Abstract

The article discusses domestic space, its internal divisions and relations to the external world in Orzeszkowa’s novel Bene nati. In the analysis of the house and its surroundings Susan Gal’s concept of constant private/public recalibrations of space is employed. The interpretation of the text is complemented with references to the writer’s ideas on feminine mobility and home expressed in her journalism on the woman question and earlier fictional work – Nad Niemnem (On the Niemen). In Orzeszkowa’s understanding, the border is a multifaceted phenomenon that may represent privacy and safety as well as limitation and entrapment, and needs to be carefully explored in terms of social and gender hierarchies.