POLISH LITERATURE

LITERATURA POLSKA
Polish Literature
• The body of writings in Polish, one of the Slavic
languages.
• Most Polish literature has
been written in the Polish
language, though other
languages including
• Latin
• Yiddish
• Lithuanian
• Ukrainian
• Belarusian
• German
Polish Literature
• Poland acquired a literary
language in Latin in the 10th
century.
• Mieszko I of Poland
accepted Christianity in 966.
He invited Roman Catholic
priests from western Europe
to build churches and
monasteries as religious and
cultural centres.
The Middle Ages
10th to 12th Century
• Latin was at first the only literary language of
Poland, and early works included saints’ lives,
annals, and chronicles written by monks and
priests.
• The most important of these works are
the Chronicon, which was compiled about 1113
by a Benedictine known only as Gallus
Anonymous, and the Annales seu cronicae
incliti regni Poloniae, brought up to 1480 by Jan
Długosz, archbishop of Lwów.

Polish Literature | Middle Ages

Kronika Polska (1113)
• ‘‘Polish Chronicle’’
• Written by Gallus
Anonymous
• It describes Poland from the
times of legendary rulers
Popiel and Piast, through
historical kings and dukes to
Bolesław III Wrymouth, on
whose court the chronicle
was written at the beginning
of the 12th century.
Polish Literature | Middle Ages
 Annales seu cronicae
incliti regni Poloniae (1480)
• ‘‘Annals of the Famed
Kingdom of Poland’’
• Written by Jan Długosz
• Remains to date a trustworthy
chronicle of historic events
which took place in Eastern
Europe from the 9th century
until 1480, as well as a unique
source of information
concerning the hydrography and
geography of the present day
lands of Poland.
Polish Literature | Middle Ages
Bogurodzica
• ‘‘Mother of God’’
• A song in honour of the Virgin
Mary
• The oldest surviving poetry
text in Polish
• Language and rhythm are used
with high artistic
craftsmanship
• The earliest extant copy of the
song’s text dates from 1407,
but its origins are much earlier
Polish Literature | Middle Ages
The Renaissance
15th to late 16th Century
• Golden Age of Polish literature
• Polish language was finally accepted on an
equal footing with Latin.
• Polish culture and art flourished
under Jagiellonian rule, and many foreign
poets and writers settled in Poland, bringing
with them new literary trends.
• Such writers included Kallimach and Conrad
Celtis.
• Klemens Janicki
– Polish writer who used Latin as his principal
vehicle of expression
Polish Literature | Renaissance
Mikołaj Rej
(1505- 1569)
• Was notable for combining
medieval religious interests with
Renaissance humanism.
• "Father of Polish Literature“
• He wrote satirical poems and
epigrams, and prose works.
• Żywot człowieka poczciwego
“Life of a Decent Man” (1568)
– a presentation of an ideal
nobleman

Polish Literature | Renaissance

Jan Kochanowski
(1530- 1584)
• He wrote both satirical
poetry and classical
tragedy, but his lyrical
works proved to be
superior to anything
written before him.
• His crowning
achievement, a Polish
work that equals the
great poems of western
Europe, was Treny or
"Laments" (1580).

Polish Literature | Renaissance

• Raj duszny (Eden of the
Soul)
(ca. 1465 – after 1529)
– Hortulus Animae
– Biernat of Lublin
– a prayer-book
– first book written entirely
in the Polish language
– printed in Kraków in 1513
at one of Poland's first
printing establishments,
operated by Florian Ungler

Polish Literature | Renaissance

Notable writers during the period:

• Andrzej Frycz-Modrzewski
– Commentary on Reforming the Republic in Five Books (1554)
• He evolved a bold social and political system based on the principle
of equality before God and the law.
• Marcin Kromer
– Dialogues of a Courtier with a Monk (1551)
• A strong defense of Catholic dogma.
• Jakub Wujek
─ Polish translation of the Bible

Polish Literature | Renaissance

Title page, Catholic Jakub
Wujek Bible, 1599
The Baroque Period
1620–1764
The literature during this period was
significantly influenced by the great
popularization of Jesuit high schools, which
offered education based on Latin classics as part
of a preparation for a political career.

Polish Literature | The Baroque Period

POETRY
• Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński
─ The forerunner of Baroque poetry and who
wrote predominantly religious poetry akin to
that of the English Metaphysical poets.
─ His most important poems are his sonnets.
They are written according to French model of
the form
─ (e.g. On the War We Wage Against Satan, the
World, and the Body)

Polish Literature | The Baroque Period

 SONNET IV
Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński

On the War We Wage Against Satan, the World, and the Body

Peace - happiness, but strife our existence a

Under the skies. That grim prince of darkness b
And the world's enticing vanities press b
Forcefully to bring on our decadence. a
This is not all, O our mighty Ruler! c
Our house-this body, for fleeting delight2, d
Heedlessly envying the spirit its might, d
Will not cease striving to fall for ever. c
What shall I do in battle so frightful, e
Weak, heedless, also divided in two? f
O universal King, peace most faithful, e
The hope of my salvation is in You! f
Put me by Your side, and I will safely g
Engage in struggle and win it bravely! g

