Academic Nostalgia in Mystery Novels Celebrating Old Polish Universities

The article focuses on the campus novels Głowa. Powieść nocy zimowej (2016) by Tadeusz Cegielski and Rektorski czek (2018) by Joanna Jodełka, written to commemorate the foundation of the University of Warsaw and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań respectively. This article first considers the generic peculiarities of the selected novels and then goes on to present the image of the university and academic community in these novels, in order to tap into the nostalgia surrounding the Golden Age of the Polish university. While promoting the idea of “the Polish university” as the source of clear values, a moral compass, and even a condition of the political re-establishment of the Polish state for the reader of mysteries, the novels prompt a re-evaluation of the present-day condition and reflections on the future of the academe for its members.