“WOMEN ON THE EDGE OF LIFE”. ABOUT HEROINES IN THE CAGE OF ADDICTION IN THE PROSE OF SYLWIA CHUTNIK

Abstract

This article is devoted to the works of Sylwia Chutnik, in which the author addresses the problem of alcoholism. The writer is particularly sensitive to all forms of social exclusion. She carefully observes heroines functioning on the margins, who are experiencing rejection not only from the immediate family but also from the local community, which becomes a painful experience, dooming the woman to homelessness and loneliness. In their characterization, the author deepens the psychological portraits, drawing attention to the economic and sociological problems that people addicted to alcohol face. The author accuses constant pressure from society and lack of support from loved ones to be some of the reasons of women’s descent into addiction. The topic of alcoholism appears in Chutnik’s prose in two variants. In the first one, the author presents the fates of heroines who fall into addiction. She is interested in various factors that influence the development of this disease. She enriches these stories with a sociological context, describing not only the mechanisms of addiction, but also the transformations in the area of alcohol chosen by Poles in the 1980s and 1990s. On that period psychotherapy was not a common phenomenon, and visits to a psychiatrist unequivocally condemned a person to social ostracism. In the second variant, the writer presents the fates of children growing up in families with alcohol problems. Their biographies are an example of people with the ACoA syndrome. Many of them suffer from manic-depressive psychosis. Anxiety disorders present in everyday existence, intensified by post-traumatic stress, contribute not only to problems with establishing close relationships, but also intensify fears of abandonment, feeling of shame and guilt, problems with expressing emotions and the accompanying loneliness.