What’s the difference between “space” and a “place”? How do places and literature inform one another? Prof. Elżbieta Rybicka from the Department of Anthropology of Literature and Cultural Studies at Jagiellonian University discusses this and other issues.

The Author analyses some methodological solutions adopted in her studies on historical presentation of women in the "Solidarity" underground movement.

The phenomenon of publication, in the same year, of two books having identical titles, is enough to study the theory presented therein. Both books feature the notion of culture, which was broadly elaborated by both authors: Antonina Kłoskowska and Raymond Williams already in their earlier analyses. It turns out, however, that no matter the title of a book interesting to us, culture is tackled differently in both of them. Williams seems to keep using anthropological definition of culture, while Kłoskowska suggests sociological approach. A reflection on culture by the English academic has shaped the character of British cultural studies and their subsequent follow-ups around the world. A question arises, to what extent the sociological approach by Kłoskowska may give impetus to cultural research in Poland, especially when symbolic culture appears beyond the principle of autotelism.

The article discusses the book Zmiana perspektywy. Gawęda nie tylko językoznawcza [Change of perspective. More than a tale of linguistics] by Zuzanna Topolińska (Cracow 2015). The author of this text emphasizes that the word gawęda [tale] in the book’s subtitle is misleading, given that, despite the style of language used in the book, Topolińska discusses important issues of a linguistic and intercultural nature. In her short essays in the fi rst part of the book Topolińska addresses the organizational structure of philology studies in Poland and Macedonia, she confronts the Polish and Macedonian approach to the dialectgeneral language relationship, she talks about language standards, about the differences between politeness in Poland and Macedonia, as well as the attitude towards women and the outlook toward religion in both countries. In the second part of the book Topolińska takes up lexical issues, giving examples of how under the infl uence of spiritual culture certain words in Polish and Macedonian that derive from the same core have taken on a different meaning. The author of the article concludes that this short and very personal book by Topolińska fulfi lls its task and subsequently alters his view on the linguistic and non-linguistic world of the Slavs.