About: I specialize in American literature, in particular American ethnic literature: African American, Asian American, Anglo-American literature as well as American studies. The recurring tropes of my publications are: whiteness, invisibility, visibility, visual dynamics, power dynamics, autobiography, transformational identity politics, multiculturalism, representation of space, mimicry, nationalism and gender relations. I am also the author of Invisibility in African American and Asian American Literature: A Comparative Study (McFarland 2008) and Visions of Whiteness in Selected Works of Asian American Literature (McFarland 2015). I did my M.A. (2002) as well as Ph.D. (2005) at the University of Wrocław and my habilitation at the University of Łódź in March 2016. Over the years I have conducted lectures and seminars in American literature, American ethnic literature, American culture, American history, theory of literature, cultural studies, British literature, British history, British culture and the use of English. Since 2017 I am also an article reviewer for a scholarly journal Interactions published by Ege University, Izmir. Apart from scholarly pursuits, my passion is mountain and seaside hiking.
Position: Associate Professor
Research interests: American literature, African American literature, Asian American literature, Anglo-American literature, American studies, whiteness, invisibility, visibility, visual dynamics, power dynamics, autobiography, transformational identity politics, multiculturalism, representation of space, mimicry, nationalism and gender relations
Office: Collegium Maius, room 111
Office hours: Thursday: 10.00 a.m. – 10.30 a.m. / 3.00 p.m. – 4.00 p.m.
Email: klarka@op.pl
Degrees:
2002 – University of Wrocław, M.A. in American literature
2005 – University of Wrocław, Ph.D. in American literature
March 2016 – University of Łódź, habilitation in American literature
Books:
1) Szmańko, Klara. Invisibility in African American and Asian American Literature: A Comparative Study. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2008. 1-220.
2) Szmańko, Klara. Visions of Whiteness in Selected Works of Asian American Literature. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2015. 1-201.
Reviewed, scholary publications:
1) Szmańko, Klara. “Different Faces of Invisibility in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.” Anglica Wratislaviensia 41 (2003) Ed. Anna Michońska Stadnik. 49-67.
2) Szmańko, Klara. “The Trope of No Name Woman in American Fiction and Ethnography Featuring Asian Women.” Brno Studies in English 10 (2004) Ed. Pavel Drabek. 189-204.
3) Szmańko, Klara. “Beyond Black and White. Striving for Visibility in Maxine Hong Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey and in Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker.” Close Encounters of an Other Kind. Ed. Roy Goldblatt Joensuu: University of Joensuu, 2005. 26-31.
4) Szmańko, Klara. “Freedom of Movement? Locating the Black Ghetto and Chinatown.” American Freedoms. American (Dis)orders. Ed. Zbigniew Lewicki. Warszawa: American Studies Center, 2005. 305-317.
5) Szmańko, Klara. “The Conflict between African Americans and Korean Americans in Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker.” Transitions: Race, Culture, and the Dynamics of Change. Ed. Hanna Wallinger. Salzburg: LIT Verlag, 2006. 67-90.
6) Szmańko, Klara. “ ‘America’ is in the Head and on the Ground. Confronting and (Re-) Constructing ‘America’ in Three Asian American Narratives of the 1930s.” Interactions 15.2 (MLA indexed journal of Ege University, Izmir) (2006) Ed. Silvia Schultermandl. 113-123.
7) Szmańko, Klara. “Margin Centre Metaphor. How Applicable Nowadays?” Conformity and Resistance in America. Ed. by Jacek Gutorow and Tomasz Lebiecki. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007. 273-284.
8) Szmańko, Klara. “The Textualization of Whiteness in Joy Kogawa’s Obasan.” PASE Papers. Studies in Culture and Literature. Ed. Anna Cichoń and Ewa Kębłowska Ławniczak. Wrocław: Oficyna Wydawnicza ATUT, 2009. 207-218.
9) Szmańko, Klara. “Multiple Allegiances in Chang-rae Lee’s Fiction.” The Novel in English at the Start of the Twenty-First Century: Recontextualising the Tradition. Ed. Olga Glebova. Częstochowa: Wydawnictwo im. Stanisława Podobińskiego Akademii im. Jana Długosza w Częstochowie, 2009. 71-82.
10) Szmańko, Klara. “African American and Asian American Nationalism in a Comparative Perspective in Sam Greenlee’s The Spook Who Sat by the Door and Maxine Hong Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey.” Beyond Imagined Uniqueness: Nationalisms in Comparative Perspective. Ed. William Glass and Joan Burbick. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010. 321-346.
11) Szmańko, Klara. “Representations of History in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.” Brno Studies in English 36.1 (2010): 191-203.
12) Szmańko, Klara. “Immigrant Invisibility in Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker.” Interiors: Interiority/Exteriority in Literary and Cultural Discourse. Ed. Katarzyna Nowak and Sonia Front. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010. 147-162.
