THE BORDERS OF IDYLL. THE PICTURE OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL GENDER PLACEMENT IN STANISLAW VINCENZ'S CYCLE 'IN THE UPPER HIGHLANDS' (Granice idylli. Obraz spolecznego i kulturowego usytuowania plci w cyklu 'Na wysokiej poloninie' Stanislawa Vincenza)

The article is an attempt to apply the gender theory into the analysis of Stanislaw Vincenz's 'In the Upper Highlands'. The reading that places gender at the center of interest allows to complement the variety of interpretations with new meanings. The idyllic and the arcadian referred to by Vincenzologists prove in the context of gender to be an illusion, since the community of Hutsuls founded on patriarchalism and joined with misogyny lives in constant danger from the cosmogonic, demonical and social power of women. The paper suggest to examine Vincenz's tetralogy not according to the traditional interpretative key as a conflict of the Old Age with the New one, but also as a myth-like story on the 'perennial' conflict of sexes, complemented with those scrutinized here, clash of local homosocial liaisons with the homosexual Other (i.e. culturally foreign).