An Angel and a Devil. The Picture of a Woman in Encyklopedia “drugiej płci” [Encyclopedia of “the Other Sex”] by Władysław Kopaliński)

Abstract

The image which emerges from the texts analyzed is complex and multilayered, with a considerable amount of relativism. What is worth emphasizing is that it is for the most part the picture of a woman as seen by a man. The dominant image is therefore that of a woman subjugated to a man; a woman who is deceitful, evil, and responsible for the original sin. The texts activate the view of a woman who departs from the social role assigned to her by the society and the norms imposed on her. The multiple symptoms of evil residing in her have clear lexical representations in the descriptions of unambiguously defined relations, similarities or antinomies.