Filozof i prostak „z cesarskiego miasta Szang-hai”. Miejsce wczesnej humoreski w twórczości Bolesława Prusa.

The article presents an analysis of Bolesław Prus’s satirical microstory Filozof i prostak [Philosopher and Simpleton] from the collection To i owo, właściwie zaś: ani to, ani owo, czyli 48 powiastek dla pełnoletnich dzieci [This and That, or Rather, Neither One Nor the Other: 48 Tales for Children of Age]. It discusses the manner in which China, as the setting of the story, is portrayed, in line with the nineteenth-century knowledge and awareness of the far-away country. The article addresses the question of the appropriateness of choosing China as a backdrop for events, given its geographical and cultural distance from the perspective of a Polish reader. In addition to embodying a significant concept in Prus’s entire body of work, namely humour understood as a precise and sophisticated literary tool, the work bears the characteristics of a parable. As shall be demonstrated, certain features that are present in this early work evolved and returned in a fuller form in Prus’s later works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]