prof. UAM dr hab.Ryszard Bartnik

Ryszard Bartnik
University professor

Websites / Profiles:

Degrees

  • M.A. in English, Poznań, 1999
  • PhD. in English, Poznań 2002
  • D.Litt in English literature, Poznań, 2019

Research interests

  • Contemporary British fiction and non-fiction
  • Socio-political aspects of British literary narratives
  • South African literature in English
  • Contemporary [Northern] Irish literature
  • Post-colonial studies

Teaching experience

  • History of English literature before 1900
  • History of contemporary English literature
  • Literary theory
  • Supplementary seminars and proseminars
  • B.A. and M.A seminars
  • Literature in English-speaking countries [lectures]

Papers read at international conferences and congresses

In Poland:

  • 2001 – PASE, [Jagiellonian University, Kraków] “Angela Carter Use of the Lacanian ‘Mirror Image’ as a Depiction of Illusory Identity”
  • 2003 – PASE, [University of Warsaw, Warszawa] “The Oblique Politics of South African Writing in J.M. Coetzee’s fiction”
  • 2004 – MESS 2004, [Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań] “Writing allegory in the twentieth century. William Golding’s Rites of passage as a moral quest”
  • 2004 – Conrad’s Europe, [University of Opole, Opole] “Human decency questioned - Conradian legacy mirrored in the twentieth century English literature”
  • 2004 – PASE, [Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań] “A somber vision of personal alienation and artistic confusion in autobiographical works Boyhood and Youth by J.M. Coetzee”
  • 2007 – LIES, [Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań] “Peter Ackroyd's London as the backdrop to esoteric corners of the past and present”
  • 2010 – Fear and Civilization, [Jagiellonian University, Ustroń] “Living in the face of the menacing ‘unreason’. Martin Amis’ The Second Plane as a response to ideological fundamentalisms”
  • 2013 – Rage, Rebellion, Revolution: Different Faces of Social Protest in Literature and Culture Conference [University of Social Sciences, Warszawa]: “Challenges and obsessions of the post-conflict collective mindset - Mike Nicol’s The Ibis Tapestry as a fictional rendering of South African disarray”
  • 2013 – Mury - Perspektywa Komparatysty [Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań]: Uporczywe echa ‘dawnych’ podziałów w kontekście demokratycznych przemian w Irlandii Północnej i Republice Południowej Afryki – analiza porównawcza na bazie powieści Lucy Caldwell i Zoë Wicomb
  • 2014 – Travelling Texts of Life [Uniwersytet Jagieloński, Kraków]: “Frozen thoughts on apartheid transgressions lasting to produce new ‘unsolicited’ sprouts of contriteness. Tony Eprile in line with John Maxwell Coetzee on the importance of memory in democratic South Africa
  • 2014 – LIES – [Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań]: “Danny Morrison – ‘The Wrong Man’ to reevaluate mental structures of the Northern Irish Troubles?”
  • 2015 – Expanding Communication: Old Boundaries and New Frontiers [University of Ƚódź, Ƚódź]: Opening new frontiers by excavating the past. Northern Irish/South African post-conflict mindsets as depicted in Swallowing the sun by David Park and The beneficiaries by Sarah Penny”
  • 2015 – Freedom of culture – Culture of freedom [University of Ƚódź, Ƚódź]: “A sense of freedom as anchored to the past. Post-apartheid and post-Troubles novels as vehicles for socio-political commentary”

Abroad:

  • 2005 – Identity Matters, [University of Liverpool; Liverpool] "Multiculturalism as a way out from the contested world of rigid religious and ethnic identities: Hanif Kureishi – the author of shifting boundaries”
  • 2007 – EFACIS, Sevilla “(Im)possibility of escape - dilemmas of recent Northern Irish fiction”
  • 2008 – The Irish and War [Trinity College, Dublin] “[Un]successful metabolization of the Northern Irish war: The post-Troubles trauma in Glenn Patterson’s writing”
  • 2010 – Ireland and Victims: Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation? [Université Rennes 2; Rennes] “‘No bones’ on the road to recovery. Anna Burns’ socio-psychological study of the Northern Irish predicament”
  • 2010 – Contemporary British Fiction: Narrating Violence, Trauma and Loss [Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz] “Truth and reconciliation on the way back from the Northern Irish underworld. David Park’s The Truth Commissioner – a case study”
  • 2011 – Concentrationary Imaginaries. Imaginaries of Violence [University of Leeds; Leeds] “Repression vs. acknowledgment – two contradictory ways of contending with the violent formula in post-apartheid South Africa. A comparative analysis of J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace and Zakes Mda’s Ways of Dying”
  • 2012 – Narratives and Social Memory: Theoretical and Methodological Approaches [University of Minho, Braga]: “The counter-productivity of intentional amnesia as discussed in South African narratives – on the basis of Achmat Dangor’s Bitter Fruit”
  • 2013 – Representation, Politics and Violence [Brighton University, England]: “Truth and reconciliation on the way back from the world of violence. David Park’s The Truth Commissioner and Gillian Slovo’s Red Dust as parallel responses to political breakthroughs in Northern Ireland and South Africa”
  • 2015 – Civil Unrest and Socio-Political Changes: Marginalisation, Disintegration, Exclusion [Tbilisi State University, Georgia]: “From unrest to [dis]integration. A literary perspective on the problematic peace and reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa and post-Troubles Northern Ireland”

Professional organizations

  • PASE - The Polish Association for the Study of English