The online registration for 2nd-year BA students for Elective Courses will commence on Friday 23rd January at 8.00 pm and will close on Sunday 25th January at 11.59 pm. In order to register students access the following website: usosweb.uni.lodz.pl.
Each student chooses one course in each of the following categories (three courses altogether):
Zajęcia elektywne A
Zajęcia elektywne B
Zajęcia elektywne C
There are limits to the number of students in the groups. Please note that if two course descriptions are identical you shouldn’t sign up for both of them, since they’re the same course (please do not sign up for the same course twice).
In the case of denied access to the group, please make an alternative choice.
Course descriptions can be found below.
Zajęcia elektywne A (Tuesdays 15:15)
dr Joanna Matyjaszczyk, Constructing "The Other" in English Literature
This course explores the construction and deconstruction of "Otherness" in various works of medieval, early modern and postmodern literature. We will examine a range of texts, including popular ballads, a romance, tales, and fragments of plays and novels. Through these works, we will investigate how different literary forms centre their narrative voices, plots, and characters around the figure of the Other and how, in doing so, they engage in the discourses of physical difference and monstrosity, ethnic and religious prejudice, and anti-feminism.
dr Jerzy Gaszewski
dr Nina Shtok
prof. Piotr Cap, Faces of conflict, crisis and security in the Polish and European political discourse
This course will employ tools of rhetorical and argumentation research, and critical cognitive discourse studies (discourse space research, metaphor analysis, proximization) to explore patterns of legitimization discourse used by top Polish political parties to claim state leadership in the years 2015–2025. In the first two months we will study the discourse of Law & Justice (PiS), a far-right conservative party ruling Poland from October 2015 to October 2023. We will look at L&J’s strategies of leadership legitimization involving socio-ideological polarization, strategic generation of internal as well as external conflict, threat construction and crisis management. In its second part, the course will focus on the apparently more moderate and cooperation oriented discourse strategies implemented by three opposition parties (Civic Platform, Third Way, The New Left) in the lead-up to the 2023 parliamentary elections, in which L&J finally lost power. The aim of the course is to compare and contrast the two discourses, L&J’s and the opposition’s, to speculate about the longevity of radical populist discourses such as L&J’s. We will try to verify the hypothesis that a conflict-charged, polarized populist discourse can be an extremely powerful tool, able to grant long-term political leadership. However, in a yet longer perspective, such a discourse runs a considerable risk of ‘wearing out’ and becoming vulnerable to more forward-looking and pragmatic leadership rhetoric, which presages political change. Altogether, the course promises a unique and authoritative panorama of the Polish state-political discourse, coupled with a thought-provoking picture of ties and mutual dependencies among radical and populist right-wing discourse trends colonizing the 21st century Europe.
dr Katarzyna Małecka, “All but Death, can be Adjusted”: Loss, Grief, and Bibliotherapy
This course examines various representations, theories, and narratives of loss and grief in literature and culture. Throughout the course, we will investigate how literature and broadly understood artistic endeavors dedicated to death-related themes can help individuals in mourning and the people who accompany and support them.
Utilizing diverse literary genres, critical texts, and experiences from daily life, we will analyze different types of loss, trajectories of grief, and psycho-social models and approaches to the experience of bereavement. We will also delve into the fundamental aspects of bibliotherapy, exploring its different types, therapeutic goals, and source materials. Upon completion of the course, students will be equipped with the tools for the critical analysis of the cultural construction of grief and will be able to offer more informed support.
Key Course Questions
• The main questions this course seeks to answer include:
• Do we all experience grief in the same way, or do cultural norms shape our experience?
• What are the most common reactions to loss, and how are they reflected in literary texts?
• What should we say (or not say) when someone close to us is grieving?
• How do people try to tame their fear of death through cultural rituals, literature, and art?
• What are the main stages of the bibliotherapeutic process?
• What sources and techniques are used in bibliotherapeutic settings?
• How can we use books to create meaning and build resilience in the face of loss?
• What mourning rituals still exist, and how have they evolved?
While the leading theme of this course may strike some as grave or even morbid, the works analyzed offer not only comforting and relatable ideas but also a wealth of insight into loss, and sometimes even dark humor. The course topics can help facilitate a more constructive confrontation with the one thing none of us can ultimately avoid.
Important Notes on Course Content! The content of this course can be cognitively demanding and emotionally challenging. While the instructor seeks to foster a safe, amicable, and respectful learning environment, if students anticipate difficulty discussing the above or other sensitive topics, another elective might be more suitable. Active and regular class participation is an essential part of the course.
