POLITICAL IS PRIVATE. ON PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SPACE IN ZOFIA NALKOWSKA'S 'THE LOVE OF THERESSE HENNERT', 'BORDERLINE' AND 'KNOTS OF LIFE' (Polityczne jest prywatne. O przestrzeni publicznej i prywatnej w 'Romansie Teresy Hennert', 'Granicy' i 'Wezlach

The article treats the relationships between the category of gender and space in Zofia Nalkowska's selected works. The authoress is primarily interested in public space, however, in her view, Nalkowska regarded private space and intimate relationships as paradigmatic and most important for the existence of men and women in society. Accordingly, the authoress attempts to reading Nalkowska's political novels as romance novels and suggests a political mode of reading for romance/women novels. Reconstruction of Nalkowska's analyses of establishing power and characteristics of close, also intimate personal relationships leads to a conclusion that in the writer's view, when resorting to an expressive and popular formula the private is not necessarily political; it is rather the reverse - the political is the private.