Czy inna męskość jest możliwa? [rec. Wojciech Śmieja: Hegemonia i trauma. Literatura wobec dominujących fikcji męskości. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo IBL PAN, 2016, ss. 404.]

The article is a discussion of the book by Wojciech Śmieja entitled: Hegemonia i trauma. Literatura wobec dominujących fikcji męskości. The author of the article concentrates on highlighting the importance of the Silesian scholar’s publication for Polish studies on masculinity. He describes the historical and theoretical literary framework of the presented work, paying attention to the rich exemplification of the analyzed issues. He also undertakes a discussion with some theoretical assumptions of the book, especially in the context of the implications of Kaja Silverman’s model and draws attention to some of the interpretation problems associated with the use of this theoretical approach. The author, thus, proposes an outline of alternative ways of reading the texts of Jacek Podsiadło and Szczepan Twardoch, pointing to the possibility of shifting the focus from Silverman’s approach of masochism to the issue of specificallyunderstood individuation as the possibility of a different interpretation of the male position – an interpretation which contests the patriarchal social order.