Polish literature
Encyclopedia
Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland
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...

. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

, though other languages, used in Poland over the centuries, have also contributed to Polish literary traditions, including Yiddish, Lithuanian
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...

, Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....

, Belarusian
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...

, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 and Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...

. Until the early 18th century, a major language of Polish literature was Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, widely popular across all of Western and Central Europe at the time.

For centuries – wrote Czesław Miłosz – Polish literature focused more on drama and poetic self-expression than on fiction (dominant in the English speaking world). The reasons were manifold, 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 Poland, as the crossroads of Europe; but also, Polish own collective incongruities demanding adequate reaction from the writing communities of any given period.

Middle Ages

Almost nothing remains of Polish literature prior to the country's Christianization
Baptism of Poland
The Baptism of Poland was the event in 966 that signified the beginning of the Christianization of Poland, commencing with the baptism of Mieszko I, who was the first ruler of the Polish state. The next significant step in Poland's adoption of Christianity was the establishment of various...

 in 966. Poland's pagan inhabitants certainly possessed an oral literature extending to Slavic songs, legends and beliefs, but early Christian writers did not deem it worthy of mention in the obligatory Latin, and so it has perished.

It is customary to include within the Polish literary tradition, works that have dealt with Poland
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...

, even if not written by ethnic Poles. This is the case with Gallus Anonymus
Gallus Anonymus
Gallus Anonymus is the name traditionally given to the anonymous author of Gesta principum Polonorum , composed in Latin about 1115....

, the first historian to have described Poland in his work entitled Cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum
Cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum
The Gesta principum Polonorum is a medieval gesta, or deeds narrative, concerned with Duke Boleslaw III Wrymouth, his ancestors, and the Polish principality during and before his reign. Probably completed between 1112 and 1118, the extant text is present in three manuscripts with two distinct...

 (Deeds of the Princes of the Poles), composed in sophisticated Latin. Gallus was a foreign monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

 who accompanied King Bolesław III Wrymouth in his return from Hungary to Poland. The important tradition of Polish historiography was continued by Wincenty Kadłubek, a thirteenth century Bishop of 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...

, as well as Jan Długosz, a Polish priest and secretary to Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki.

The first recorded sentence in the Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 reads: "Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest") — a paraphrase
Paraphrase
Paraphrase is restatement of a text or passages, using other words. The term "paraphrase" derives via the Latin "paraphrasis" from the Greek , meaning "additional manner of expression". The act of paraphrasing is also called "paraphrasis."...

 of the Latin "Sine, ut ego etiam molam." The work, in which this phrase appeared, reflects the culture of early Poland. The sentence was written within the Latin language chronicle Liber fundationis from between 1269 and 1273, a history of the Cistercian monastery in Henryków
Henryków
Henryków may refer to the following places in Poland:*Henryków, Lower Silesian Voivodeship *Henryków, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship *Henryków, Brzeziny County in Łódź Voivodeship...

, Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

. It was recorded by an abbot known simply as Piotr (Peter) referring to an event almost a hundred years earlier. The sentence was supposedly uttered by a Bohemian settler, Bogwal ("Bogwalus Boemus"), a subject of Bolesław the Tall, expressing compassion for his own wife who "very often stood grinding by the quern-stone
Quern-stone
Quern-stones are stone tools for hand grinding a wide variety of materials. They were used in pairs. The lower, stationary, stone is called a quern, whilst the upper, mobile, stone is called a handstone...

." Most notable early medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 Polish works in Latin and the Old Polish language
Old Polish language
Old Polish is a name used to describe the period in the history of the Polish language between 9th and 16th centuries.-History:...

 include the oldest extant manuscript of fine prose in the Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 entitled the Holy Cross Sermons
Holy Cross Sermons
The Holy Cross Sermons are the oldest extant manuscripts of fine prose in the Polish language dating from the early 14th century. The documents are named after the place where they had originally been housed—the Holy Cross Monastery in Poland's Holy Cross Mountains .-Description and history:The...

, as well as the earliest Polish-language Bible of Queen Zofia and the Chronicle of Janko of Czarnków from the 14th century, not to mention the Puławy Psalter.

Most early texts in Polish vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...

 were influenced heavily by the Latin sacred literature. They include Bogurodzica
Bogurodzica
Bogurodzica is the oldest Polish religious hymn. It was composed somewhere between the 10th and 13th centuries. The origin of the song is not clear....

 (Mother of God), a hymn in praise of the Virgin Mary written down in the 15th century though popular at least a century earlier. Bogurodzica served as a national anthem. It was one of the first texts reproduced in Polish on a printing press; and so was the Master Polikarp's Conversation with Death (Rozmowa mistrza Polikarpa ze śmiercią).

In the early 1470s, one of the first printing houses in Poland was set up by Kasper Straube
Kasper Straube
Kasper Straube was a German 15th century printer from Bavaria.He was active in Cracow between 1473 and 1477, decades before Johann Haller...

 in 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...

 (see: spread of the printing press). In 1475 Kasper Elyan of Glogau (Głogów) set up a printing shop in Breslau (Wrocław), Silesia
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

. Twenty years later, the first Cyrillic printing house was founded at Kraków by Schweipolt Fiol
Schweipolt Fiol
Schweipolt Fiol from Neustadt an der Aisch in Franconia was a German-born 15th century pioneer of printing in Eastern Europe....

 for Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

 hierarchs. The most notable texts produced in that period include Saint Florian's Breviary printed partially in Polish in the late 14th century; Statua synodalia Wratislaviensia (1475): a printed collection of Polish and Latin prayers, as well as Jan Długosz's Chronicle from the 15th century and his Catalogus archiepiscoporum Gnesnensium.

Renaissance

With the advent of the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

, the 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 (Filippo Buonaccorsi) and Conrad Celtis. Many Polish writers studied abroad, and at the Kraków Academy, which became a melting pot for new ideas and currents. In 1488 the world's first writers' club, called Sodalitas Litterarum Vistulana‎, was founded in Kraków. Notable members included Conrad Celtes
Conrad Celtes
Conrad Celtes , also Konrad Celtis and Latin Conradus Celtis , was a German Renaissance humanist scholar and Neo-Latin poet.-Life:...

, Albert Brudzewski
Albert Brudzewski
Albert Brudzewski, also Albert Blar , Albert of Brudzewo or Wojciech Brudzewski Albert Brudzewski, also Albert Blar (of Brudzewo), Albert of Brudzewo or Wojciech Brudzewski Albert Brudzewski, also Albert Blar (of Brudzewo), Albert of Brudzewo or Wojciech Brudzewski (in Latin, Albertus de Brudzewo;...

, Filip Callimachus
Filip Callimachus
Filippo Buonaccorsi, called "Callimachus" was an Italian humanist and writer.-Life:...

, and Laurentius Corvinus
Laurentius Corvinus
Laurentius Corvinus was a Silesian scholar who lectured as an ‘extraordinary’ professor at the University of Krakow when Nicolaus Copernicus began to study there...

.

A Polish writer who used Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 as his principal vehicle of expression was Klemens Janicki
Klemens Janicki
Klemens Janicki was one of the most outstanding Latin poets of the 16th century. -Biography:Janicki was born in Januszkowo, a village near Żnin, Poland, to a peasant family...

 (Ianicius), who became one of the most notable Latin poets of his time and was laurel
Bay Laurel
The bay laurel , also known as sweet bay, bay tree, true laurel, Grecian laurel, laurel tree, or simply laurel, is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glossy leaves, native to the Mediterranean region. It is the source of the bay leaf used in cooking...

ed by the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

. Other writers such as Mikołaj Rej, and Jan Kochanowski
Jan Kochanowski
Jan Kochanowski was a Polish Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to Polish literary language.He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz, and the greatest Slavic poet, prior to the 19th century.-Life:Kochanowski was born at...

, laid the foundations for the Polish literary language and modern Polish grammar. The first book written entirely in the Polish language
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 appeared in this period. It was a prayer-book
Breviary
A breviary is a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially by bishops, priests, and deacons in the Divine Office...

 by Biernat of Lublin
Biernat of Lublin
Biernat of Lublin was a Polish poet, fabulist, translator and physician. He was one of the first Polish-language writers known by name, and the most interesting of the earliest ones...

 (ca. 1465 – after 1529), called Raj duszny (Hortulus Animae, Eden of the Soul), printed in 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...

 in 1513 at one of Poland's first printing establishments operated by Florian Ungler
Florian Ungler
Florian Ungler and Kasper Hochfeld were printers from Bavaria that after 1510 became pioneers of printing and publishing in Polish language.*1512 Introductio in Ptolomei Cosmographiam, with maps of America...

 originally from Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

. Most notable Polish writers and poets active in the 16th century include:
  • Mikołaj Hussowski (Hussowczyk, 1480?–1533?)
  • Andrzej Krzycki
    Andrzej Krzycki
    Andrzej Krzycki herbu Kotwicz was a Renaissance Polish writer and archbishop. Krzycki wrote in Latin prose, but wrote poetry in Polish. He is often considered one of Poland's greatest humanist writers....

     (1482–1537)
  • Johannes Dantiscus (1485–1548)
  • Jan Łaski (1499–1560), Communae Poloniae Regni privilegium
  • Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski
    Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski
    Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski was a Polish Renaissance scholar, humanist and theologian, called "the father of Polish democracy." His book De Republica emendanda was widely read and praised across most of Renaissance Europe.-Life:Modrzewski was born in Wolbórz Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (ca....

