Portrety kobiet w opowiadaniach Stanisławy Kuszelewskiej-Rayskiej

Abstract

The article analyzes female portraits in the wartime stories of Stanisława Kuszelewska-Rayska, focusing on the tension between stereotypical perceptions of femininity and the experience of boundary situations, particularly during the occupation and the Warsaw Uprising. The author juxtaposes Kuszelewska’s literary miniatures with Karl Jaspers’ philosophical concept, pointing out that war, as a boundary situation, forces the redefinition of social, moral, and cultural roles. The heroines of these stories—mothers, wives, single women, aristocrats, nurses, and conspirators—are entangled in the clash between traditional models of femininity and the extreme realities of war. On the one hand, they reproduce prevailing patterns (guardians of the home, self-sacrificing mothers); on the other, they break them by engaging in actions previously attributed to men: conspiracy, armed struggle, resourcefulness in securing means of survival. The study shows that Kuszelewska-Rayska, avoiding pathos, creates portraits of women who are both strong and vulnerable, whose existential dramas and moral choices testify to the resilience of the human spirit despite personal defeat.