antonina Kłoskowska’s theory of culture. The Author starts with a brief summary of her concept and follows with his analysis and elaboration on a few interesting issues which are the most interesting in his opinion. They include: national culture and the culture of a national society (i.e. a society, the members of which regard themselves also as members of a national community, an essence of integrative functions of national culture and conciliative functions of artistic heritage.

Недотыкомка is a symbol-word in the Russian literature of the Silver Age, meaning ubiquitous evil, according to the modernist world view, constituting the nature of existence. In this paper we demonstrate how the translation of this untranslatable word has influenced the perception of a literary work. We focus mainly on the poem Недотыкомка серая… (1905), the title of which in Wiktor Woroszylski’s translation is Niepochwytnica szara… (1971), while in the translation by Włodzimierz Słobodnik – Niedoruszajka szara… (1971) and in the novel Мелкий бес (1905), where this fulfils an important function (in René Śliwowski’s translation of 1973 – the name of this creature is Niedotkniątko). We examine what role the character of niedotykomka has in the discussed novels and we analyze the impact translation strategies have on the image of a fictional universe as well as a lyrical situation (i.e., the change of the feminine grammatical form in the character’s name into a grammatically neuter one).

There are more than 350 fl owing waters in Poland with names containing a colour adjective. Etymological propositions mention sometimes various physical attributes such as the colour of the water or of the bottom, or even a possible symbolical usage connected e.g. with the cardinal directions, but most often they limit themselves to citing the literary version of the adjective, and there end their inquiry. The goal of the present paper is to establish to what degree physical attributes can explain the use of colour epithets; and if they cannot, then whether there is any reason to believe that there existed in the past a more elaborate system of colour symbolism.

The author highly appreciates the fi rst issue of the third volume of the fundamental “Dictionary of folk stereotypes and symbols” (ed. prof. E. Bartminsky), dedicated to the symbolism of plants. This issue presents rich materials (language, folklore, ethnographic) related to cereals, which in the popular perception have a mythological interpretation, the daily bread is God’s gift, endowed with sacred significance.