     (1503–1572), De Republica emendanda
  • Mikołaj Rej (1505–1569), Krótka rozprawa...
  • Klemens Janicki
    Klemens Janicki
    Klemens Janicki was one of the most outstanding Latin poets of the 16th century. -Biography:Janicki was born in Januszkowo, a village near Żnin, Poland, to a peasant family...

     (Ianicius, 1516–1542)
  • Łukasz Górnicki (1524–1603)
  • Jan Kochanowski
    Jan Kochanowski
    Jan Kochanowski was a Polish Renaissance poet who established poetic patterns that would become integral to Polish literary language.He is commonly regarded as the greatest Polish poet before Adam Mickiewicz, and the greatest Slavic poet, prior to the 19th century.-Life:Kochanowski was born at...

     (1530–1584), Laments (Treny)
    Laments (Treny)
    The Laments are a series of nineteen threnodies by Jan Kochanowski.Written in Polish and published in 1580, they are a highlight of Polish Renaissance literature, and one of Kochanowski's signal achievements.-Composition:Jan Kochanowski was the greatest Polish poet and the greatest Slavic poet...

  • Piotr Skarga
    Piotr Skarga
    Piotr Skarga was a Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-reformation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was called the "Polish Bossuet" due to his oratorical abilities.He was born February 2, 1536 in Grójec, to a family of lesser landless gentry...

     (1536–1612)
  • Bartosz Paprocki
    Bartosz Paprocki
    Bartholomew Paprocki was a Polish and Czech writer, historiographer, translator, poet, herald and pioneer in the Polish and Czech genealogy.-Biography:...

     (1543?–1614), historiographer, genealogist
  • Szymon Szymonowic
    Szymon Szymonowic
    Szymon Szymonowic was a Polish Renaissance poet. He was known as "the Polish Pindar."-Life:Szymonowic studied in Poland , France and Belgium...

     (1558–1629)
  • Daniel Naborowski
    Daniel Naborowski
    Daniel Naborowski was a Polish Baroque poet.Daniel Naborowski was born in Cracow. His education took place not only in Cracow, but also at Wittenberg and Basle . In Basle he studied medicine, in Orléans he studied law, and from Galileo in Padua he learned military engineering...

     (1573–1640)
  • Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski
    Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski
    Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski , was Europe's most prominent Latin poet of the 17th century, and a renowned theoretician of poetics.-Life:...

     (1595–1640)

  • Baroque

    The literature in the period of Polish Baroque
    Baroque in Poland
    The Polish Baroque lasted from the late 16th to the mid-18th century. As with Baroque style elsewhere in Europe, Poland's Baroque emphasized the richness and triumphant power of contemporary art forms. In contrast to the previous, Renaissance style which sought to depict the beauty and harmony of...

    , between 1620 and 1764, was significantly influenced by the great popularization of Jesuit high school, which offered education based on Latin
    Latin
    Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

     classics
    Classics
    Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

     as part of preparation for a political carrier. The studies of poetry required the practical knowledge of writing both Latin and Polish poems, which radically increased the number of poets and versifiers countrywide. On the soil of humanistic education some exceptional writers grew as well. Piotr Kochanowski (1566–1620) gave his translation of Torquato Tasso
    Torquato Tasso
    Torquato Tasso was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem La Gerusalemme liberata , in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the siege of Jerusalem...

    's Jerusalem Delivered
    Jerusalem Delivered
    Jerusalem Delivered is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso first published in 1581, which tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Catholic knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem...

    , Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski
    Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski
    Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski , was Europe's most prominent Latin poet of the 17th century, and a renowned theoretician of poetics.-Life:...

    , a poet laureate
    Poet Laureate
    A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...

    , become known among European nations as Horatius christianus (Christian Horace
    Horace
    Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...

    ) for his Latin writings. Jan Andrzej Morsztyn
    Jan Andrzej Morsztyn
    Jan Andrzej Morsztyn was a Polish poet, member of the landed gentry, and official in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was starosta of Zawichost, Tymbark and Kowal. He was also pantler of Sandomierz , Royal Secretary , a secular referendary , and Deputy Crown Treasurer from 1668...

     (1621–1693), an epicurean courtier and diplomat, extolled in his sophisticated poems the valors of earthly delights. Wacław Potocki (1621–1696), the most productive writer of the Polish Baroque unified the typical opinions of Polish szlachta
    Szlachta
    The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...

     with some deeper reflections and existential experiences. Notable Polish writers and poets active in this period include:
    • Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński (1550–1581), Rymy
    • Kasper Miaskowski (1550?–1622)
    • Daniel Naborowski
      Daniel Naborowski
      Daniel Naborowski was a Polish Baroque poet.Daniel Naborowski was born in Cracow. His education took place not only in Cracow, but also at Wittenberg and Basle . In Basle he studied medicine, in Orléans he studied law, and from Galileo in Padua he learned military engineering...

       (1573–1640)
    • Hieronim Morsztyn
      Hieronim Morsztyn
      Hieronim Morsztyn was a Polish poet. He is known as one of the earliest poets of the Polish baroque and sarmatism. His most popular poem is Światowa Rozkosz ....

       (1581–1623)
    • Szymon Starowolski
      Szymon Starowolski
      Szymon Starowolski was a writer, scholar and historian in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was probably born near Pruzhany, and died near Kraków. He was very prolific writer, left behind over 70 works, mostly in Latin...

       (1588–1656)
    • Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski
      Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski
      Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski , was Europe's most prominent Latin poet of the 17th century, and a renowned theoretician of poetics.-Life:...

       (1595–1640)
    • Józef Bartłomiej Zimorowic (1597–1677)
    • Samuel Twardowski
      Samuel Twardowski
      Samuel Twardowski was a Polish poet, diarist, and essayist who gained popularity in 17th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, called by his contemporaries 'Polish Virgil.'-Life and works:...

       (1600?–1661)
    • Szymon Zimorowic (1608?–1629), Roksolanki
    • Krzysztof Opaliński
      Krzysztof Opalinski
      Krzysztof Opaliński was a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth noble , politician and writer . Voivode of Poznań, starosta kowelski, śremski, osiecki, międzyłęski.- Biography :Son of Piotr Opaliński...

       (1611–1655)
     
  • Łukasz Opaliński (1612–1666)
  • Jan Andrzej Morsztyn
    Jan Andrzej Morsztyn
    Jan Andrzej Morsztyn was a Polish poet, member of the landed gentry, and official in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was starosta of Zawichost, Tymbark and Kowal. He was also pantler of Sandomierz , Royal Secretary , a secular referendary , and Deputy Crown Treasurer from 1668...

     (1621–1693), leading Baroque
    Baroque in Poland
    The Polish Baroque lasted from the late 16th to the mid-18th century. As with Baroque style elsewhere in Europe, Poland's Baroque emphasized the richness and triumphant power of contemporary art forms. In contrast to the previous, Renaissance style which sought to depict the beauty and harmony of...

     poet
  • Wacław Potocki (1621–1696), Wojna Chocimska
  • Zbigniew Morsztyn
    Zbigniew Morsztyn
    Zbigniew Morsztyn was a Polish poet.Morsztyn was born in Kraków. For 9 years he was in the army, where he fought the Swedes and Russians during the Northern Wars...

     (Morstyn, 1628?-1689)
  • Stanisław Grochowski (1633–1645)
  • Jan Chryzostom Pasek
    Jan Chryzostom Pasek
    Jan Chryzostom Pasek was a Polish nobleman and writer in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He is best remembered for his memoirs , which are a valuable historical source about Baroque sarmatian culture and events in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.Born in Węgrzynowice near Rawa Mazowiecka in...

     (1636–1701), Pamietniki (memoirs)
  • Kasper Twardowski
    Kasper Twardowski
    Kasper Twardowski was a Polish poet of the early Polish Baroque period, representing the so-called metaphysical or metaphysical-and-devotional line of poets. Little is known of his personal life...

    , "Lekcyje Kupidynowe" (church-banned erotica)
  • Sebastian Grabowiecki (1543–1607)
  • Piotr Kochanowski (1566–1620)
  • Jan z Kijan (Dzwonowski?, early 1600s)

  • Enlightenment

    The period of Polish Enlightenment
    Enlightenment in Poland
    The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment in Poland were developed later than in the Western Europe, as Polish bourgeoisie was weaker, and szlachta culture together with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth political system were in deep crisis...

     began in the 1730s–40s and peaked in the second half of the 18th century during the reign of Poland's last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski. It went into sharp decline with the Third and final Partition
    Third Partition of Poland
    The Third Partition of Poland or Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in 1795 as the third and last of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.-Background:...

     of Poland (1795) followed by political, cultural and economic destruction of the country, leading to Great Emigration
    Great Emigration
    The Great Emigration was an emigration of political elites from Poland from 1831–1870. Since the end of the 18th century, a major role in Polish political life was played by people who carried out their activities outside the country as émigrés...

     of Polish elites. The Enlightenment ended around 1822, and was replaced by Polish Romanticism
    Romanticism in Poland
    Romanticism in Poland was a literary, artistic and intellectual period in the evolution of Polish culture that began around 1820, coinciding with the publication of Adam Mickiewicz's first poems in 1822. It ended with the suppression of the January 1863 Uprising against the Russian Empire in 1864. ...

     at home and abroad.

