„Teksty Drugie. Teoria literatury, krytyka, interpretacja [Second Texts: Literary Theory, Criticism, and Interpretation]” (ISSN 0867-0633) is a bimonthly journal of literary scholarship. It has been published since 1990 at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the Association ‘Pro Cultura Litteraria’. Teksty Drugie counts among the highest-ranking academic journals according to the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, as well as on the European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH). It also appears on the ISI Master Journal List (Arts & Humanities Citation Index). Individual articles are available online from the Central and Eastern European Online Library.
Teksty Drugie in a nutshell
Teksty Drugie is dedicated above all to literary scholarship, theory, and criticism, but the journal also reaches out into related academic fields, creating a platform for interdisciplinary debates in contemporary humanities.
The journal specializes in monographic issues that focus on current discussions in literary scholarship, language, and culture, but also philosophy, aesthetics, cultural and literary anthropology, gender and postcolonial studies.
Since its foundation in 1990, Teksty Drugie has invited academics of the highest renown to publish on the same terms as early career researchers and students. Polish literary scholarship appears alongside research by international scholars of Polish or Slavic literatures. Finally, Teksty Drugie brings together leading academics from a variety of specializations, such as philology, philosophy, anthropology, cultural studies, sociology, history, art history, and so on.
Monographic issues
The specialty of Teksty Drugie is to publish monographic issues dedicated to one single theme. These themes need not belong to the area of ‘literary theory, criticism, and interpretation’ – they often touch on current problems in the humanities at large. Monographic issues present debates in their wider contexts, and bring together research from related disciplines (such as philology, anthropology, philosophy, or art
In the field of literary theory, issues have focussed on current trends in literary theory and the humanities, as well as a broad range of problems in contemporary literary
Contemporary trends in literary theory and the humanities: anthropology and literature (2007 no. 6); ethics (2002 no. 1/2); feminism (1993 no. 4/5/6); constructivism (1997 no. 6; 1998 no. 4); postcolonialism (2007 no. 4); post-structuralism (1990 no. 2, 1993 no. 1); psychoanalysis (1998 no. 1/2).
Problems in contemporary literary scholarship: the body (2002 no. 5, 2002 no. 6); experience (2006 no. 3, 2006 no. 6); genre studies (1999 no. 6); otherness (2000 no. 6); language and politics (1990 no. 4); the sublime (1996 no. 2/3); literature and other arts (2000 no. 4, 2003 no. 4, 2006 no. 4); the subject of literary scholarship (1990 no. 5/6, 1995 no. 5, 2005 no. 1/2); inexpressibility (1997 no. 3); subjectivity in literature (1994 no. 2, 1999 no. 1/2); Polish literary studies abroad (1992 no. 1/2); identity (1999 no. 5, 2004 no. 1/2); emotions (2007 no. 1/2); multiculturalism (2001 no. 1); economics and literature (1991 no. 5); the city (1999 no.
In the field of literary history, monographic issues have been dedicated to specific epochs, literary phenomena, or specific writers and poets.
Literary epochs: medieval and early modern literature (1994 no. 3, 1997 no. 4, 2003 no. 1); romanticism (1995 no. 6); modernism (1994 no; 5/6, 2002 no. 4); the interwar period (1996 no. 4); literature in the Polish People’s Republic (1990 no. 1); the nineties (1996 no. 5).
Other phenomena or literary movements: the literature of the Holocaust (2004 no. 5, 2007 no. 5); socialist realism (2000 no. 1/2); literature and politics (1998 no. 3, 1991 no. 6); exile writers (1991 no. 1/2); Jews in Polish culture (1992 no. 5).
Writers and poets: Witold Gombrowicz (2002 no. 3, 2005 no. 3); Zbigniew Herbert (2000 no. 3); Stanisław Lem (1992 no. 3); Adam Mickiewicz (1998 no. 5); Czesław Miłosz (2001 nos 3/4); Wisława Szymborska (1991 no. 4); Tadeusz Różewicz (2007 no. 3).
A few issues have been dedicated to distinguished literary scholars: Janusz Sławiński (1994 no. 4); Michał Głowiński (1994 no. 5/6), and Zdzisław Łapiński (2000 no. 5). No. 5 of 1999 was dedicated to the memory of Joanna Łuczyńska, the journal’s editorial secretary of many years.
Texts in the Teksty
A key element in each issue is the short introductory article. Printed in italics, these introductions present the leading problem of each issue from a personal perspective. In multi-thematic issues the editor may discuss the diversity of opinions within the current issue in the context of contradictions in contemporary thought in general; they may weave their own reflections around one of the issue’s themes, contemplate some current debate not directly related to the issue, record their private meditations, humoristic observations, or provocations. There are no bounds to their self-reflexivity, as can be seen in Jerzy Jarzębski’s Wstępniak autotematyczny [Autothematic Foreword], 1991 no. 3.
