The Image of a Schoolgirl in Popular Literature of the Beginning of XX Century on the Example of Płomyk. Z pamiętnika instytutki Novel by Eugenia Żmijewska

The aim of this paper is to present the character and mentality of adolescent girl from a family of
landowners, on the example of the heroine of a novel Płomyk. Z pamiętnika instytutki of 1907, originating
from the mainstream of so-called ‘trivial’ literature. This novel (in the form of a diary) could be regarded
as an interesting example to follow, set in the second half of the 20th century patterns of realistic positivist
prose. Eugenia Żmijewska, the author of that piece, on one hand, refers to the positivist model under the
sign of Orzeszkowa and Sienkiewicz, on the other hand, Żmijewska deftly combines the aesthetics of the
novel with a plot of schoolgirl.
The result of this syncretism is the character of Dola Żalińska. In the personality of that heroine
— passing a difficult period of adolescence — interweare and collide patterns of landowner education,
strict school education and dilemmas of adolescence. This paper will pose a question of pararrels between
literary portrait of young lady and cultural image of schoolgirl raised in the late 19th and early 20th
century.