Zajęcia elektywne B (Wednesdays 11:45)
mgr John Crust, Yiddish Language and Culture in English
For centuries, Yiddish was the traditional language of the Jewish people in Poland and Central/Eastern Europe. Gradually, this unique culture and language spread far and wide, to the United States, Canada, Argentina, and beyond, influencing local cultures and pop culture in one form or another. The children of Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Poland and Central/Eastern Europe pretty well invented Hollywood, comic book superheroes (Superman and Batman are Jewish; Spider-Man is half Jewish, half Czech), and Las Vegas as we know it today. Literature, cinema, and theater also grew out of Yiddish language and culture. Of course, Łódź played a central role in this history; it was the second largest Yiddish center in Europe (after Warsaw) before the Second World War. Yiddish, undoubtedly, influenced Polish culture, and vice versa. Interestingly, there’s a feminist element to the story: Yiddish is the so-called “mama-loshen,” the mother tongue. This course will explore the amazing world of Yiddish language and culture, in English, with a multimedia approach, looking at film, theater, music, radio, and more.
prof. Małgorzata Hołda, The Power of a Story: A Phenomenological-hermeneutic Reading of British Modern and Postmodern Short Fiction
This course explores the phenomenon of storytelling as exemplified by British modern and postmodern short stories.
Students are encouraged to investigate literary evocations of topics that pertain to human existence, such as beauty and truth, temporality, female/male dichotomy, sexuality, innocence versus experience, authenticity, solitude and confusion, familiarity and strangeness, conflict and war, contemplative and calculative thinking, and others. The literary representations of the human condition (conditio humana) will be examined from a phenomenological-hermeneutic standpoint.
The course aims to enhance students’ critical engagement with literary texts and the ways in which, through imagery and symbolism, they embody the phenomenon of our being-in-the-world. We will focus on a panoply of great modernist writers: Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, as well as a selection of postmodern novelists: Kazuo Ishiguro, Rose Tremain, Graham Swift, Doris Lessing, and Graham Greene. An analysis of short stories by those authors will be done with the help of close reading as a basic tool.
Paying special attention to the distinctive characteristics of modern and postmodern fiction, the course program endeavors to sensitize students to the issues of liminality, the hermeneutics of continuity versus the hermeneutics of rupture, as well as the notion of tradition understood as passing on (Überlieferung) rather than preserving (elaborated by Hans-Georg Gadamer) in relation to literary texts
dr Marta Goszczyńska, Representations of Venice in Anglophone Film and Fiction
The course explores the complex nature of Venice as a setting in cinema, TV and literature. It draws attention to the geographical, historical and cultural circumstances that have shaped the city—such as, for instance, its location on water, its role as a maritime gateway between the East and the West, or its status as a place of masks and disguises—and explores how these have given rise to its ambiguous identity in cinematic and literary representations.
The course focuses on a range of works from the last 120 years, highlighting their intertextual interconnections. To enrich the study of Venice as a literary and cinematic backdrop, it applies diverse theoretical tools, reading the texts under analysis as representative of modernism and postmodernism, acknowledging their reliance on gothic conventions, approaching them through the lens od Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, as well as making use of gender theory (R.W. Connell’s model of hegemonic masculinity and Judith Butler’s discussion of gender performativity) and employing such concepts as Michel Foucault’s heterotopia.
Students will be encouraged to see Venice not only as a physical setting but also as a symbolic and psychological space. This approach will allow them to reflect on how Venetian narratives often reflect broader concerns, from questions of identity and morality to the complexities of modern and postmodern storytelling. Through these lenses, students will gain insight into how the works under analysis tend to mirror larger societal, cultural and philosophical issues.
prof. Jacek Waliński, Translation of official, administrative and legal documents
The aim of the course is to familiarize participants with selected bodies of knowledge, practical skills, and social competences required in the professional translation of official, administrative, and legal documents, i.e. work typically performed by sworn translators. During the course, students will be introduced to a range of translation techniques and professional practices, including strategies for working both independently and as members of a translation team. Please note that, in addition to advanced proficiency in English, a fluent command of Polish is required for successful participation in the course.
prof. Magdalena Cieślak, Fearing Apocalypse or Hoping for It? Exploring the Potential of the Crisis of Humanity
Apocalyptic images and narratives have always fuelled literature and culture. Diagnosing the wrongs of humanity, they were to discipline us, but also to encourage change. Apocalypse, after all, is never really the ultimate end, but primarily a chance to start anew. During our classes, we will be looking at various texts – mainly novels and films – that present diverse forms of apocalypse and post-apocalyptic struggles. We will be focusing on two aspects of those texts. First, what the given form of apocalypse means, what it says about humanity, and what function it fulfils. Whether a cataclysmic event, an alien visitation, a mutating virus, bacteria or fungus, or a climactic disaster, each apocalypse illustrates specific anxieties and fears of our fragile civilization, and by scrutinizing those we can better understand the complex cultural function of apocalypse. Secondly, it is interesting to see how humanity copes with such liminal events, and how postapocalyptic lives are envisaged in fiction. Those various survival narratives are equally informative, giving us insight into our hopes, and allowing us to explore alternative futures. In those catastrophic scenarios, therefore, I wish to seek spaces for constructive discussion on what makes us, and our lives, worthwhile, opening paths to optimistic posthuman thinking.
