Research on the Fantastic

Goals

Our academic work revolves around the study of speculative fiction, particularly of Anglo-American origin, and addresses a range of topics explored by individual members of the Team. These topics include the history, poetics, and theory of fantasy literature, the educational dimensions of fantasy, narratology, the representation of women and ethnic minorities, issues of race, identity, and the relationship between memory and trauma.

Members

Weronika Łaszkiewicz, PhD – Head of the Research Team - w.laszkiewicz@uwb.edu.pl

Assistant Professor in the Department of North American Literatures. She has written a number of articles on American, Canadian, and British speculative fiction. She is the author of Fantasy Literature and Christianity (2018) and Exploring Fantasy Literature: Selected Topics (2019) as well as the co-editor of Images of the Anthropocene in Speculative Fiction: Narrating the Future (2021). She is currently working on a book examining the presence of Native American peoples and cultures in contemporary fantasy fiction.

Dr hab. Mariusz M. Leś, prof. UwB – m.les@uwb.edu.pl

Dr hab. Mariusz M. Leś is a professor at the Department of Contemporary Literary Studies and Traditions. His research focuses on narratology, the history and theory of science fiction, utopian, and dystopian literature, emotions in fantasy, and the cultural and educational dimensions of fantasy literature. He is also interested in the connections between new digital technologies and the humanities. His work includes four monographs and numerous articles and chapters in collective monographs. Education, both academic and popular, is a significant part of his work, and he has written on the role of science fiction in education. He has also conducted training and lectures for teachers and high school students. Since 2008, he has served on the jury of the Jerzy Żuławski Award for the best Polish fantasy novel.

Dr hab. Piotr Stasiewicz – piotr.stasiewicz@uwb.edu.pl

Dr. hab. Piotr Stasiewicz is a literary scholar specializing in eighteenth-century literature, contemporary fantasy, postmodern fiction, and noir studies. He graduated in Polish Philology from the University of Białystok in 1998, received his PhD from the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn in 2004, and obtained his habilitation degree at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in 2018. He is the author of several monographs, including Poezja Tomasza Kajetana Węgierskiego (2012), Między światami. Intertekstualność i postmodernizm w literaturze fantasy (2016), and Sześć odcieni czerni. Szkice o klasykach powieści noir (2021). He also co-authored Modernizacje tradycji w wybranych utworach współczesnej kultury popularnej (2013) and co-edited scholarly volumes devoted to contemporary fantasy literature. His research interests include eighteenth-century literature and classicism, fantasy and science fiction, postmodern fiction, as well as noir, neo-noir, tech-noir, and grimdark fantasy in literature and film.

Sylwia Borowska-Szerszun – s.borowska-szerszun@uwb.edu.pl

Sylwia Borowska-Szerszun, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor and runs M.A. seminars on speculative literature. She is co-editor of two volumes on fantastic literature: The Fantastic and Realism (2019) and Images of the Anthropocene in Speculative Fiction: Narrating the Future (2021). Her recent research focuses on medievalism in fantasy literature, particularly on tracing the echoes of medieval cultural and ideological constructs in contemporary discourses related to gender, sexuality and race. Currently, she is working on a book exploring the intersections of history, memory and medievalism in the works of Canadian author Guy Gavriel Kay.

Dr Ewelina Feldman-Kołodziejuk – e.feldman@uwb.edu.pl

Assistant Professor in the Department of North American Literatures. She has published seven articles on dystopia and retellings by Margaret Atwood. She is co-editor of the book Fantastyka a Realizm / The Fantastic vs Realism (2019). As part of her postdoctoral project, Dr Feldman-Kołodziejuk is researching Newfoundland literature, which is also rich in fantasy.

Dr Magdalena Łapińska – m.lapinska@uwb.edu.pl

Assistant in the Department of North American Literatures. She is the author of articles on racial prejudice and segregation in contemporary fantasy literature, and on memory-dependent grief and affect in contemporary speculative fiction. Her current research focuses on contemporary American speculative fiction and fantasy literature, with particular emphasis on identity, race, trauma, and memory in works by American and African American authors.

Publications:

2025:

1. Borowska-Szerszun, Sylwia. “King Arthur and Imagined Indians: The Entanglement of Medievalist and Indigenous Elements in Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry”. In K. Fugelso (ed.) Studies in Medievalism XXXIV: Tribal Medievalisms, Boydel and Brewer, 2025. 174-191.
2. Feldman-Kołodziejuk, Ewelina. “From Villainess to Gilead’s Nemesis: The (Un)easy Rehabilitation of Aunt Lydia.” Canada and Beyond: A Journal of Canadian Literary and Cultural Studies 14/2025. 85-103.
3. Łaszkiewicz, Weronika. “Amborgs and Kinship in Garry Kilworth’s Animal Fantasy Fiction.” Ilha do Desterro, 78.1/2025. 001-018.
4. Stasiewicz, Piotr. “The Problem of World-building in Grimdark Fantasy. The Case of  Michael R. Fletcher's ‘Manifest Delusions’ Trilogy.” Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric, 70.1/2025. 449 – 463.
5. Stasiewicz, Piotr. “Grimdark fantasy i kwestia światotwórstwa na przykładzie cyklu Pierwsze prawo Joe Abercrombiego,” Bibliotekarz Podlaski, 67(2)/2025. 297–321.
6. Stasiewicz, Piotr. “Między retoryką a światotwórstwem – przypadek powieści Głową w mur i Dziki Mesjasz Rafała Orkana.” Bibliotekarz Podlaski, 68(3)/2025. 355–367.