13) Szmańko, Klara. “Alien and Haunting Whiteness in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior.” Peer English: Journal of New Critical Thinking (University of Leicester Journal) 6 (2011): 79-92.
14) Szmańko, Klara. “Naming and Resisting Oppressive Faces of Whiteness in Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior.” Interactions 20.1-2 (2011) (MLA indexed Ege Journal of British and American Studies). 126-141.
15) Szmańko, Klara. “Dreaming and Living White Terror in Leonard Chang’s The Fruit ‘N Food.” The Dream. Readings in English and American Literature and Culture III. Ed. Ilona Dobosiewicz and Jacek Gutorow. Opole: University of Opole Press, 2011. 295-309.
16) Szmańko, Klara. “African American and Asian American Invisibility in a Comparative Perspective.” In Comparison. Juxtapositions, Correspondences, and Differentiations in English Studies. Ed. Grzegorz Koneczniak. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika, 2012. 67-83.
17) Szmańko, Klara. “The Concept of Double Consciousness and Striving for Self-Consciousness in W.E.B. DuBois’s Double Consciousness Formula and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.” Anglica Wratislaviensia 50 (2012) Ed. Anna Michońska Stadnik. 101-121.
18) Szmańko, Klara. “White Devils and Demons in Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men.” Interactions 23.1-2 (Spring-Fall 2014) (MLA indexed Ege Journal of British and American Studies). 251-261.
19) Szmańko, Klara. “Mimicry in Sam Greenlee’s The Spook Who Sat by the Door.” Camouflage, Voyeurism, Exhibition, Discourses and Practices of Deception, Surveillance, and Transparency. Katowice: University of Silesia Press, 2014. 36-46.
20) Szmańko, Klara. “The Trope of Sight in North American Whiteness Studies.” Interactions Ege Journal of British and American Studies 26.1-2 (2017): 167-176
21) Szmańko, Klara. “Oppressive Faces of Whiteness in Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress.” Text Matters No. 8 (2018): 258-277.
22) Szmańko, Klara. “Defamiliarizing Blackness and Whiteness in Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills.” Polish Journal for American Studies Vol. 12 (Spring 2018): 169-184.
Accepted for publication:
23) Szmańko, Klara. “Reminiscing in White in Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone.” Brno Studies in English Volume 44, No. 2, 2018: 131-143.
ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY:
Szmańko, Klara. “Sam Greenlee.” African American National Biography. Ed. Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 627-628.
CONFERENCE APPEARANCES
PAPERS DELIVERED AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES ABROAD AND CONFERENCES ORGANIZED BY INITERMATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS:
- Close Encounters with Race, Ethnicity and Whiteness in Finland (2-3 June 2003);
- European Association for American Studies conference in Prague (2-5 April 2004);
- The MESEA conference in Thessaloniki (20-23 May 2004);
- Austrian Association for American Studies conference in Salzburg (5-7 November 2004);
- European Association for American Studies conference in Nicosia (7-10 April 2006);
- “Traveling Whiteness: Interchanges in the Study of Whiteness” conference at the University of Turku, Finland (18-19 October 2013).
- The MESEA conference (The Society for Multi-Ethnic Studies: Europe and the Americas) in Warsaw (21-24 June 2016).
- The MESEA conference (The Society for Multi-Ethnic Studies: Europe and the Americas) in Graz (May 30 May-30 June 2018).
PAPERS DELIVERED AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES IN POLAND:
- Polish Association for American Studies conference in Poznań (19-21 October 2003);
- Polish Association for American Studies conference in Warsaw (11-13 October 2004);
- Polish Association for American Studies conference in Opole (23-25 October 2005);
- “New Developments in American Ethnic Literature” conference in Łódź (19-22 February 2006);
- Polish Association for American Studies conference in Warsaw (25-28 October 2006);
- “Camouflage, Voyeurism, Exhibition, Discourses and Practices of Deception, Surveillance, and Transparency” conference at the University of Silesia (19-22 September 2007);
- Polish Association of Academic Teachers of English in Wrocław (7-9 April 2008);
- “Beyond Imagined Uniqueness: Nationalism in Comparative Perspective” conference in Warsaw (19-21 May 2008);
- “Interiors” Conference at the University of Silesia (18-21 September 2008, paper and panel chairing);
- Polish Association for American Studies conference “The Past and the Present: the American Uses of History” (22-24 September 2008);
- Polish Association of Academic Teachers of English in Toruń (12-14 May 2011);
- Polish Association for American Studies conference in Gdańsk (19-21 October 2011);
- Polish Association for American Studies conference in Białowieża (22-24 October 2014);
- Polish Association for American Studies conference in Warsaw (23-25 September 2015);
- Polish Association for American Studies conference in Warsaw (27-29 October 2016);
- Polish Association for American Studies conference in Szczecin (18-20 October 2017).
- Polish Association for American Studies conference in Łódź (24-25 October 2018).