Prose Cycle (Narrative Cycle; Story Cycle)

Abstract

This entry attempts to demonstrate the linkages and distinctions that emerge between descriptions of the literary cycle, the novel sequence, and the poetic cycle in the context of the prose cycle, as well as to summarize the current state of research on these issues in Poland. Although research into the matter of cyclicality had already drawn the interest of Russian Formalists, this theme sparked interest in our own country as late as the 1990s, mainly at the initiative of scholars from the University of Białystok’s Faculty of Philology. This text attempts to systematize concepts of cyclicality in the prose context with the help of scholarship by Krystyna Jakowska, Bogumiła Kaniewska, Jan Trzynadlowski and Rolf Fieguth.