Novellas of Bolesław Prus in Polish Language School Education: From the Nineteenth Century Reader to Modern E-Textbook

Abstract

Article presents short narrative forms (novella and novel writing) written by Bolesław Prus and emphasises his works in school canons and Polish textbooks. The literary genres pursued by the writer evolve with the crystallisation of his critical thought: from flash fiction to complex, multi-layered novels, from realistic to parabolic representations, from pictures, short stories, and novellas to novelistic sketches, realist novel, historical novel. Text portrays reading of short narrative forms through the angle of the analysed textbooks and shows how these stories help the student to identify himself/herself in the fragmentary nature of everyday events, in the microcosm of emotions, and in the unification of the experience: the hero—me; his events—my events. Short narrative forms are supposed to ask about a trifle, a kind of stage design of everyday life of the student as well as the hero, and because they give importance to individual experiences of child.

Key words: Polish textbooks, Polish literary education, Boleslav Prus, novellas in school reading.