Długie trwanie wieku XIX – (pop)kulturowe rekonstrukcje przeszłości w najnowszej fantastyce

Abstract

Contemporary popular culture eagerly returns to the era of steam and electricity. The pop-culture imagery of the nineteenth century functions in two variants (realistic and fantastic) and takes the form of intertextual games, providing material for postmodern collages and remixes. New genres, such as steampunk and mashup, were quickly adapted and modified by Polish writers. Victorians were replaced by positivists who saw modern inventions as an effective weapon in the fight against the invaders. In addition to works presenting an alternative history of the January Uprising, fantasy authors eagerly refer to the works of Bolesław Prus. The further fate of The Doll appears both in the steampunk and mashup conventions. An interesting realization of the mashup is also the anthology Other worlds, inspired by the works of Jakub Różalski, which combine fantasy with realistic poetics straight from the paintings of Józef Chełmoński. In the alternative world of Polish graphics there appear monstrous machines, characters from another dimension (like dwarfs).