EMOTIONAL COMPONENT OF MARIA KONOPNICKA’S NOVELTIES

Abstract

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the emotional component of Maria Konopnicka’s short stories, which constitutes one of the key elements of her artistic method and determines both the aesthetic and socio-psychological significance of her works. It is emphasized that the emotional dimension of Konopnicka’s prose is not limited to the expression of her characters’ feelings but functions as a multidimensional system of images and meanings that shape the reader’s perception of the text. Special attention is given to the mechanisms of representing the inner world of the characters, including the technique of “a story within a story”, interior monologues, and dialogical interactions with the narrator. Through these artistic devices, Konopnicka constructs a multilayered narrative structure in which the subjective experiences of the characters are intertwined with the narrator’s position. The narrator is presented as a “hidden guide” who, while restricting an overt evaluative function, still influences the reader’s reception by highlighting key accents, adding ironic undertones to certain events, and creating an atmosphere of emotional tension. The article also focuses on the interrelation between the emotional dimension of the stories and their socio-moral issues. Konopnicka’s prose consistently addresses the realities of the lower social strata, demonstrating how the characters’ individual psychological experiences are embedded in the broader context of social relations. Her works reflect not only the hardships of labor, poverty, injustice, and suffering but also spiritual sensitivity, the pursuit of beauty, and the ability to find meaning in difficult life circumstances. Nature, with its symbolically saturated images, emerges not merely as a background but as a metaphorical reflection of the characters’ inner states. The study concludes that the emotional component in Konopnicka’s prose performs an integrative function: it unites the levels of narrative composition, psychological characterization of the protagonists, and the depiction of socio-moral conflicts. Thus, Konopnicka’s short stories exemplify the interplay between artistic form and emotional expressiveness, which ensures their relevance and significance within the broader context of European psychological prose of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.