Piotr Chmielowski
Encyclopedia
Piotr Chmielowski was a Polish
philosopher, literary historian and critic.
's Main School in Russian Poland
and at Leipzig University (to 1874), Chmielowski taught till 1898 in Warsaw private schools. From 1903 he was a professor at Lwów University in Austrian Poland.
He wrote for many periodicals. In 1881–97 he edited the Ateneum. From 1893 he was a member of the Kraków
-based Academy of Learning
.
Chmielowski was the outstanding student and critic of literature during Poland's Positivist period
. He advocated social utilitarianism
in literature, and the realistic treatment of social reality. As a historian he was influenced by the philosophical and esthetic concepts of the French critic Hippolyte Taine
, and studied the relations between writers' works and their social and cultural milieu
s, seeking the expressions of those relations chiefly in the works' ideological concerns.
Chmielowski died on 22 April 1904 in Lwów and was interred at the Łyczakowski Cemetery.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
philosopher, literary historian and critic.
Life
After studying at WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
's Main School in Russian Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
and at Leipzig University (to 1874), Chmielowski taught till 1898 in Warsaw private schools. From 1903 he was a professor at Lwów University in Austrian Poland.
He wrote for many periodicals. In 1881–97 he edited the Ateneum. From 1893 he was a member of the Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
-based Academy of Learning
Academy of Learning
Academy of Learning was a primary Polish scientific institution during the annexation of Poland founded in 1871 in Kraków and formed as a continuation of the Kraków Scientific Society . The institiution began activity two years later, in 1873...
.
Chmielowski was the outstanding student and critic of literature during Poland's Positivist period
Positivism in Poland
Positivism in Poland was a socio-cultural movement that defined progressive thought in literature and social sciences of Partitioned Poland following the suppression of the 1863 January Uprising against the occupying army of Imperial Russia...
. He advocated social utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall "happiness", by whatever means necessary. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome, and that one can...
in literature, and the realistic treatment of social reality. As a historian he was influenced by the philosophical and esthetic concepts of the French critic Hippolyte Taine
Hippolyte Taine
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine was a French critic and historian. He was the chief theoretical influence of French naturalism, a major proponent of sociological positivism, and one of the first practitioners of historicist criticism. Literary historicism as a critical movement has been said to originate...
, and studied the relations between writers' works and their social and cultural milieu
Milieu
Milieu is the word for environment in French, and, for hundreds of years, also in Dutch, Swedish, English, and other languages that were strongly influenced by French culture and French language, primarily during the 17th and 18th centuries....
s, seeking the expressions of those relations chiefly in the works' ideological concerns.
Chmielowski died on 22 April 1904 in Lwów and was interred at the Łyczakowski Cemetery.
Works
- Zarys literatury polskiej z ostatnich lat szesnastu (An Outline of Polish Literature of the Last Sixteen Years, 1881, 4th ed. 1898)
- Liberalizm i obskurantyzm na Litwie i Rusi (Liberalism and Obscurantism in Lithuania and Rus, 1883)
- Złota przędza (The Golden Thread, vols. 1–4, 1884–87)
- Nasi powieściopisarze (Our Novelists, 1887–95)
- Nasza literatura dramatyczna (Our Dramatic Literature, 2 vols., 1898)
- Historia literatury polskiej (A History of Polish Literature, vols. 1–6, 1899–1900)
- Najnowsze prądy w poezji naszej (The Newest Currents in Our Poetry, 1901)
- Dramat polski... (Polish Drama..., 1902)
- Dzieje krytyki literackiej w Polsce (The History of Literary Criticism in Poland, 1902)
- Pisma krytyczno-literackie (Critical-Literary Writings, 2 vols., 1961)
- Prace z metodyki literatury i stylistyki (Works in the Methodology of Literature and Stylistics, 1961).
See also
- History of philosophy in Poland
- List of Poles