    One of the leading Polish Enlightenment poets was Ignacy Krasicki
    Ignacy Krasicki
    Ignacy Krasicki , from 1766 Prince-Bishop of Warmia and from 1795 Archbishop of Gniezno , was Poland's leading Enlightenment poet , a critic of the clergy, Poland's La Fontaine, author of the first Polish novel, playwright, journalist, encyclopedist, and translator from French and...

     (1735–1801), known locally as "the Prince of Poets" and Poland's La Fontaine
    Fables and Parables
    Fables and Parables , by Ignacy Krasicki , is a work in a long international tradition of fable-writing that reaches back to antiquity. They have been described as being, "[l]ike LaFontaine's [fables],.....

    , author of the first Polish novel called The Adventures of Mr. Nicholas Wisdom (Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego przypadki); playwright
    Playwright
    A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

    , journalist
    Journalist
    A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

    , encyclopedist and translator from French
    French language
    French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

     and Greek
    Greek language
    Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

    . Another prominent writer of the period was Jan Potocki
    Jan Potocki
    Count Jan Nepomucen Potocki was a Polish nobleman, Polish Army Captain of Engineers, ethnologist, Egyptologist, linguist, traveler, adventurer and popular author of the Enlightenment period, whose life and exploits made him a legendary figure in his homeland...

     (1761–1815), a Polish nobleman, Egyptologist
    Egyptology
    Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...

    , linguist
    Linguistics
    Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

    , and adventurer whose travel memoir
    Memoir
    A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

    s made him legendary in his homeland. Outside Poland he is known chiefly for his novel, The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
    The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
    The Manuscript Found in Saragossa , is a frame-tale novel by the Polish Enlightenment author, Count Jan Potocki...

     drawing comparisons to such celebrated works as the Decameron and the Arabian Nights.
    Notable Polish writers and poets of the Enlightenment period include:
    • Stanisław Leszczyński (1677–1766), "Głos wolny..."
    • Elżbieta Drużbacka
      Elzbieta Druzbacka
      Elżbieta Drużbacka was a Polish poet.Much of her work deals with the beauty of nature; her best known work isDescription of the Four Seasons ....

       (1695?–1765)
    • Stanisław Konarski (1700–1773), "O skutecznym rad sposobie"
    • Franciszek Bohomolec
      Franciszek Bohomolec
      Franciszek Bohomolec was a Polish dramatist, linguist, and theatrical reformer who was one of the principal playwrights of the Polish Enlightenment....

       (1720–1784), magazine Monitor
    • Stanisław August Poniatowski (1732–1798)
    • Adam Naruszewicz
      Adam Naruszewicz
      Adam Stanisław Naruszewicz was a Polish nobleman from an impoverished aristocratic family, poet, historian, dramatist, translator, publicist, Jesuit and titular Bishop of Smolensk and bishop of Łuck .His family had a small estate in Polesie and he was educated at Pinsk.As a senator he...

       (1733–1796)
    • Ignacy Krasicki
      Ignacy Krasicki
      Ignacy Krasicki , from 1766 Prince-Bishop of Warmia and from 1795 Archbishop of Gniezno , was Poland's leading Enlightenment poet , a critic of the clergy, Poland's La Fontaine, author of the first Polish novel, playwright, journalist, encyclopedist, and translator from French and...

       (1735–1801), Fables and Parables
      Fables and Parables
      Fables and Parables , by Ignacy Krasicki , is a work in a long international tradition of fable-writing that reaches back to antiquity. They have been described as being, "[l]ike LaFontaine's [fables],.....

    • Onufry Kopczyński
      Onufry Kopczynski
      Onufry Kopczyński was an important educator and grammarian of the Polish language in the period of Enlightenment in Poland.-Life and work:...

       (1736–1817)
    • Stanisław Trembecki (1739–1812)
    • Franciszek Salezy Jezierski
      Franciszek Salezy Jezierski
      Franciszek Salezy Jezierski was a Polish writer, social and political activist of the Enlightenment period. A Catholic priest, he was involved with the creation of the Commission of National Education. Member of the Hugo Kołłątaj's Forge. Librarian of the Jagiellonian University...

       (1740–1791)
    • Franciszek Karpiński
      Franciszek Karpinski
      Franciszek Karpiński was the leading sentimental Polish poet of the Age of Enlightenment. He is particularly remembered for his religious works later rendered as hymns and carols. He is also considered one of the most original Polish writers of the early partitions...

       (1741–1825)
    • Jan Piotr Norblin
      Jan Piotr Norblin
      Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine was a French-born painter, draughtsman, engraver, drawing artist and caricaturist. From 1774 to 1804 he resided in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, where he obtained citizenship.He is considered one of the most important painters of the Polish Enlightenment...

       (1745–1830)
    • Izabela Czartoryska (1746–1835), Czartoryski Museum
      Czartoryski Museum
      The Czartoryski Museum and Library is a museum located in Kraków, Poland, founded in Puławy in 1796 by Princess Izabela Czartoryska. The Puławy collections were partly destroyed after the November uprising of 1830–1831 and the subsequent confiscation of the Czartoryskis' property by the Russians...

  • Hugo Kołłątaj (1750–1812), Kuźnica Kołłątajowska
  • Franciszek Kniaźnin
    Franciszek Kniaznin
    Franciszek Dionizy Kniaźnin was a Polish dramatist and prose writer.-External links:...

     (1750–1807)
  • Franciszek Zabłocki (1754–1821), Towarzystwo do Ksiąg Elementarnych
  • Stanisław Staszic (1755–1826), Constitution of 1791
    Constitution of May 3, 1791
    The Constitution of May 3, 1791 was adopted as a "Government Act" on that date by the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Historian Norman Davies calls it "the first constitution of its type in Europe"; other scholars also refer to it as the world's second oldest constitution...

  • Jan Śniadecki
    Jan Sniadecki
    Jan Śniadecki was a Polish mathematician, philosopher and astronomer at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.-Life:Born in Żnin, Śniadecki studied at Kraków University and in Paris...

     (1756–1830)
  • Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz
    Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz
    Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz was a Polish poet, playwright and statesman. He was a leading advocate for the Constitution of May 3, 1791.-Life:...

     (1758–1841), Constitution of 1791
    Constitution of May 3, 1791
    The Constitution of May 3, 1791 was adopted as a "Government Act" on that date by the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Historian Norman Davies calls it "the first constitution of its type in Europe"; other scholars also refer to it as the world's second oldest constitution...

  • Jakub Jasiński
    Jakub Jasinski
    Jakub Jasiński was a Polish-Lithuanian general, and a Polish poet of Enlightenment. He participated in the War in Defence of the Constitution in 1792, was an enemy of the Targowica Confederation and organized an action against its supporters in Vilnius...

     (1759–1794)
  • Tadeusz Czacki
    Tadeusz Czacki
    Tadeusz Czacki , was a Polish historian, pedagogue and numismatist. Czacki played an important part in the Enlightenment in Poland.-Biography:...

     (1765–1813), Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk
  • Jędrzej Śniadecki
    Jedrzej Sniadecki
    Jędrzej Śniadecki was a Polish writer, physician, chemist and biologist. His achievements include the creation of modern Polish terminology in the field of chemistry.-Life and work:...

     (1768–1838), first Polish chemistry text book
  • Samuel Linde
    Samuel Linde
    Samuel Bogumił Linde was a linguist, librarian, and lexicographer of the Polish language. He was director of the Prussian-founded Warsaw Lyceum during its existence , and an important figure of the Polish Enlightenment.-Life:Samuel Gottlieb Linde was born in Toruń, Royal Prussia, a province of the...

     (1771–1847), Towarzystwo do Ksiąg Elementarnych
  • Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński
    Józef Maksymilian Ossolinski
    Count Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński was a Polish noble , politician, writer, researcher of literature, and founder of the Ossoliński Institute....

    , Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich
  • Andrzej Stanisław Załuski and Józef Załuski, Biblioteka Załuskich

  • Romanticism in the wake of the revolt

    Due to partitions
    Partitions of Poland
    The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...

     carried out by the neighboring empires – which ended the existence of the sovereign Polish state in 1795 – Polish Romanticism, unlike Romanticism
    Romanticism
    Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

     elsewhere in Europe, was largely an independence movement that expressed the ideals, and way of life of the Polish people under foreign occupation. The period of Romanticism in Poland ended with the Tsarist suppression of the January 1863 Uprising
    January Uprising
    The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...

     marked by public executions by the Russians and deportations to Siberia.

    The literature of Polish Romanticism
    Romanticism
    Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

     falls into two distinct periods both defined by insurgencies
    Insurgency
    An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...

    : the first around 1820–1832 ending with the November Uprising
    November Uprising
    The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...

     of 1830, and the second between 1832–1864, giving birth to Polish Positivism
    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...

    . In the first period, Polish Romantics were heavily influenced by other European Romantics. Their art featured emotion
    Emotion
    Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...

    alism and imagination, folklore
    Folklore
    Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

    , country life, as well as the propagation of the ideals of independence
    Independence
    Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....

    . The most famous writers of the period were: Adam Mickiewicz
    Adam Mickiewicz
    Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...

