Szela opowiadany, Szela zniewolony. Fantasy postmodernistyczna o utknięciu w narracji

Abstract Szela narrated, Szela shackled. Postmodern fantasy about getting caught up in the narration The aim of the article is to present preparatory observations about novel characters’ dependency in a sense they are subject to enforced narrative patterns, and to answer the question about perspectives to gain self-agency in view of the foregoing. The author also reflects on the metaphor of human life seen as a story. The paper goes over selected works of postmodern fantasy literature.At the beggining the article presents some thoughts about The Tale of The Serpent’s Heart… by Radek Rak. It occurs to be an excuse to have a look on Jakub Szela with some new research metodologies. By emphasizing a dual character of Szela’s existance – both historical and literary ones, the second one created by heavily political legends – it is possibile to ask about not only character’s national identity, but also narrative identity. Thereby next to noting that Szela is a subject (to the ones that are in the saddle) as a representant of the lower class, we can also see the motive of being completely helpless – Szela feels and knows that he is unable to control and create his own story, his life.The autor mentions few different works of fantasy literature (first of all: Polish writers) which appeal to postmodern strategies: Daraena…, the series Stories from the Meekhanian Frontier and The Witcher. Some foreign novels are adverted contextually too: The Book of Lost Things, The Land of Lost Things, Little, Big, Colour of Magic and animated film The Boy and the Heron.Common thread in these stories is the fact of „being narrated”, in otherwords „getting caught up in the narration”. Picking up this pattern – in conjuction with knowledge, what kind of consequences carries using such literary categories as myth or fairy tale – leads to interesting conclusions that may deconstruct (at some points) the metaphore of human life seen as a story.The paper barely introduces the issue, sketching the map of crucial problems, that appear as kind of switch (not a turn „from… to…”, but more like „something in between”) balancing: classical and postclassical narratologies, narrative and world-centredturns, narrative identity and narrative mind.