The secret of a female smile. Reflections on the poem by Stanislaw Grochowiak Stranger from the Seine and other texts of culture during Polish classes in high school

Abstract

The article is a project of literary classes addressed to high school students, devoted to discussing the theme of the Seine drowned woman, a mysterious figure found at the end of the 19th century, whose death mask – due to a delicate smile – became popular all over the world. The story of an anonymous teenager has inspired writers, poets, playwrights, philosophers, painters, architects, and journalists of various times and spaces. She fascinated, among others, Stanisław Grochowiak, Mela Muter, Antoni Kaminski and Aleksander Gierymski, as well as the literary scholar Stanisław Rosiek, who in his article, writing about the importance of death masks in the culture of the nineteenth century, also referred to the figure of the girl.