    , Seweryn Goszczyński
    Seweryn Goszczynski
    Seweryn Goszczyński was a Polish Romantic prose writer and poet.Goszczyński did not receive a thorough education because his parents were not well off. He studied with breaks in different schools, the Basilian School in Humań being the one where he stayed the longest period of time. At this school...

    , Tomasz Zan
    Tomasz Zan
    Tomasz Zan , was a Polish poet and activist.In 1817 he was a cofounder of the Philomatic Association , in 1820, Radiant Association , in 1820-1823 president of Filaret Association , all of them student organizations in Vilna dedicated to Polish cultural and political...

     and Maurycy Mochnacki
    Maurycy Mochnacki
    Maurycy Mochnacki was a Polish publicist and independence activist. He participated in the November Uprising as a soldier and chronicler - Powstanie narodu polskiego w roku 1830 i 1831. After the defeat, he emigrated. In his early life, he was a supporter of Polish Jacobins ideology. He died in...

    . In the second period, after January Uprising
    January Uprising
    The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...

     many Polish Romantics worked abroad, often banished from the Polish soil by the occupying power. Their work became dominated by the ideals of freedom and the struggle for regaining their country's lost sovereignty
    Sovereignty
    Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

    . Elements of mysticism became more prominent. Also in that period, developed the idea of the poeta-wieszcz
    Three Bards
    The Three Bards are the national poets of Polish Romantic literature. They lived and worked in exile during the partitions of Poland which ended the existence of the Polish sovereign state...

     (nation's bard). The wieszcz functioned as spiritual leader to the suppressed people. The most notable poet among the leading bards of Romanticism
    Three Bards
    The Three Bards are the national poets of Polish Romantic literature. They lived and worked in exile during the partitions of Poland which ended the existence of the Polish sovereign state...

    , so recognized in both periods, was Adam Mickiewicz
    Adam Mickiewicz
    Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...

    . Other two national poets were: Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński
    Zygmunt Krasinski
    Count Napoleon Stanisław Adam Ludwig Zygmunt Krasiński , a Polish count, is traditionally ranked with Mickiewicz and Słowacki as one of Poland's Three National Bards — the trio of great Romantic poets who influenced national consciousness during the period of Poland's political bondage.-Life and...

    . Polish writers and poets of the Romantic period include:
    • Adam Jerzy Czartoryski
      Adam Jerzy Czartoryski
      Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was a Polish-Lithuanian noble, statesman and author. He was the son of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and Izabela Fleming....

       (1770–1861)
    • Antoni Gorecki
      Antoni Gorecki
      Antoni Gorecki was a Polish poet and writer, author of satires and short stories for children.He was born in 1787 in Wilno, where he finished primary school. In 1802 he started studying at the Faculty of Literature of the University of Vilnius, where he became friends with Joachim Lelewel...

       (1787–1861)
    • Aleksander Fredro
      Aleksander Fredro
      Aleksander Fredro was a Polish poet, playwright and author.-Life:Count Aleksander Fredro, of the Bończa coat of arms, was born in the village of Surochów near Jarosław, then a crown territory of Austria. A landowner's son, he was educated at home. He entered the Polish army at age 16 and saw...

       (1791–1876), Zemsta
      Zemsta
      Zemsta is a Polish comedy by Aleksander Fredro.-The Play:Real events inspired Fredro to write the play. In November of 1828, Fredro married Zofia Skotnicka, whose dowry included the title to half of a castle located in Odrzykon in the province of Galicia...

    • Kazimierz Brodziński
      Kazimierz Brodzinski
      Kazimierz Brodziński was an important Polish Romantic poet.- Life :He was born in Królówka near Bochnia. He came from the low nobility. He was a student at schools in Tarnów, where he also graduated from the grammar school. He served in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw...

       (1791–1835)
    • Antoni Malczewski
      Antoni Malczewski
      Antoni Malczewski was an influential Polish romantic poet, known for his only work, "a narrative poem of dire pessimism", Maria ....

       (1793–1826)
    • Jan Czeczot
      Jan Czeczot
      Jan Czeczot of Ostoja was a noble of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of Belarusian origin, romantic poet and ethnographer. Fascinated by folk lore and traditional folk songs of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, confederal part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, he recollected hundreds of...

       (1796–1846)
    • Adam Mickiewicz
      Adam Mickiewicz
      Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...

       (1798–1855), Dziady
      Dziady (poem)
      Dziady is a poetic drama by the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. It is considered one of the great works of European Romanticism. To George Sand and George Brandes, Dziady was a supreme realization of Romantic drama theory, to be ranked with such works as Goethe's Faust and Byron's Manfred.The...

      , Pan Tadeusz
      Pan Tadeusz
      Pan Tadeusz, the full title in English: Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray: A Nobleman's Tale from the Years of 1811 and 1812 in Twelve Books of Verse is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz...

    • Klementyna Hoffmanowa
      Klementyna Hoffmanowa
      Klementyna Hoffmanowa – prose writer, popularizer, translator, editor, one of the first Polish writers for children. The co-organizer and the chairwoman of the Association of the Patriotic Charity...

       (1798–1845)
    • Franciszek Salezy Dmochowski
      Franciszek Salezy Dmochowski
      Franciszek Salezy Dmochowski was a Polish Romantic novelist, poet, translator, publisher, critic, and satirist. Father of Franciszek Salezy Dmochowski.-Biography:...

       (1801–1871)
    • Seweryn Goszczyński
      Seweryn Goszczynski
      Seweryn Goszczyński was a Polish Romantic prose writer and poet.Goszczyński did not receive a thorough education because his parents were not well off. He studied with breaks in different schools, the Basilian School in Humań being the one where he stayed the longest period of time. At this school...

       (1801–1876)
    • Michał Czajkowski (1804–1886)
    • Zygmunt Krasiński
      Zygmunt Krasinski
      Count Napoleon Stanisław Adam Ludwig Zygmunt Krasiński , a Polish count, is traditionally ranked with Mickiewicz and Słowacki as one of Poland's Three National Bards — the trio of great Romantic poets who influenced national consciousness during the period of Poland's political bondage.-Life and...

       (1812–1859), Nie-boska Komedia
    • Józef Ignacy Kraszewski
      Józef Ignacy Kraszewski
      Józef Ignacy Kraszewski was a Polish writer, historian and journalist who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews He is best known for his epic series on the history of Poland, comprising twenty-nine novels in seventy-nine parts.As a novelist writing about...

       (1812–1887), Stara baśń
      An Ancient Tale (novel)
      An Ancient Tale. Novel in Polish history - historical novel by popular in 19th century Polish writer Józef Ignacy Kraszewski published in 1876 in Warsaw...

    • Gustaw Ehrenberg (1818–1895)
    • Teodor Tomasz Jeż
      Zygmunt Miłkowski
      Zygmunt Miłkowski, pseudonym Teodor Tomasz Jeż was Polish romantic writer and politician who struggled for independence of Poland as leader of Polish Union...

       (1824–1915)
     
  • Maria Wirtemberska (1768–1854)
  • Henryk Rzewuski
    Henryk Rzewuski
    Henryk Rzewuski was a Polish Romantic-era journalist and novelist.-Life:Count Henryk Rzewuski was a scion of a Polish magnate family in Ukraine. He was the son of Adam Wawrzyniec Rzewuski, a Russian senator who resided in St...

     (1791–1866)
  • Tomasz Zan
    Tomasz Zan
    Tomasz Zan , was a Polish poet and activist.In 1817 he was a cofounder of the Philomatic Association , in 1820, Radiant Association , in 1820-1823 president of Filaret Association , all of them student organizations in Vilna dedicated to Polish cultural and political...

     (1796–1855)
  • Józef Bohdan Zaleski
    Józef Bohdan Zaleski
    Józef Bohdan Zaleski was a Polish Romantic poet. A friend of Adam Mickiewicz, Zaleski founded the "Ukrainian poetic school."-Life:...

     (1802–1886)
  • Maurycy Mochnacki
    Maurycy Mochnacki
    Maurycy Mochnacki was a Polish publicist and independence activist. He participated in the November Uprising as a soldier and chronicler - Powstanie narodu polskiego w roku 1830 i 1831. After the defeat, he emigrated. In his early life, he was a supporter of Polish Jacobins ideology. He died in...

     (1803–1834)
  • Wincenty Pol
    Wincenty Pol
    Wincenty Pol was a Polish poet and geographer.-Life:Pol was born in Lublin , to Franz Pohl , a German in the Austrian service, and his wife Eleonora Longchamps de Berier, from a French family living in Poland. Pol fought in the Polish army in the November 1830 Uprising and participated in the 1848...

     (1807–1882)
  • Lucjan Siemieński
    Lucjan Siemienski
    Lucjan Siemieński was a Polish Romantic poet, prose writer, and literary critic.-External links:*...

     (1807–1877)
  • Juliusz Słowacki (1809–1849), Balladyna
    Balladyna (drama)
    "Balladyna is a tragedy written by Juliusz Słowacki in 1834 and published in 1839 in Paris. It is a notable work of Polish romanticism, focusing on the issues such as thirst for power and evolution of the criminal mind...

    , Kordian
    Kordian
    Kordian is a drama written in 1833, and published in 1834, by Juliusz Słowacki, one of the "Three Bards" of Polish literature. Kordian is one of the most notable works of Polish Romanticism and drama, , PWN Encyklopedia and is considered one of Słowacki's best works.-History:Słowacki began work on...

