Title:

A Fine Piece of Arse : Solving Jan Kochanowski’s Gadka

Subtitle:

Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce T. 60 (2016) Special Issue

Creator:

Grześkowiak, Radosław (1968– )

Contributor:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences ; Kłopotek, Natalia : Tr.

Publisher:

Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Date issued/created:

2016

Description:

p. 189-220

Type of object:

Journal/Article

Subject and Keywords:

Kochanowski, Jan (1530-1584) - criticism and interpretation ; Renaissance literature - history and criticism ; obscenity in literature ; sex in literature ; old sexuality ; poetics of a riddle ; scatological humour ; ribald humour

Abstract:

The paper focuses on the literary riddle written in the sixteenth century by Jan Kochanowski (Fraszki III 78), concerning an animal with one eye that is shot at with arrows without arrowheads. The answer to the riddle is still debated by exegetic researchers. The author discusses the answers proposed so far (firearm, a homosexual’s anus, a female anus, an outhouse), starting with detailed lexical analysis of the epigram. Having discussed the poetics of the Old Polish ambiguous ribald riddle (suggesting indecent associations, but leading to an innocent answer) and the differences in the perception of the female body in the sixteenth century and today, the author shows that the audience of the riddle in the times of Kochanowski reached the conclusion that the answer was a female vagina. This trivial solution still seems to be the most probable answer.

Relation:

Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce

Volume:

60 SI

Start page:

189

End page:

220

Resource type:

Text

Detailed Resource Type:

Article : original article

Format:

application/pdf

Resource Identifier:

2450-8349 ; 0029-8514 ; 10.12775/OiRwP.2016.SI.06

Source:

click here to follow the link

Language:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license, full text available at: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Institute of History PAS

Projects co-financed by:

Ministry of Science and Higher Education ; Activities popularizing science (DUN)

Access:

Open