Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk

(The remains of oral culture in the novels “The Koniecpolskis’ castle" (Zamek Koniecpolskich) and “Matylda and Daniło" by Anna Mostowska)

Year of publication: 2015
Page range: 15 (79-93)
Keywords: Anna Mostowska, gothic novels, orality, oral culture
Author: Dorota Vincůrková (The University of Szczecin)

Abstract

This paper presents the oral residuum in the gothic novels “The Koniecpolskis’ castle" (Zamek Koniecpolskich) and “Matylda and Daniło" by Anna Mostowska. The analysis of both texts has revealed in the narration features such as asides reminding of the narrator’s presence or interruptions of the plot explained by exhaustion of characters. “The Koniecpolskis’ castle" and “Matylda and Daniło" display the nested story structure while also keeping resemblance to the gawęda Polish epic literary genre. The remain of the oral culture is the parallelism of the plots of both novels. The types of characters present in the texts (‘flat’ characters, usually equipped with one main characteristic, also the wandering characters, whose internal metamorphosis happens during journey) are characteristic for oral stories. The pre-modern approach to the theory of the past assumed that it is Fortune who controls a human’s fate, and Mostowska’s work reflectsthat belief. The protagonists of the two novels usually stay true to the ruling of Fate and those who do not, face punishment. The characters’ lack of the ability to self-analyse (the case of the transformation of Bohdan Koniecpolski) and some logical inconsistencies (e.g. in the construction of the character of Władysław) present in the novels may suggest that the author has not yet fully interiorised writing.

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