  • Narcyza Żmichowska
    Narcyza Zmichowska
    Narcyza Żmichowska , also known under the pseudonym Gabryella, was a Polish novelist and poet...

     (1819–1876)
  • Cyprian Kamil Norwid (1821–1883), Vade-mecum
  • Teofil Lenartowicz
    Teofil Lenartowicz
    Teofil Aleksander Lenartowicz was a Polish ethnographer, sculptor, poet and Romantic conspirator...

     (1822–1893)
  • Władysław Syrokomla (1823–1862)
  • Kornel Ujejski
    Kornel Ujejski
    Kornel Ujejski , also known as Cornelius Ujejski, was a Polish poet, patriot and political writer.He was named "last of the greatest Polish poets of Romanticism"....

     (1823–1897)
  • Jadwiga Łuszczewska (1834–1908)
  • Mieczysław Romanowski (1834–1863)

  • Positivism

    In the aftermath of the failed January Uprising
    January Uprising
    The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...

     against the Russian occupation, the new period of Polish Positivism
    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...

     began to advocate skepticism and the exercise of reason. Questions addressed by the "Positivist" writers revolved around the so called "organic work" which included the establishment of equal rights
    Civil rights
    Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

     for all members of society; the assimilation
    Cultural assimilation
    Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...

     of Poland's Jewish minority
    History of the Jews in Poland
    The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...

    ; and the defense of the Polish population in the German-ruled part of Poland against Kulturkampf
    Kulturkampf
    The German term refers to German policies in relation to secularity and the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, enacted from 1871 to 1878 by the Prime Minister of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck. The Kulturkampf did not extend to the other German states such as Bavaria...

     and their violent displacement
    Prussian deportations
    The Prussian deportations were mass expulsions of ethnic Poles from Prussia in between 1885–1890. More than 30,000 Poles with Austrian or Russian citizenship were deported from the Prussian part of divided Poland to the respective Austrian and Russian occupation zones...

    . The writers were poised to educate the public about constructive patriotism
    Patriotism
    Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...

     which would enable Polish society to function as fully integrated social organism regardless of external circumstances. The period lasted until the turn of the 20th century and the advent of the Young Poland
    Young Poland
    Young Poland is a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was a result of strong aesthetic opposition to the ideas of Positivism...

     movement. Prominent writers and poets of Polish Positivism include:
    • Narcyza Żmichowska
      Narcyza Zmichowska
      Narcyza Żmichowska , also known under the pseudonym Gabryella, was a Polish novelist and poet...

       (1819–1876), precursor of feminism in Poland
      Feminism in Poland
      The history of feminism in Poland has traditionally been divided into seven "waves," beginning in the 19th century.-First wave :Feminist ideas reached Poland considerably later than other Western European countries – only in the 19th century...

    • Edmund Chojecki
      Edmund Chojecki
      Edmund Franciszek Maurycy Chojecki was a Polish journalist, playwright, novelist, poet and translator. Originally hailing from Warsaw, from 1844 he resided in France, where he wrote under the pen name Charles Edmond....

       (1822–1899)
    • Maria Ilnicka
      Maria Ilnicka
      Maria Ilnicka, maiden name Majkowska was a Polish poet, novelist, translator and journalist. She took part in the January Uprising against Russia, as archivist of Polish National Government. After the collapse of the uprising, for short time, she was imprisoned. Ilnicka was advocate of feminism...

       (1825 or 1827–1897)
    • Józef Szujski
      Józef Szujski
      Józef Szujski was a Polish politician, historian, poet and professor of the Jagiellonian University....

       (1835–1883)
    • Michał Bałucki (1837–1901)
    • Adam Asnyk
      Adam Asnyk
      Adam Asnyk , was a Polish poet and dramatist. Born September 11, 1838 in Kalisz to a szlachta family, he was educated for an heir of his family's estate. As such he received education at the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in Marymont and then the Medical Surgeon School in Warsaw. He...

       (1838–1897)
    • Adolf Dygasiński
      Adolf Dygasinski
      Adolf Dygasiński was a Polish novelist, publicist and educator. In Polish literature, he was one of the leading representatives of Naturalism....

       (1839–1902)
    • Eliza Orzeszkowa
      Eliza Orzeszkowa
      -External links:...

       (1841–1910), Nad Niemnem
      Nad Niemnem
      Nad Niemnem is a Positivist novel written by Eliza Orzeszkowa in 1888 during the foreign Partitions of Poland. Its main purpose was to present the Polish society and its own internal dynamics as they were in mid–18th century, in reference to the Polish January Uprising against the Russian occupation...

     
  • Maria Konopnicka
    Maria Konopnicka
    Maria Konopnicka nee Wasiłowska , was a Polish poet, novelist, writer for children and youth, a translator, journalist and critic, as well as an activist for women's rights and Polish independence.Maria Konopnicka also composed a poem about the execution of the Irish patriot, Robert...

     (1842–1910), Rota
    Rota (poem)
    Rota is an early 20th-century Polish poem and anthem, once proposed to be the Polish national anthem.-History:Rotas lyrics were written in 1908 by Maria Konopnicka...

  • Henryk Sienkiewicz
    Henryk Sienkiewicz
    Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. A Polish szlachcic of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his...

     (1846–1916), Quo Vadis
    Quo Vadis (novel)
    Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero, commonly known as Quo Vadis, is a historical novel written by Henryk Sienkiewicz in Polish. Quo vadis is Latin for "Where are you going?" and alludes to the apocryphal Acts of Peter, in which Peter flees Rome but on his way meets Jesus and asks him why he...

    ; Nobel Prize
    Nobel Prize
    The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

    , 1905
  • Bolesław Prus (1847–1912), The Doll
    The Doll (novel)
    The Doll is the second of four major novels by the Polish writer Bolesław Prus. It was composed for periodical serialization in 1887-89 and appeared in book form in 1890....

    , Pharaoh
    Pharaoh (novel)
    Pharaoh is the fourth and last major novel by the Polish writer Bolesław Prus . Composed over a year's time in 1894–95, it was the sole historical novel by an author who had earlier disapproved of historical novels on the ground that they inevitably distort history.Pharaoh has been described...

  • Aleksander Świętochowski
    Aleksander Swietochowski
    Aleksander Świętochowski was a Polish writer, educator, and philosopher of the Positivist period that followed the January 1863 Uprising.He was widely regarded as the prophet of Polish Positivism, spreading in the Warsaw...

     (1849–1938)
  • Gabriela Zapolska
    Gabriela Zapolska
    Maria Gabriela Stefania Korwin-Piotrowska , known as Gabriela Zapolska, was a Polish novelist, playwright, naturalist writer, feuilletonist, theatre critic and stage actress. Zapolska wrote 41 plays, 23 novels, 177 short stories, 252 works of journalism, one film script, and over 1,500...

     (1857–1921)
  • Kazimierz Zalewski (1849–1919)
  • Maria Rodziewiczówna
    Maria Rodziewiczówna
    Maria Rodziewiczówna was a Polish writer, among the most famous of the interwar years. Her works often idealized rural life and praised the countryside and peasantry. Her works include "Wrzos" , "Dewajtis", "Lato leśnych ludzi" , "Straszny dziadunio" ....

     (1863–1944)

  • Young Poland

    The modernist period known as the Young Poland
    Young Poland
    Young Poland is a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was a result of strong aesthetic opposition to the ideas of Positivism...

     movement in visual arts, literature and music, came into being around 1890, and concluded with the Poland's return to independence
    Second Polish Republic
    The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...

    . The period was based on two concepts. Its early stage was characterized by a strong aesthetic
    Aesthetics
    Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...

     opposition to the ideals of its own predecessor
    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...

     (promoting organic work in the face of foreign occupation). Artists following this early philosophy of Young Poland believed in decadence
    Decadent movement
    The Decadent movement was a late 19th century artistic and literary movement of Western Europe. It flourished in France, but also had devotees in England and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States.-Overview:...

    , symbolism
    Symbolism (arts)
    Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...

    , conflict between human values and civilization, and the existence of art for art's sake
    Art for art's sake
    "Art for art's sake" is the usual English rendering of a French slogan, from the early 19th century, l'art pour l'art, and expresses a philosophy that the intrinsic value of art, and the only "true" art, is divorced from any didactic, moral or utilitarian function...

    . Prominent authors who followed this trend included Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
    Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
    Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, journalist and writer. He was a member of the Young Poland movement.-Life:...

    , Stanisław Przybyszewski and Jan Kasprowicz
    Jan Kasprowicz
    Jan Kasprowicz was a poet, playwright, critic and translator; a foremost representative of Young Poland.-Life:...

    . The later ideology emerged in conjunction with the socio-political upheavals across Europe such as the 1905 Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia
    Nicholas II of Russia
    Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...

    , the Norwegian independence, the Moroccan Crisis
    First Moroccan Crisis
    The First Moroccan Crisis was the international crisis over the international status of Morocco between March 1905 and May 1906. Germany resented France's increasing dominance of Morocco, and insisted on an open door policy that would allow German business access to its market...

     and others. It was a continuation of romanticism
    Romanticism in Poland
    Romanticism in Poland was a literary, artistic and intellectual period in the evolution of Polish culture that began around 1820, coinciding with the publication of Adam Mickiewicz's first poems in 1822. It ended with the suppression of the January 1863 Uprising against the Russian Empire in 1864. ...