2024:

1. Borowska-Szerszun, Sylwia. “A look‐back from the future: Anthropogenic crisis and memory in NK Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy”. Orbis Litterarum3/2024. 251-263.
2. Borowska-Szerszun, Sylwia. “Indigenous Memory in the Decaying World: Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves and Hunting by Stars.” Roczniki Humanistyczne11/2024. 15-25.
3. Łaszkiewicz. Weronika. “Abandoning the Quest? High/Epic Fantasy and the Challenges of the Anthropocene.” Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies 46.1/2024. 131-148.

2023:

1. Łaszkiewicz, Weronika. “Analyzing Humanity’s Fate Beyond the Anthropocene in the Works of Sheri S. Tepper.” Science Fiction Studies, 50.3/2023. 396-414.
2. Łaszkiewicz, Weronika. “For fear of the Other: Simulation of Indigenous presence in horror fiction.” Horror Studies, 14.1/2023. 119-134.

Conference presentations:

2025

1. 24-25.11.2025. Stasiewicz, Piotr. “Grimdark fantasy i perspektywa narracyjna — przegląd strategii.” Narratologia dzisiaj – współczesne teorie (i praktyki) narracyjne. University of the National Education Commission, Krakow (Poland).
2. 25-27.09.2025. Łapińska, Magdalena. “Specters of Racial Violence: Counter-Memory and Truth in Percival Everett’s The Trees.” Polish Association for American Studies 2025 Annual Conference: Memory and Truth in America. Jagiellonian University (Poland).
3. 25-27.09.2025. Łaszkiewicz, Weronika. “Exploring the Simulation of Native Presence in American Speculative Fiction.” Polish Association for American Studies 2025 Annual Conference: Memory and Truth in America. Jagiellonian University (Poland).
4. 17-19.09.2025. Borowska-Szerszun, Sylwia. “(Hi)stories of hope? Eucatastrophe and healing in Guy Gavriel Kay’s historical fantasy fiction”. 10th Congress of the Polish Association for Canadian Studies. University of Silesia (Poland).
5. 4-6.06.2025. Borowska-Szerszun, Sylwia and Łaszkiewicz Weronika. “The Crisis of Imagination(?): Images of the Anthropocene in Speculative Fiction”. PASE 2025/Crossroads 5 Conference. Voices of the Earth: literary and linguistic perspectives in environmental humanities. University of Białystok (Poland).
6. 4-6.06.2025. Łapińska, Magdalena. “Complexities of Selfhood: The Intersections of Trauma, Nature and Identity in Rivers Solomon’s ” PASE 2025/Crossroads 5 Conference. Voices of the Earth: literary and linguistic perspectives in environmental humanities. University of Białystok (Poland).
7. 8-10.05.2025. Borowska-Szerszun, Sylwia. “Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Celts: A Move Against (Mis)appropriation of Early Medieval History in Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Last Light of the Sun.” 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Medieval Institute, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo (online).
8. 8-10.05.2025. Łaszkiewicz, Weronika. “Visions of Indigenous Resurgence in the Works of Catherine Knutsson, Cherie Dimaline, and Waubgeshig Rice.” Forgotten, Misplaced, Marginalized: Speculations We Don’t See. American Studies Center, UW (Poland).
9. 24-26.04.2025. Borowska-Szerszun, Sylwia. “Seeking Meaning in the Medieval Past: Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Guy Gavriel Kay’s Historical Fantasy Fiction.” British Association for Canadian Studies and Centre of Canadian Studies 50th Anniversary Conference: ‘Canada: Past, Present, Future.’ University of Edinburgh (Scotland).
10. 11-12.04.2025. Borowska-Szerszun, Sylwia. “A Medievalist Afterlife of King Alfred the Great in Fantasy Literature: Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Last Light of the Sun.” The Historical English Analysis and Research Tradition (HEART) Conference. Warsaw Universty (Poland).
11. 26-29.03.2025. Łaszkiewicz, Weronika. “Appreciation or Appropriation? Investigating the Presence of Cherokee Traditions in Tom Deitz’s David Sullivan” 46^th American Indian Workshop: North American Indigenous Languages, Literature, and Culture. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain).