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Preface
thatdiscussed,amongotherissues,medievaldreamvisionswhich,by
theirverynature,resortedtothesupernaturalelements.
Fromthenonwards,inthesecondhalfofthenineteen-ninetiesand
earlytwothousands,ProfessorWicher,bythenalreadyinvestedwithhis
habilitation,moved,asitwere,forwardintimeintermsoftheworksand
authorshestudied.TismovecoincidedwithleavinghisnativeSilesia
andsettlingintheUniversityofŁódź,intheDepartmentofStudiesin
DramaandPre-1800EnglishLiteraturewhereProfessorWicherworksto
date.HemadeseveralexcursionsintotheworksofAdamSmith,Joseph
vonEichendorl,JohannvonGoethe,buthischiefconcernthenwaswith
WilliamShakespeare.Itwas,however,aconcernwhichorganicallydevel-
opedfromhisearlieracademicpassions:whatProfessorWicherresearched
wereShakespeare’sKtalesofmagic,”whichheaptlycalledShakespeare’s
PartingWondertales(2003).AndrzejWicher’sstudyofShakespearewas
bynomeanslimitedtotheplaysheprobedintoinhisbook;hediscussed
otherShakespeareandramasandtheRenaissanceingeneral,aswellas
OldPolishpoetryandfourteenth-centuryEnglishmysticism.
ProfessorWicher’slong-termfascinationwithJ.R.R.Tolkienand
C.S.Lewis,perhapsstemmingalsofromacertainafnitybetweensouls
andwaysofthinking,resurfacesinthemostrecentresearchundertak-
enbyhim.Inamannerthatisbothscholarlyandpersonal,Professor
Wichercarefullydiscussesarangeofthemespresentinthewritingsof
bothoftheseauthors,becomingoneofPoland’smostimportantscholarly
authorityonthewriterswhocontinuetoshapecontemporarypopular
imaginationandthefantasygenre.ProfessorWicher,inhisdistinctively
eruditemanner,approachesthemandtheliterary,philosophical,moral,
andreligiouscontextsoftheirnovelsandshortstories.
ProfessorAndrzejWicherisnotonlyoneofthemostaccomplished
PolishscholarsofEnglishliterature;hehasalsobeenanimportantor-
ganizerofacademiclife,coordinatingnumerousinternationalconfer-
ences,seminars,andworkshops,collaboratinginthiswithinternation-
ally-renownedscholars.Futhermore,onemaybetemptedtoclaimthat
ProfessorWicherhasalsocreatedhisownschoolinmedieval,drama,
andfantasystudies.HesupervisedagreatnumberofM.A.dissertations;
severalofhisM.A.studentsaswellashisPh.D.studentshavesuccess-
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