POLISH LITERATURE Most Polish literature has been written
POLISH LITERATURE
Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages used in Poland over the centuries have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Latin, Yiddish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian. According to Czesław Miłosz, for centuries Polish literature focused more on drama and poetic self-expression than on fiction (dominant in the English speaking world). The reasons were multiple, but mostly rested on historical circumstances of the nation. Polish writers typically have had a more profound range of choices to motivate them to write, including historical cataclysms of extraordinary violence that swept over Poland.
the middle ages Almost nothing remains of Polish literature prior to the country's Christianization in the 10 th century. Most early Polish texts were influenced heavily by the Latin sacred literature. That includes Bogurodzica (Mother of God), a hymn in praise of the Virgin Mary written down in the 15 th century, though popular at least a century earlier. Bogurodzica served as a national anthem. Just like most medieval works, Polish literature of that time mostly covered the subjects of death, faith and evanescence.
rennaissance With the advent of the Renaissance, the Polish language was finally accepted on an equal footing with Latin. Polish culture and art flourished, and many foreign poets and writers settled in Poland, bringing new literary trends with them. The first book written entirely in the Polish language appeared in this period - It was a prayer book by Biernat of Lublin called Raj duszny (Hortulus Animae, Eden of the Soul), printed in Kraków in 1513. Polish Renaissance literature was focused around man and everything humane - his body, work, past-times and feelings.
baroque The period of Polish Baroque can be divided into three main literary movements: § courtly baroque, which aimed to entertain and shock the reader. For that to be achieved, the texts were often unusual in form and shape or, for example, written in a way that could be read backwards.
§ metaphysical baroque, containing deep reflections centered around diffcult topics like evanescence, virtue, painful love § nobility baroque, which includes mostly the diaries written by the Polish nobility of that time. Those texts speak mostly of then customs and the daily life in the 17 th century.
enlightement This period peaked in the second half of the 18 th century during the reign of Poland's last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski. It went into sharp decline with the Third and final Partition of Poland (1795), followed by political, cultural and economic destruction of the country, and leading to the Great Emigration of Polish elites. The goal of Polish enlightement texts was to educate, be it outright or through metaphors.
romanticism Due to partitions carried out by the neighboring empires – which ended the existence of the sovereign Poland – Polish Romanticism, unlike elsewhere in Europe, was largely a movement for independence against the foreign occupation. The period of Romanticism in Poland ended with the suppression of the January 1863 Uprising.
positivism In the aftermath of the failed uprising against Russian occupation, the new period of Polish Positivism advocated skepticism and the exercise of reason. Questions addressed by Poland's Positivist writers revolved around "organic work, " which included the establishment of equal rights for all members of society, including feminists and people of different religions.
young poland (1890 -1918) The modernist period known as the Young Poland came into being around 1890, and concluded with the Poland's return to independence (1918). The period was based on two concepts. Its early stage was characterized by a strong opposition to the ideals of positivism. Artists following this early philosophy of Young Poland believed in conflict between human values and civilization, and the existence of art for art's sake.
The later ideology was a continuation of romanticism, often called neo-romanticism. The artists and writers following this idea covered a large variety of topics: from the sense of personal mission of a Pole exemplified by, through condemnation of social inequality to criticism of Polish society and Polish revolutionary history.
interbellum (1918– 39) These two decades were marked by rapid development in the field of poetry, undiminished for the first time in over a century. The gradual and successive introduction of new ideas resulted in the formation of separate and distinct trends. The first decade of Polish interwar poetry was clear, constructive, and optimistic; as opposed to the second decade marked by dark visions of the impending war, internal conflicts within the Polish society, and growing pessimism.
world war II In the years of German and Soviet occupation of Poland, all artistic life was dramatically compromised. Cultural institutions were lost. The environment was chaotic, and the writers scattered: some found themselves in concentration and labor camps (or Naziera ghettos), others were deported out of the country; some emigrated, many more joined the ranks of the Polish underground resistance movement. All literary outlets were forced to cease operation. Writers who remained at home began organizing literary life in conspiracy, including lectures, evenings of poetry, and secret meetings.
1945– 56 All texts published under Soviet rules were strictly censored. With the introduction of the increasingly violent Communist regime, which engaged in gross violations of human rights, many writers were afraid to express their true beliefs and therefore had to embrace the Sovietization of Polish culture in their own works.
notable polish writers Jan Kochanowski was a Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to the Polish literary language. He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz, and the greatest Slavic poet prior to the 19 th century. Kochanowski's best-known masterpiece is Treny (Threnodies, 1580). It is a series of nineteen elegies upon the death of his beloved two-and-a-half-yearold daughter Urszulka.
Adam Mickiewicz was a poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator, professor of Slavic literature, and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Romanticism, he is counted as one of Poland's „Three Bards" and is widely regarded as Poland's greatest poet. He is known chiefly for the poetic drama Dziady (Forefathers' Eve) and the national epic poem Pan Tadeusz.
Juliusz Słowacki was a Polish Romantic poet. He is also considered one of the "Three Bards”. His works often feature elements of Slavic pagan traditions, Polish history and mysticism. His most popular works include the dramas Kordian and Balladyna. During the November 1830 Uprising, he was a courier for the Polish revolutionary government. He considered himself Mickiewicz’s greatest rival.
Henryk Sienkiewicz lived during the age of Positivism. He was a journalist and novelist, who received the Nobel Prize in 1905. He is best remembered for historical novels, especially for his three novels known as The Trilogy and the internationally recognized best-seller Quo Vadis.
Władysław Reymont was a novelist and the 1924 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known work is the award-winning fourvolume novel Chłopi (The Peasants), which focused on the relationship between man and nature, specifically the four seasons.
Czesław Miłosz was a Polish poet, prose writer, translator and diplomat. His World War II-era sequence The World is a collection of twenty "naïve" poems. Following the war, he served as Polish cultural attaché in Paris and Washington, D. C. , and in 1951 defected to the West. His nonfiction book The Captive Mind became a classic of anti-Stalinism. From 1961 to 1998 he was a professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. He was rewarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetry, essays and other writing in 1980. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, he divided his time between Berkeley, California, and Kraków, Poland.
Maria Wisława Szymborska was a Polish poet, essayist and translator. In Poland, Szymborska's books have reached sales rivaling prominent prose authors. Szymborska was the recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature "for poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality”.
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