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Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam > Blaise Pascal Instituut > Girard Studiekring > COV&R 2007 > Abstracts Papers
Cezary Zalewski
Two kinds of vulnerabity in The sins of childhood by Boleslaw Prus
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ABSTRACT
My paper
will concern the short story entitled The sins of childhood by Boleslaw
Prus who was polish literary man writing during the second half of XIX century.
It is possible to calssify this short story to what Rene Girard calls the
work of rupture because it finished the romantic and began the realistic
or, it would be also say, mimetic period in writers career.
The
story has a form of a confession which is made by old man about his adolescence.
In this relation it is possible to distinguish two kinds of vulnerabity which is
experienced by main character (Kazimierz) and his fellows. The first one is
physical, bodily. It may by observed in the school where one pupil is persecuted
by others because he is week, gibbose and fearful. This same situation occurs in
the family home (during summer vacation) where exists another victim: young and
mad orphan, who is initially invited to common plays but finaly he became
rejected and banished by all children.
The
second kind kinds of vulnerabity is psychological: it is concerns the question
of desire. Both in the school and in the home Kazimierz wants to be adored and
appreciated and that is why he seeks a friend among his fellows. Kazimierz found
such a persons but the relationship with them (i.e with one pupil and
countesss daughter) only at the begining has this direction. Because after
the time went Kazimierz become subordinated to them; he copies and adore them.
The most tragical moments of his life are when he loses his friends. The father
is not a model (he has no authority) for him, that is why Kazimierz depends only
on his equals. Their lack is experienced by him as being close to nothingness.
The one thing seem to me important. As Girard often points out, mimetic inclinations of children has two simultaneous directions: one is towards adults (external mediation) and other is towards peers (internal mediation). In The sins of childhood we can see that the second one is more important and strong, that is why it can totally subordinate the first. In this short story children often conduct themself as adults (they speak, act and even think like them) but always they use it as means for theirs owns ends.
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Cezary
Zalewski works at The Jagiellonian University (Krakow, Poland) as literary
critic.