Memoirs of the Exile by Paulina Krakowowa – Robinsonade from the Female Perspective. Re-reading

Abstract

The aim of the article is to remind Paulina Krakowowa's robinsonade Memories of the exile created in 1843, and to indicate the possible directions of its contemporary reading. The analysis covers the female characters appearing in the novel, their strategies accepted in the face of unfavorable circumstances, as well as the pro-civilizational actions undertaken already on the abandoned island. According to the author of the article these descriptions could have a double meaning for the Polish writer: both feminist and patriotic. A separate issue indicated in the sketch is the positioning of Krakowowa's work in the context of the Western European female Robinsonades of the nineteenth century which have been already the subject of attention of such researchers as e.g.Jeannine Blackwell, Thomas Fair, and Michelle Smith.