The book offers eight case studies, covering selected problems and works from Renaissance up to the present day. Each chapter draws on a literary text(s) or problems, examining its historical context, as well as its Polish reception and presence in contemporary (pop)culture. The volume delineates a dual perspective, combining original readings of key texts with discussions of their relationship to contemporary theories of literary and linguistic studies, and important phenomena in Polish history.

Marta Wojtkowska-Maksymik, Ph.D., is professor of literary history at the University of Warsaw, Poland. She carries out research about early modern Polish literature and 16th century translations. Magdalena Zawis?awska, Ph.D., is professor of Polish philology at the University of Warsaw, Poland. Her research interests include lexical, cognitive, and comparative semantics, and metaphor in different types of discourse.