Although I would be happy to consult the reading/watching list with the group to best meet your interests, I would suggest exploring such texts as: Warm Bodies (Isaak Marion’s novel and/or its film adaptation directed by Jonathan Levine), The Girl with All the Gifts (dir. by Colm McCarthy), Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer’s novel and/or its film adaptation directed by Alex Garland), Aniara (dir. by Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja), The Stone Gods (Jeanette Winterson).
dr Maria Szymańska, Internet linguistics
From emails and blogs to social media platforms and digital communities, online spaces have introduced new forms of linguistic expression that often challenge traditional distinctions between spoken and written language. Digital communication encourages innovation, informality, and rapid language change, while also developing its own norms and conventions. The course Internet Linguistics examines how language functions in digital environments, focusing on the linguistic features of online discourse and the ways different platforms shape language use. The course explores what digital communication allows that cannot be achieved in face-to-face interaction, what it lacks, and how users compensate for these limitations. Key themes include linguistic creativity in online spaces (e.g., Reddit, TikTok), the role of emojis, memes and spelling in meaning-making, the language of digital communities (e.g., gamers, beauty ‘gurus’), and the influence of online language on offline communication. By the end of the course, students will have gained a critical understanding of how digital communication shapes language use and change, providing a foundation for analysing the language used online.
Zajęcia elektywne C (Wednesdays 15:15)
dr Anna Wołosz-Sosnowska, Comics, graphic novels or sequential art? An introduction to comics studies
Most of us know what comics is and titles such as Garfield, Peanuts, Thorgal, Donald Duck, Batman, Superman, Spider-Man or Asterix and Obelix are recognised as familiar cultural codes and cultural icons. Despite their initial popularity, comics were perceived as a form of entertainment directed mainly at younger audiences which were not worthy of scholarly attention. This preconception began to change in 1986, which was the groundbreaking year for the medium, and it continues to evolve with the emergence and development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
The aim of the course is to familiarise students with the verbal and visual language of various forms of sequential art, and of comics in particular. This class is perfect for anyone and everyone who would like to delve deeper into this medium from an academic standpoint. The course will discuss numerous topics, for instance, the definition of comics, the history of the medium, semiotics of comics, genres, and the relationship between comics and other media.
Apart from exploring the theory of comics, student will also have the opportunity to get acquainted with the most significant and celebrated titles among American and European graphic narratives such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, Alison Bechdel’s Fun, and others.
prof. Tomasz Dobrogoszcz
dr Maria Szymańska, Internet linguistics
From emails and blogs to social media platforms and digital communities, online spaces have introduced new forms of linguistic expression that often challenge traditional distinctions between spoken and written language. Digital communication encourages innovation, informality, and rapid language change, while also developing its own norms and conventions. The course Internet Linguistics examines how language functions in digital environments, focusing on the linguistic features of online discourse and the ways different platforms shape language use. The course explores what digital communication allows that cannot be achieved in face-to-face interaction, what it lacks, and how users compensate for these limitations. Key themes include linguistic creativity in online spaces (e.g., Reddit, TikTok), the role of emojis, memes and spelling in meaning-making, the language of digital communities (e.g., gamers, beauty ‘gurus’), and the influence of online language on offline communication. By the end of the course, students will have gained a critical understanding of how digital communication shapes language use and change, providing a foundation for analysing the language used online.
dr Przemysław Ostalski, Linguistic puzzles (and different ways to solve them)
The objective of the course is to give students an overview of the syntactic, lexical, phonetic and phonological variation across different languages of the world. The course analyzes linguistic puzzles/problems and provides a unique educational activity that combines analytic reasoning and linguistic/cultural awareness. Students learn about the richness, diversity and systematicity of language, while exercising natural logic and reasoning skills. Additionally students discover ways in which speakers of different languages approach reality.
mgr Mark Tardi, Smells Like Teen Spirit: Exploring the 1990s
It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: it started when the Berlin Wall fell and ended when the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, grunge replaced hair metal, irony was a form of currency, and having a personal brand was so uncool as to be unthinkable. “The video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was not more consequential than the reunification of Germany,” writer Chuck Klosterman reminds us (with perhaps a hint of irony), but there were epiphenomena like Lilith Fair, Lollapalooza and Titanic, the rise of the internet, pre-9/11 politics, and the paradoxical belief that nothing was more humiliating than trying too hard. Pop culture accelerated without algorithms that remembered everything and on any given Thursday night, more people watched a random episode of Seinfeld than the finale of Game of Thrones.
This course will explore some key elements from the pivotal decade of the 1990s: from Boyz N the Hood to The Big Lebowski, The Backstreet Boys to Britney Spears, Michael Jordan to Oprah Winfrey, Friends to Fight Club, and the myriad changes regarding race, class, and sexuality. The ’90s brought about a revolution in the human condition that we are still scrambling to understand. Or whatever.
