Returning Sinners — Damned Souls in New and unusual stories by Michał Jurkowski

The aim of this article is the review of eschatological plots which can be found in New and unusual
stories — a collection of stories written in the first half of the 18th century by Michał Jurkowski. In the
introduction, the influence of two genres, named histoires tragiques and exemplum, on the content of the
stories enclosed in the collection, is briefly described. Both genres considerably affected the method of
constructing the plots by Jurkowski.
In the further part of this article the particular stories, containing the motif of souls returning from
the hell will be thoroughly analysed. This will make it possible not only to present lessons that the author
included in New and unusual stories, but also to show the ideas of hell which functioned in the Old Polish
culture.