The articles in the section Szkice [Essays] usually pertain to the issue’s leading theme or problem. The section Roztrząsania i rozbiory [Discussions and Analyses] contains book reviews (broader discussions of international publications are presented in the section Komentarze [Commentaries]. The section Przechadzki [Wanderings] appears every once in a while, uniting relatively short feuilleton-like articles that are more loosely related to the issue’s leading theme. Another key section is Prezentacje [Presentations], which assembles, in translation, the work of international writers whose impact on contemporary humanities is most significant. Among these writers could be mentioned Marc Augé, Mikhail Bakhtin, Mieke Bal, Roland Barthes, Hans Belting, Per-Arne Bodin, Rosi Braidotti, Hélène Cixous, Donald Davidson, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, Serge Doubrovsky, Roger-Pol Droit, Robert Eaglestone, Umberto Eco, Stanley Fish, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Clifford Geertz, Stephen Greenblat, N. Katherine Hayles, Agneš Heller, Wolfgang Iser, Roman Jakobson, Søren Kierkegaard, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Bruno Latour, Dori Laub, Philippe Lejeune, Jean-François Lyotard, Yuri Lotman, Jean-Luc Nancy, Martha Nussbaum, Richard Rorty, Elaine Showalter, Peter Sloterdijk, Vladimir Toporov, Gianni Vattimo, Slavoj Žižek.
Further key sections are Świadectwa [Testimonies], a space to present newly discovered biographical materials, and Archiwalia [Archive], the section where scholars may publish the correspondence of writers and poets (such as Miron Białoszewski, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Witold Gombrowicz, Czesław Miłosz), or writers’ inedita (for instance, previously unpublished poems by Tadeusz Kantor). The remaining sections, such as Opinie [Opinions] and Interpretacje [Interpretations], appear irregularly. They usually assemble pieces that are similar in genre.
Teksty Drugie also reserves space for its readers, becoming a platform for interesting discussions and polemics. Among these should be mentioned the debates about interpretive anarchy (1997 no. 6, 1998 nos 4 and 6, 1999 no. 6), literary theory (2001 no. 5; 2002 no. 1/2; 2002 no. 4), or about Czesław Miłosz’s Traktat moralny [Moral Treatise] (2006 no. 5, 2008 no. 6). Teksty Drugie also engages with current literary scholarship through its ‘surveys’, in which interested groups can voice their opinions: international scholars of Polish literature share their views on their discipline’s situation (1992 no. 1/2, 1995 no. 2); authors of handbooks on literary history discuss their perspective on the changes that occurred in Poland after 1990 (1995 no. 2), writers consider what literary tradition represents to them (1996 no. 5), or they discuss their relationship with Mickiewicz (1998 no. 5); literary scholars consider the most outstanding achievements of Polish literary scholarship in the 20 thcentury (2001 nos 5 and 6; 2002 nos. 1/2 and 4).
Our authors
Authors represent a variety of scholarly centres both in Poland and abroad. Among the Polish scholars who published with Teksty Drugie are Stanisław Balbus, Kazimierz Bartoszyński, Jan Błoński, Grażyna Borkowska, Anna Burzyńska, Przemysław Czapliński, Adam Dziadek, Aleksander Fiut, Michał Głowiński, Czesław Hernas, Inga Iwasiów, Maria Janion, Henryk Markiewicz, Zofia Mitosek, Lucylla Pszczołowska, Marian Stala, Danuta Ulicka, Teresa Walas, and Marta Wyka. The journal has also published the work of a number of international scholars on Polish literature: Dalibor Blažina, Clare Cavanagh, Maria Delaperrière, Knut Andreas Grimstad, Luigi Marinelli, Edward Możejko, Leonard Neuger, Arent van Nieukerken, German Ritz, Tokimasa Sekiguchi, Giovanna Tomassucci, Tomas Venclova.
Editorial series
The journal has patronized two editorial series. In the series ‘The library of Teksty,’ published by PEN, appeared: Janusz Sławiński’s Teksty i Teksty (1990), Michał Głowiński’s Nowomowa po polsku (1990), Edward Balcerzan’s Przygody człowieka książkowego (ogólne i szczególne) (1990), Maria Janion’s Projekt krytyki fantazmatycznej: szkice o egzystencjach ludzi i duchów (1991), Jerzy Jarzębski’s W Polsce czyli wszędzie: szkice o polskiej prozie współczesnej (1992), Jan Józef Lipski’s Tunika Nessosa: szkice o literaturze i nacjonalizmie (1992). In the series ‘The Library of Teksty Drugie’ of the Institute of Literary Studies Press at the Polish Academy of Sciences there appeared the book Ciało i tekst: feminizm w literaturoznawstwie – antologia szkiców, ed. by Anny Nasiłowskiej (2001).