    , 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
    Poles
    thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

     exemplified by Stefan Żeromski
    Stefan Zeromski
    Stefan Żeromski was a Polish novelist and dramatist. He was called the "conscience of Polish literature". He also wrote under the pen names: Maurycy Zych, Józef Katerla and Stefan Iksmoreż.- Life :...

    's prose, through condemnation of social inequality in works by Władysław Reymont and Gabriela Zapolska
    Gabriela Zapolska
    Maria Gabriela Stefania Korwin-Piotrowska , known as Gabriela Zapolska, was a Polish novelist, playwright, naturalist writer, feuilletonist, theatre critic and stage actress. Zapolska wrote 41 plays, 23 novels, 177 short stories, 252 works of journalism, one film script, and over 1,500...

    , to criticism of Polish society and Polish revolutionary history by Stanisław Wyspiański. In 1905 Henryk Sienkiewicz
    Henryk Sienkiewicz
    Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. A Polish szlachcic of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his...

     received a Nobel Prize
    Nobel Prize
    The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

     in literature for his patriotic Trilogy
    The Trilogy
    In modern culture, The Trilogy may also refer to George Lucas' The Trilogy. For the general use of the term "trilogy", see Trilogy.The Trilogy is a series of three novels written by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz. The series follows dramatized versions of famous events in Polish history,...

     inspiring a new sense of hope. Writers of this period include:
    • Jan Kasprowicz
      Jan Kasprowicz
      Jan Kasprowicz was a poet, playwright, critic and translator; a foremost representative of Young Poland.-Life:...

       (1860–1926)
    • Stefan Żeromski
      Stefan Zeromski
      Stefan Żeromski was a Polish novelist and dramatist. He was called the "conscience of Polish literature". He also wrote under the pen names: Maurycy Zych, Józef Katerla and Stefan Iksmoreż.- Life :...

       (1864–1925), Przedwiośnie (trilogy
      Trilogy
      A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...

      )
    • Franciszek Nowicki
      Franciszek Nowicki
      Franciszek Henryk Siła-Nowicki was a Young Poland poet, a mountaineer, socialist activist, and designer of the Orla Perć High Tatras mountain trail.-Life:...

       (1864–1935)
    • Władysław Reymont (1867–1925), Chłopi, Nobel Prize in Literature
      Nobel Prize in Literature
      Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...

      , 1924
    • Wacław Berent (1878–1940)
    • Antoni Lange
      Antoni Lange
      Antoni Lange was a Polish poet, philosopher, polyglot , writer, novelist, science-writer, reporter and translator. A representative of Polish Parnassianism and symbolism, he is also regarded as belonging to the Decadent movement...

        (1863–1929)
    • Tadeusz Miciński
      Tadeusz Micinski
      Tadeusz Micinski was an influential Polish poet, gnostic and playwright, and was a forerunner of Expressionism and Surrealism. He is one of the writers of the Young Poland period . His writings are strong influenced by Dark Romanticism and Romantic gothic fiction...

       (1873–1918)
     
  • Franciszek Nowicki
    Franciszek Nowicki
    Franciszek Henryk Siła-Nowicki was a Young Poland poet, a mountaineer, socialist activist, and designer of the Orla Perć High Tatras mountain trail.-Life:...

     (1864–1935)
  • Władysław Orkan (1875–1930)
  • Tadeusz Rittner
    Tadeusz Rittner
    Tadeusz Rittner was a Polish dramatist, prose writer, and literary critic.Rittner was born in Lemberg, Ukraine.-Sources:*...

     (1873–1921)
  • Wacław Sieroszewski (1858–1945)
  • Leopold Staff
    Leopold Staff
    Leopold Staff was a Polish poet and one of the greatest artists of European modernism honored two times by honorary degrees . He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature...

     (1878–1957)
  • Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
    Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer
    Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer was a Polish poet, novelist, playwright, journalist and writer. He was a member of the Young Poland movement.-Life:...

     (1865–1940)
  • Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński
    Tadeusz Boy-Zelenski
    Tadeusz Kamil Marcjan Żeleński was a Polish stage writer, poet, critic above all, and translator of over 100 French literary classics into Polish...

     (1874–1941), Zielony Balonik
    Zielony Balonik
    Zielony Balonik was a popular literary cabaret founded in Kraków by the local poets, writers and artists during the final years of the Partitions of Poland. The venue was a gourmet restaurant of Apolinary J. Michalik called the Michalik's Den...


  • Interbellum and the return to independence

    Literature of the Second Polish Republic
    Second Polish Republic
    The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...

     encompasses a short, though exceptionally dynamic period in Polish literary consciousness. The socio-political reality has changed radically with Poland's return to independence. In large part, derivative of these changes was the collective and unobstructed development of programs for artists and writers. New avant-garde
    Avant-garde
    Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

     trends had emerged. The period, spanning just twenty years, was full of notable individualities who saw themselves as exponents of changing European civilization, including Tuwim
    Julian Tuwim
    Julian Tuwim , sometimes used pseudonym "Oldlen" when writing song lyrics. He was a Polish poet, born in Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, of Jewish parents, and educated in Łódź and Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University...

    , Witkacy, Gombrowicz
    Witold Gombrowicz
    Witold Marian Gombrowicz was a Polish novelist and dramatist. His works are characterized by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and an absurd, anti-nationalist flavor...

    , Miłosz, Dąbrowska
    Maria Dabrowska
    Maria Dąbrowska was a Polish writer.Dąbrowska was a member of the impoverished landed gentry. Interested both in literature and politics, she set herself up to help people born into poor circumstances. She studied sociology, philosophy, and natural sciences in Lausanne and Brussels and moved to...

     and Nałkowska. They all contributed to a new model of the twentieth-century Polish culture echoing its own language of everyday life.

    The two decades of Interbellum were marked by rapid development in the field of poetry, undivided and undiminished for the first time in over a century. From 1918 to 1939, 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. The whole period was amazingly rich nevertheless. One of the most prominent poets of the interwar period was Bolesław Leśmian whose creative personality developed before 1918, and in large part influenced both decades (until his death in 1937). The literary life of his contemporaries revolved mostly around the issues of independence. All Polish poets treated the concept of freedom with extreme seriousness, and many patriotic works had emerged at that time, not to mention a particular variant of a poetic cult of Piłsudski.
    • Jan Brzechwa
      Jan Brzechwa
      Jan Brzechwa , , born Jan Wiktor Lesman in Żmerynka, Podolia to a Polish family of Jewish descent was a Polish poet and author, mostly known for his contribution to children's literature....

       (1900–1966)
    • Maria Dąbrowska
      Maria Dabrowska
      Maria Dąbrowska was a Polish writer.Dąbrowska was a member of the impoverished landed gentry. Interested both in literature and politics, she set herself up to help people born into poor circumstances. She studied sociology, philosophy, and natural sciences in Lausanne and Brussels and moved to...

       (1889–1965)
    • Witold Gombrowicz
      Witold Gombrowicz
      Witold Marian Gombrowicz was a Polish novelist and dramatist. His works are characterized by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and an absurd, anti-nationalist flavor...

       (1904–1969), Ferdydurke
      Ferdydurke
      Ferdydurke is a novel by the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, published in 1937. In this darkly humorous story, Joey Kowalski describes his transformation from a 30-year-old man into a teenage boy. Kowalski's exploits are comic and fervid -- for this is a modernism closer to Dada and the Marx...

    • Bruno Jasieński
      Bruno Jasienski
      Bruno Jasieński was a Polish poet and the leader of the Polish futurist movement.Bruno Jasieński was born Wiktor Zysman on 17 July 1901 in Klimontów in southern Congress Poland, Russian Empire to a Polish family of Jewish and German roots, but from his mother's side he was a descendant of the...

       (1901–1938)
    • Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1894–1980)
    • Maria Kuncewiczowa
      Maria Kuncewiczowa
      Maria Kuncewiczowa was a Polish writer born in Samara, Russia.- Biography :She studied music and literature in Cracow, Warsaw and Paris. She had published under pseudonyms for the magazine Le Lierre. In 1938 she was awarded gold laureate by the Academy of Literature. After 1939 she lived in...

       (1899–1989)
    • Jan Lechoń
      Jan Lechon
      Leszek Józef Serafinowicz was a Polish poet, literary and theater critic, diplomat, and co-founder of the Skamander literary movement and the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America.-Life:Lechoń studied Polish language and literature at Warsaw University, by...

       (1899–1956)
    • Bolesław Leśmian (ca. 1877 –1937)
    • Józef Mackiewicz
      Jozef Mackiewicz
      Józef Mackiewicz was a Polish writer and commentator. He staunchly opposed communism, referring to himself as "anticommunist by nationality".- Life and career :...

       (1902–85)
    • Kornel Makuszyński
      Kornel Makuszynski
      Kornel Makuszyński was a Polish writer of children's and youth literature.-Life:Makuszyński attended the Jan Długosz gymnasium in Lviv . While in school he wrote occasional poetry , and had his first poem published in 1902 in the newspaper Słowo Polskie , for which he soon became a theatrical critic...

       (1884–1953), Koziołek Matołek
    • Zofia Kossak-Szczucka
      Zofia Kossak-Szczucka
      Zofia Kossak-Szczucka was a Polish writer and World War II resistance fighter. She co-founded the wartime Polish organization Żegota, set up to assist Poland's Jews in escaping the Holocaust...

