Mężczyźni spod Wałbrzycha: fantazmatyczny kochanek, przemocowy ojciec i bowarystyczny sąsiad w Gorzko, gorzko Joanny Bator

The aim of this article is to analyse the masculine personas in Joanna Bator’s novel Gorzko, gorzko (2021) in those parts of the work that take place near Waldenburg (Polish: Wałbrzych) in the pre-war period. The author of the article suggest the typology in order to interpret critically the three figures of a phantasmal lover, an abusive father and a bovaresque neighbour. The analytical tools used drwa from comparative and psychoanalytical methods. In terms of comparative studies, the aim is to identify traces of Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary (1856) in Gorzko, gorzko in creating the male protagonist. The psychoanalytical approach, on the other hand, is related to research on masculinity and narrowed down to phantasmal criticism with an emphasis on the father figure and the category of violence.