Między "ziemią obiecaną" a "złym miastem" - cała (?) prawda o Łodzi w publicystyce i prasie warszawskiej

Abstract

In the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century Łódź was described by a number of names, which even today still reflect the common attitudes towards the city. The most famous among the names is undoubtedly the biblical metaphor of Promised Land used by Władysław Stanisław Reymont as well as a contrary phrase coined by Zygmunt Bartkiewicz, the author of reports entitled The Evil City. Images from 1907 (1911). Promised land and evil city are the two expressions that perfectly characterise Łódź at the turn of the nineteenth century. Apart from the two abovementioncd contradictory names, in the 1890’s in Warsaw newspapers there appeared a number of various expressions, which not only described but also created the image of Łódź. Among them there were exspressions such as: the land o f its own, which emphasised the state of alienation of the city (the journalists visiting and writing about Łódź were compared to Christopher Columbus), the second tower o f Babel, underlining the multicutural character of the metropolis. Other expressions characterised the phenomenon of so called „the man of Łódź” - Lodzermensch, described the contrasting nature of the metropolis (an interesting city), and also emphasised its industrial character (Polish Manchester). The geographical notions were also present in metaphorical comparison to the American city of Klondike and the capital of Muslim Bahmani Sultanate.