Translated by Michael J. Mikoś

Polish Literature | The Baroque Period
Satire and pastoral became popular forms

 Krzysztof Opaliński
 Satires or Warnings on the Reform of the Government and Customs in
Poland (1650)
 Samuel Twardowsk
 Daphne Transformed into a Laurel Tree (1638)
 Fair Pasqualina (1655) – a tale of sacred and profane love in which
Polish Baroque acheved its most finely wrought splendour.
 Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic
 New Ruthenian Idylls (1663) - introduced topical dramatic elements
into the traditional pastoral lyric; images of war and death were
superimposed upon the pastoral background, with macabre effect and
typical Baroque incongruity.

Polish Literature | The Baroque Period

• The age was characterized by an ambition to write
heroic epics—a preoccupation to be explained
perhaps by such historical events as the wars against
the Cossacks, the Russians, the Swedes, and the
Turks.

– The War of Chocim (1673) by Wacław Potocki

– Polish Psalmody (1695) by Wespazjan Kochowski
• was written in celebration of John Sobieski’s victory over the Turks
at Vienna in 1683, at which Kochowski had been present.

Polish Literature | The Baroque Period

Developments during the period:

• The prose of the Baroque period did not rise to

the level of its poetry, though there was a wealth
of diaries and memoirs.
─ Jan Chryzostom Pasek
 Memoirs of the Polish Baroque: The Writings of Jan
Chryzostom Pasek (1836)
• The period was also notable for the emergence of
the letter as a literary form
─ Jan III Sobieski

Polish Literature | The Baroque Period

Developments during the period:

• Popular anonymous literature, exemplified by

the ribald comedies. These were generally
popular satiric comedies and broad farces written
mainly by playwrights of plebeian birth.
• Piotr Baryka (1566–1620)
─ From Peasant to King (1637)
Which carried a motif made popular in the
introduction to Shakespeare’s The Taming of
the Shrew—the seeming bestowal of noble
rank upon a person of lowly birth.
The Enlightenment
1764–1795
Polish literature was greatly influenced by
the country’s close contact with western
Europe, especially with France and
England, during the Enlightenment.

Polish Literature | Enlightenment

Polish writers were inspired in particular by the idea of
saving the national culture from the disastrous effects
of partitions and foreign rule.

• Theatres and drama

• The periodical and the novel
• Interest in folk literature and its specific forms, such
as the ballad.

Polish Literature | Enlightenment

The rise of
the
Polish drama
• Drama was established
late in Poland, under the
influence of modern
French and Italian
drama.
• The earliest significant
event was the
inauguration of a
national theatre in Play in the presence of King Stanisław
Augustus, 1790. The painting depicts the
Warsaw in 1765. interior of the first National Theatre in
Warsaw situated at the Krasiński Square.
Polish Literature | Enlightenment
Principal dramatists:
• Franciszek Bohomolec
– whose satires were often adapted from Molière
• Wojciech Bogusławski
– The Pretended Miracle, or Krakovians and
Highlanders (1794)
• Franciszek Zabłocki
– The Dandy’s Courtship (1781)

Polish Literature | Enlightenment

The Pretended Miracle, or
Krakovians and Highlanders,
was staged on Sunday, 1st
March 1794, in the National
Theatre in Warsaw. It is
considered the first national
opera.
Polish Literature | Enlightenment
• Didacticism – a philosophy that emphasizes
instructional and informative qualities in
literature and other types of art.
• Modern periodicals appeared at this
time (Monitor, 1765–1785)
• Polish dictionary was published between 1807
and 1814 by Samuel Linde

Polish Literature | Enlightenment

Bishop Ignacy Krasicki
• Poland's
leading Enlightenment poet
• "the Prince of Poets"
• Wrote the first Polish novel,
The Adventures of Mr.
Nicholas Wisdom (1776),
written in diary form and
showing the influence
of Jonathan Swift and Jean-
Jacques Rousseau.

Polish Literature | Enlightenment

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz
• His writings were inspired by patriotism and concern for
reform
• His original dumy (ballads) were the first literary ballads in
Poland.
• Introduced the historical novel to Poland with Jan of Tęczyn
(1825), which showed the influence of Sir Walter Scott.
• The Return of the Deputy (1790) was one of the best dramatic
works of the period
• Historical Songs (1816) was widely read.

Polish Literature | Enlightenment

After the partition and the loss of national
independence, the tradition of patriotic poetry was
continued by émigré soldier-poets in the Polish
legions of Napoleon’s army.

Józef Wybicki
• Mazurek Dąbrowskiego
or "Dąbrowski’s Mazurka" (1797) –
popular patriotic song
• Adopted as the
national anthem in 1918.

