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    Published : 2025-11-21
    Vol. 73 No. 1 Zeszyt specjalny (2025)

    The Phenomenon of (Un)Certainty Illustrated in a Literary Form: The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz

    Beata Garlej

    https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8737-7924

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rh25731.18s

    Abstract

    The article deals with the question of a literary illustration of the (un)certainty phenomenon, which is presented in the novel by the German writer of Jewish origin Ulrich A. Boschwitz. Starting from the hypothesis of inequality between the phenomenon of uncertainty and certainty, it analyses „the domestication of” the former in the latter, giving the studied matter the name of the eponymous phenomenon of (un)certainty. Following Kazimierz M. Wolsza, (un)certainty means „intentional fear”. The novel entitled The Passenger is its illustration. The plot of the work concerns the events taking place in Berlin just after the Kristallnacht. We observe the struggle of the main character, Otto Silbermann, a wealthy merchant forced to run away from home, leaving his previous life behind. The Passenger was created using a compositional technique that triggers an interesting phenomenon of uncertainty „settling in” certainty. How can the epic reflect this „domestication of” one in the other? How does Boschwitz present them? Here, Roman Ingarden’s theory of the literary work of art was made the point of reference, emphasizing the phase dimension, but also by comparing it with the phase dimension of Mickiewicz’s well-known lyric poem, Uncertainty.

    Keywords:

    Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz, The Passenger, Kristallnacht, certainty, uncertainty, intentional fear, phase dimension of a literary work construction, Roman Ingarden, Uncertainty, Adam Mickiewicz



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    Roczniki Humanistyczne · ISSN 0035-7707 | eISSN 2544-5200 | DOI: 10.18290/rh
    © The Learned Society of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin & The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Faculty of Humanities

    Articles are licensed under a Creative Commons  Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)