Kulak, Wiktoria2026-03-062026-03-062025red. Kinga Matuszko, Mikołaj Głos, Obszary Polonistyki 9 / 2025, s. 42-52https://repozytorium.ur.edu.pl/handle/item/12258Contemporary Polish literature increasingly explores the theme of defective experiences, depicting the impact of illness on individual identity and one’s relationship with the world. This article examines representations of the illness experience in Psy ras drobnych (2018) by Olga Hund and Zdrój (2019) by Barbara Klicka, focusing on medical institutions as spaces that shape a new subjectivity of ill women. The author investigates how these narratives articulate affects of shame, humiliation, and helplessness in confrontation with the healthcare system, referred to as the “pathosystem”. The literary analysis reveals both adaptation strategies and exclusion mechanisms affecting the protagonists, as well as the performative nature of hospital and sanatorium spaces.polAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/illnesspathosystempsychiatric hospitalsanatoriumexclusionbookPart10.15584/978-83-8277-324-8_4