Polish Literature | Enlightenment

Romanticism
Polish Romanticism
The literature of Polish Romanticism falls into
two distinct periods, both defined
by insurgencies:

 November Uprising of 1830

 Polish Positivism

Polish Literature | Romanticism

November Uprising
• Polish–Russian War or Cadet Revolution
• November 1830 – October 1831
• Was an armed rebellion in the
heartland of partitioned Poland against
the Russian Empire.

Polish Literature | Romanticism

Taking of the Warsaw Arsenal
Painting by Marcin Zaleski.

Polish Literature | Romanticism

Polish Romantics were heavily influenced by
other European Romantics – their art
featured emotionalism and
imagination, folklore, country life, as well as the
propagation of the ideals of independence.

The most famous writers of the period were:

• Adam Mickiewicz
• Seweryn Goszczyński
• Tomasz Zan
• Maurycy Mochnacki.

Polish Literature | Romanticism

Positivism
• A socio-cultural
movement that defined
progressive thought in
literature and social
sciences of
partitioned Poland,
following the suppression "The Battle" from the cycle of
of the 1863 January paintings "Polonia" dedicated to
January Uprising of 1863 - Artur
Uprising against the Grottger.
occupying army of
Imperial Russia.
Polish Literature | Romanticism
"Polonia (Poland), 1863", by Jan Matejko, 1864, oil on canvas, 156 ×
232 cm, National Museum, Kraków. Pictured is the aftermath of the
failed January 1863 Uprising. Captives await transportation
to Siberia. Russian officers and soldiers supervise a blacksmith
placing shackles on a woman (Polonia). The blonde girl next to her
represents Lithuania.
Polish Literature | Romanticism
Positivism
• The advocates exercise reason before
emotion.
• They believed that independence, if it is to be
regained, must be won gradually, by "building
from the foundations" (creating a material
infrastructure and educating the public) and
through organic work that would enable
Polish society to function as a fully
integrated social organism.

Polish Literature | Romanticism

The Positivists viewed work as the true way to
maintain a Polish national identity and
demonstrate a constructive patriotism.

Aleksander Świętochowski:

"great problems hidden in the womb of mankind can

be solved by education alone, and this education must
be compulsory".

Polish Literature | Romanticism

Bolesław Prus
• Lead advocate of Positivism
• He advised his compatriots
that Poland's place in the
world would be determined by
the sum of its contributions
made to the world's scientific,
technological, economic and
cultural progress

Polish Literature | Romanticism

• The Doll (1890)
– depicts the romantic
infatuation of a man
of action who is
frustrated by his
country's
backwardness.

Title page, 1st book edition, 1890

Polish Literature | Romanticism

Adam Mickiewicz
• Was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist,
translator, professor of Slavic literature, and political
activist
• A principal figure in Polish Romanticism
• National poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus.
• One of Poland's "Three Bards“ along with
Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński.
• Poland's greatest poet
• Known for his poetic drama Forefathers'
Eve and the national epic poem Pan
Tadeusz.
Polish Literature | Romanticism
 Forefather’s Eve (1860)

Dziady / Forefather’s Eve

Scene from Dziady. "Master, you have shown no mercy!"

The drama's title refers to Dziady, an

ancient Slavic and Lithuanian feast
commemorating the dead (the
"forefathers").

Polish Literature | Romanticism

Pan Tadeusz (1834)
• Set during the Napoleonic
era in a fictional idyllic village of
Soplicowo somewhere in the
former Grand Duchy of
Lithuania, or in modern-day
Belarus, the poem tells a story
of litigation over ruins of an old
castle between two noble
families – Soplica and Horeszko
– against the backdrop of an
anticipated Franco-Russian war.

Title page of the first edition

Polish Literature | Romanticism
Twentieth Century
Young Poland Movement
• The modernist period known as the Young
Poland movement in visual arts, literature
and music, came into being around 1890, and
concluded with the Poland's return to
independence (1918).
• Opposition to the Polish version
of Positivism and in a desire to reinstate
imagination as paramount in literature; hence,
the movement is also known as Neo-
romanticism, Modernism, and Symbolism.
Polish Literature | Twentieth Century
• Many novelists continued to explore themes
related to the war (WWII) experience and its
aftermath; others wrote works of
psychological and political realism, reflecting
current European trends.
• Post war poetry in Poland deals principally
with philosophical concerns.
Skamander
• Founded in Warsaw about 1918
• Group of young Polish poets who were united
in their desire to forge a new poetic language
that would accurately reflect the experience
of modern life.

Polish Literature | Twentieth Century

• The regaining of Polish
independence in 1918 after
generations of partition
inspired new literary
activity. The Skamander
group of urban poets,
including Julian Tuwim and
Kazimierz Wierzyński, called
for an end to nationalist
preoccupation and for
experimental freedom.

Polish Literature | Twentieth Century

Czesław Miłosz
(1911–2004)
• Ranks among the most
respected figures in twentieth-
century Polish literature, as well
as one of the most respected
contemporary poets in the
world: he was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in
1980
• His most well known novel is
The Captive Mind, which deals
with totalitarian ideology and
also its unexpected appeal to
many, even intellectuals.
Polish Literature | Twentieth Century