       (1890–1968), Krzyżowcy (trilogy
      Trilogy
      A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...

      )
     
  • Andrzej Strug
    Andrzej Strug
    Andrzej Strug, real name Tadeusz Gałecki was a Polish socialist politician, publicist and activist for Poland's independence....

     (1871–1937)
  • Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885–1939), Nienasycenie
    Insatiability
    Insatiability is a major novel by the Polish writer, dramatist, philosopher, painter and photographer, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz . Nienasycenie was written in 1927 and first published in 1930. It is his third novel, considered by many to be his best...

  • Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska
    Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska
    Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, née Kossak , was a Polish poet known as the Polish Sappho and "queen of lyrical poetry" of Poland's interwar period...

     (1891–1945)
  • Bruno Schulz
    Bruno Schulz
    Bruno Schulz was a Polish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher born to Jewish parents, and regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. Schulz was born in Drohobycz, in the province of Galicia then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and spent...

     (1892–1942), Sanatorium Pod Klepsydrą
    Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
    Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass is the English title of Sanatorium Pod Klepsydrą, a novel by the Polish writer and painter Bruno Schulz, published in 1937.-Plot introduction:...

  • Julian Tuwim
    Julian Tuwim
    Julian Tuwim , sometimes used pseudonym "Oldlen" when writing song lyrics. He was a Polish poet, born in Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, of Jewish parents, and educated in Łódź and Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University...

     (1894–1953)
  • Kazimierz Wierzyński
    Kazimierz Wierzynski
    Kazimierz Wierzyński was a Polish poet and journalist.-Life:Kazimierz Wierzyński was born in Drohobycz, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and died in London....

     (1894–1969)
  • Stanisław Młodożeniec
    Stanisław Młodożeniec
    Stanisław Młodożeniec was a poet, and a founder of Polish futurism. He was born to a well-to-do peasant family in 1895 in the village of Dobrocice, near Sandomierz. Captured in 1915 by the retreating Russian army, Mlodozeniec was taken to Moscow where he attended the Polish gymnasium in order to...

     (1895–1959)
  • Antoni Słonimski (1895–1976)
  • Aleksander Wat
    Aleksander Wat
    Aleksander Wat, was a Polish poet, writer and art theoretician, one of the precursors of Polish futurism movement in early 1920s....

     (1900–1967)
  • Julian Przyboś
    Julian Przybos
    Julian Przyboś was a Polish poet, essayist and translator, one of the most important poets of Kraków Avantgarde....

     (1901–1970)
  • Halina Poświatowska
    Halina Poswiatowska
    Halina Poświatowska - Polish poet and writer, one of the most important figures in modern Polish literature....

     (1935–1967)


  • World War II

    In the years of German and Soviet occupation of Poland
    Soviet invasion of Poland
    Soviet invasion of Poland can refer to:* the second phase of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920 when Soviet armies marched on Warsaw, Poland* Soviet invasion of Poland of 1939 when Soviet Union allied with Nazi Germany attacked Second Polish Republic...

    , 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 Nazi-era ghettos
    Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland
    This article presents a list of locations where the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland were established during World War II. The ghetto system had been imposed by Nazi Germany roughly between October 1939 and July 1942 in order to confine Poland's Jewish population of 3.5 million for the...

    ), others were deported out ​​of the country; some emigrated (Tuwim
    Julian Tuwim
    Julian Tuwim , sometimes used pseudonym "Oldlen" when writing song lyrics. He was a Polish poet, born in Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, of Jewish parents, and educated in Łódź and Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University...

    , Wierzyński
    Kazimierz Wierzynski
    Kazimierz Wierzyński was a Polish poet and journalist.-Life:Kazimierz Wierzyński was born in Drohobycz, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and died in London....

    ), many more joined the ranks of Polish underground resistance movement (Baczyński
    Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski
    Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, was a Polish poet and Home Army soldier, one of the most renowned authors of the Generation of Columbuses, the young generation of Polish poets of whom many perished in the Warsaw Uprising.-Biography:...

    , Borowski
    Tadeusz Borowski
    Tadeusz Borowski was a Polish writer and journalist. His wartime poetry and stories dealing with his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz are recognized as classics of Polish literature and had much influence in Central European society.- Early life :...

    , Gajcy
    Tadeusz Gajcy
    Tadeusz Stefan Gajcy was a Polish poet and Armia Krajowa soldier.He co-founded and edited the bibuła literary magazine, Sztuka i Naród...

    ). 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 in the homes of writers and art facilitators. Polish cities where such meetings were held most frequently were: Warsaw
    Warsaw
    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...

    , 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...

     and Lwów. Writers participated in setting-up of the underground presses (out of 1,500 clandestine publications in Poland about 200 were devoted to literature). Many fought in the Polish army in exile or resisted Holocaust in a civil capacity. The generation of the Kolumbs born around 1920 were active during the Warsaw Uprising
    Warsaw Uprising
    The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...

    . Best-known representatives of the war years are:
    • Zofia Nałkowska (1884–1954), Medallions
      Medallions (book)
      Medallions is a book consisting of eight short stories by the Polish author Zofia Nałkowska.The book was originally published in 1946, soon after the end of the World War II. In it, Nałkowska calmly related selected stories of Nazi atrocities in Poland and the fates of their victims...

    • Melchior Wańkowicz
      Melchior Wankowicz
      Melchior Wańkowicz was a Polish writer, journalist and publisher. He is most famous for his reporting for the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II and writing a book about the battle of Monte Cassino....

       (1892–1974), Bitwa o Monte Cassino
      Battle of Monte Cassino
      The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies against Germans and Italians with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans...

    • Krystyna Krahelska
      Krystyna Krahelska
      Krystyna Krahelska "Danuta" - was a Polish poet, ethnographer, member of the Home Army, and a participant in the Warsaw Uprising....

       (1914–1944)
    • Gustaw Herling-Grudziński
      Gustaw Herling-Grudzinski
      Gustaw Herling-Grudziński was a Polish writer, journalist, essayist and soldier. He is best known for writing a personal account of life in the Soviet gulag - A World Apart.-Biography:...

       (1919–2000), A World Apart: Memoir
      A World Apart (book)
      A World Apart - a memoir written by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, first published in 1951 in London , combining various literary genres: novel,...

    • Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński
      Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski
      Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, was a Polish poet and Home Army soldier, one of the most renowned authors of the Generation of Columbuses, the young generation of Polish poets of whom many perished in the Warsaw Uprising.-Biography:...

       (1921–1944)
    • Tadeusz Różewicz
      Tadeusz Rózewicz
      Tadeusz Różewicz is a Polish poet and writer.Różewicz belongs to the first generation born and educated after Poland regained its independence in 1918. His youthful poems were published in 1938...

       (1921–)
     
  • Tadeusz Gajcy
    Tadeusz Gajcy
    Tadeusz Stefan Gajcy was a Polish poet and Armia Krajowa soldier.He co-founded and edited the bibuła literary magazine, Sztuka i Naród...

     (1922–1944)
  • Miron Białoszewski (1922–1983)
  • Tadeusz Borowski
    Tadeusz Borowski
    Tadeusz Borowski was a Polish writer and journalist. His wartime poetry and stories dealing with his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz are recognized as classics of Polish literature and had much influence in Central European society.- Early life :...

     (1922–1951), This Way for the Gas...
    This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
    This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, also known as Ladies and Gentlemen, to the Gas Chamber, is a collection of short stories by Tadeusz Borowski, which were inspired by the author's concentration camp experience. The original title in the Polish language was Pożegnanie z Marią...

  • Wisława Szymborska (1923–), Nobel Prize in Literature
    Nobel Prize in Literature
    Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...

    , 1996
  • Zbigniew Herbert
    Zbigniew Herbert
    Zbigniew Herbert was an influential Polish poet, essayist, drama writer, author of plays, and moralist. A member of the Polish resistance movement – Home Army during World War II, he is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers...

     (1924–1998)
  • Jerzy Ficowski
    Jerzy Ficowski
    Jerzy Ficowski was a Polish poet, writer and translator .- Biography and works :During the German occupation of Poland in World War II, Ficowski who lived in Włochy near Warsaw was a member of the Polish resistance...

     (1924–2006)


  • 1945 to 1956

    Much of Polish literature written during the Occupation of Poland
    Occupation of Poland
    Occupation of Poland may refer to:* Partitions of Poland * The German Government General of Warsaw and the Austrian Military Government of Lublin during World War I* Occupation of Poland during World War II...

     appeared in print only after the conclussion of World War II including books by Nałkowska, Rudnicki
    Adolf Rudnicki
    Adolf Rudnicki was a Polish-Jewish author and essayist, best known for his works about The Holocaust and the Jewish resistance in Poland during World War II....

    , Borowski
    Tadeusz Borowski
    Tadeusz Borowski was a Polish writer and journalist. His wartime poetry and stories dealing with his experiences as a prisoner at Auschwitz are recognized as classics of Polish literature and had much influence in Central European society.- Early life :...

     and others. The Soviet takeover of the country did not discourage Émigré
    Émigré
    Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....

    s and exiles from returning, especially before the advent of Stalinism. Indeed, many writers attempted to recreate the Polish literary scene often with a touch of nostalgia for the prewar reality, including Jerzy Andrzejewski
    Jerzy Andrzejewski
    Jerzy Andrzejewski was a prolific Polish author. His novels, Ashes and Diamonds , and Holy Week , have been made into film adaptations by the Oscar-winning Polish director Andrzej Wajda...

