Solidarity and/or solitude? : women’s relationship Sylwia Chutnik’s prose

This study is an attempt to examine the reliance between two categories: solitude and solidarity in the prose of Sylwia Chutnik. To precise, there are two texts taken into consideration, both written by a Varsovian writer. Those are a debut stories’ compillation Kieszonkowy atlas kobiet (Pocket Women’s Atlas; 2008) and Cwaniary (Cunning Women; 2012). The second position may be treated as thematic and narrative development sketched in Chutnik’s first book. The characters of Cwaniary are also literary sisters to Dziewczęta z Nowolipek (Girls from Nowolipki) written by Pola Gojawiczyńska in 1935. The sisters, in comparison to forerunners, bravely face the reality, they are feminine fighters of the city who deal with social inequalities, exclusions, and gender discrimination. Their activities are led by revenge but violence they use can be somehow justified because they fight with it indeed. On the basis of classic text Solidarne i samotne (Supportive and Alone) by Grażyna Borkowska, devoted to personal documents in women’ literature, I try to analyse how supportive and/or alone Chutnik’s characters not only dismantle patriarchal system from within, but also become the model examples practically realizing postulates of policy and engagement in Polish literature since 1989.