Portret niedokończony. Skłodowska-Curie w biografiach międzywojennych dla młodzieży

Abstract

The author analysed biographical texts about Maria Skłodowska-Curie for the young reader published in the interwar era. On the basis of these texts the author reconstructed Skłodowska’s professional life which led her to the Noble awarded discoveries. This life was presented as a personal model of a Polish woman at the turn of the 19th an 20th centuries; it was propagated in literary education of children and teenagers. It was not an innovatory biography (if we compare it to the biographies of other great Poles, for example Chopin or Matejko); neither was her transgression attitude used for the educational purposes. The Skłodowska created in these texts, a student, a scholar and a mother, is schematic. Her childhood was not depicted; as a result, there was no information related to her way to fame. Maria Kuncewiczowa’s and Elżbieta Szemplińska’s literary stories, as well as W. Tatarówna’s synthetic biography should be, however, distinguished. The authors emphasized the achievements of Skłodowska, the woman who consequently went beyond social and cultural obstacles, and thanks to her achievements she served the world and Poland selflessly.