    , author of Ashes and Diamonds
    Ashes and Diamonds
    Ashes and Diamonds is a 1948 novel by the Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski. It was adapted into a film by the same title in 1958 by the Polish film director Andrzej Wajda. English translation, entitled Ashes and Diamonds, appeared in 1962...

    , describing the political and moral dilemmas associated with the Anti-communist resistance in Poland. His novel was adapted into film a decade later by Wajda
    Andrzej Wajda
    Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...

    . The new emerging prose writers such as Stanisław Dygat and Stefan Kisielewski
    Stefan Kisielewski
    Stefan Kisielewski , nicknames Kisiel, Julia Hołyńska, Teodor Klon, Tomasz Staliński, was a Polish writer, publicist, composer and politician, and one of the members of Znak, one of the founders of the UPR, the polish libertarian and conservative political party.Kisielewski was born to a Polish...

     approached the catastropy of war from their own perspective. Kazimierz Wyka
    Kazimierz Wyka
    Kazimierz Wyka was a Polish historian, literary critic and a professor of the Jagiellonian University.He was a deputy to Polish parliament from 1952 to 1956....

     coined a term "borderline novel" for documentary fiction.

    The situation began to worsen dramatically around 1949–1950 with the introduction of the Stalinist doctrine
    Socialist realism in Poland
    Socialist realism in Poland was an official Communist doctrine used by the pro-Soviet government in the process of forcible Stalinization of the postwar People's Republic of Poland. The policy was introduced in 1949 by a decree of the Polish United Workers' Party Minister Włodzimierz Sokorski...

     by minister Sokorski
    Włodzimierz Sokorski
    Włodzimierz Sokorski was a Polish communist official, writer, military journalist and eventually a Brigadier General in the Soviet-dominated People's Republic of Poland...

     on behalf of the increasingly violent Communist regime engaged in gross violations of human rights
    Human rights
    Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

    . In the years 1944–1956 around 300,000 Polish citizens were arrested, of whom many thousands were sentenced to long-term imprisonment. There were 6,000 death sentences pronounced against political prisoners, the majority of them carried out "in the majesty of the law". Fearing for their proper jobs, many writers associated with the Borejsza's
    Jerzy Borejsza
    Jerzy Borejsza , was a Polish communist activist and writer, chief of the communist press and publishing syndicate in the Stalinist period of the People's Republic of Poland.-Biography:Borejsza was born as Beniamin Goldberg to a Polish Jewish family...

     publishing empire embraced the Sovietization of Polish culture. In 1953 the ZLP Union run by Kruczkowski
    Leon Kruczkowski
    Leon Kruczkowski was a Polish writer and publicist, and a prominent figure of the Polish theatre in the post-WWII period. He wrote books and dramas. His best known work is the drama "Niemcy" written in 1949....

     with a slew of prominent signatories declared full support to persecution of religious leaders by the Ministry of Public Security. Death sentences were not enforced although Father Fudali died in unexplained circumstances, like 37 other priest and 54 friars before 1953 already. Likewise, writer Kazimierz Moczarski
    Kazimierz Moczarski
    Kazimierz Damazy Moczarski was a Polish writer and journalist, officer of the Polish Home Army...

     from AK
    Armia Krajowa
    The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...

    , tortured in jail by Romkowski's
    Roman Romkowski
    General Roman Romkowski born Natan Grünspau [Grinszpan]-Kikiel, was a Polish-Jewish communist, second in command in Berman's Ministry of Public Security during the late 1940s and early 1950's. Along with several other high functionaries including Dir. Anatol Fejgin, Col. Józef Różański, Dir...

     subordinates for several years and sentenced to death, was pardoned and released only at the end
    Polish October
    Polish October, also known as October 1956, Polish thaw, or Gomułka's thaw, marked a change in the Polish internal political scene in the second half of 1956...

     of this period.

    1956 to 1989

    • Stefan Grabinski
      Stefan Grabinski
      Stefan Grabiński was a Polish writer of horror fiction, sometimes called "the Polish Poe".Grabiński worked as teacher in Lwów and Przemyśl and is famous for his train stories collected in Demon ruchu . A number of stories were translated by Miroslaw Lipinski into English and published as The Dark...

       (1887–1936)
    • Pola Gojawiczyńska
      Pola Gojawiczyńska
      Pola Gojawiczyńska, real name Apolonia Gojawiczyńska, née Koźniewska was a Polish writer.-Early life:...

       (1896–1963)
    • Aleksander Wat
      Aleksander Wat
      Aleksander Wat, was a Polish poet, writer and art theoretician, one of the precursors of Polish futurism movement in early 1920s....

       (1900–1967)
    • Sergiusz Piasecki
      Sergiusz Piasecki
      Sergiusz Piasecki , was one of the best known Polish language writers of the mid 20th century. His crowning achievement, published in 1937, was the third most popular novel in the Second Polish Republic...

       (1901–1964)
    • Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński (1905–53)
    • Eugeniusz Żytomirski
      Eugeniusz Zytomirski
      Eugeniusz Żytomirski was a Polish poet, playwright and novelist, born in Taganrog, Russia and died in Toronto, Canada. He was a member of the literary group Kadra.-References:...

       (1911–75)
    • Kazimierz Brandys
      Kazimierz Brandys
      Kazimierz Brandys was a Polish essayist and writer of film scripts.Brandys was born in Łódź. He was the brother of the writer Marian Brandys and husband of the translator Maria Zenowicz. He completed a law degree at the University of Warsaw. He was first published in 1935 as a theatrical critic,...

       (1916–2000)
    • Stanisław Lem (1921–2006)
    • Tadeusz Konwicki
      Tadeusz Konwicki
      Tadeusz Konwicki is a Polish writer and film director, a member of the Polish Language Council.-Life:Konwicki was born in 1926 in Nowa Wilejka near Wilno, where he spent his early childhood. He spent his adolescence in Wilno, attending a local gymnasium...

       (* 1926)
    • Joanna Chmielewska
      Joanna Chmielewska
      Joanna Chmielewska is the pen name of Irena Kühn , a Polish writer and screenplay author. Her work is often described as "ironic detective stories"...

       (* 1932)
    • Janusz A. Zajdel (1938–85)
    • Andrzej Sapkowski
      Andrzej Sapkowski
      Andrzej Sapkowski, born 21 June 1948 in Łódź, is a Polish fantasy writer. He is best known for his best-selling book series The Witcher.-Biography:...

       (* 1948)
    • Andrzej Stasiuk
      Andrzej Stasiuk
      Andrzej Stasiuk is one of the most successful and internationally acclaimed contemporary Polish writers, journalists and literary critics...

       (* 1960)
    • Olga Tokarczuk
      Olga Tokarczuk
      Olga Tokarczuk is one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful Polish writers of her generation, particularly noted for the hallmark mythical tone of her writing. She trained as a psychologist at the University of Warsaw. She has published a collection of poems, three novels,...

       (* 1962)
     
  • Czesław Miłosz (19112004), Nobel Prize in Literature
    Nobel Prize in Literature
    Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...

    , 1980
  • Andrzej Bursa
    Andrzej Bursa
    Andrzej Bursa was a Polish poet and writer. Born in Kraków, he studied journalism, then Bulgarian at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. In 1954–1957 Bursa worked as a journalist and reporter for the Kraków newspaper Dziennik Polski...

     (1932–57)
  • Bogdan Czaykowski
    Bogdan Czaykowski
    Bogdan Czaykowski was a Polish Canadian poet, essayist, literary translator and literary critic, professor emeritus and former Dean at the University of British Columbia. He wrote numerous articles in academic journals and literary magazines, and was the subject of literary research papers...

     (1932–2007)
  • Jan Stanisław Skorupski (born 1938)
  • Rafał Wojaczek (1945–71)
  • Ewa Lipska
    Ewa Lipska
    Ewa Lipska, born October 8, 1945, in Kraków is a Polish poet from the generation of the Polish "New Wave." Collections of her verse have been translated into English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, German and Hungarian...

     (born 1945)
  • Grazyna Miller
    Grazyna Miller
    Grażyna Miller was a poet, born in Poland.She lived in Italy, where she wrote poems and translates publications from Polish into Italian. She was also a literary critic whose work was published by the most prestigious Italian press media...

      (born 1957)
  • Andrzej Kijowski
    Andrzej Kijowski
    Andrzej Kijowski was a Polish literary critic, essayist, prose and screenwriter. His son is poet and critic Andrzej Tadeusz Kijowski....

     (1928–1985)
  • Ryszard Kapuściński
    Ryszard Kapuscinski
    Ryszard Kapuściński was a Polish journalist and writer whose dispatches in book form brought him a global reputation. Also a photographer and poet, he was born in Pińsknow in Belarusin the Kresy Wschodnie or eastern borderlands of the second Polish Republic, into poverty: he would say later that...

     (1932–2007)
  • Jadwiga Staniszkis
    Jadwiga Staniszkis
    Jadwiga Staniszkis is a Polish sociologist and political scientist, essayist, a former professor at the University of Warsaw and the Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu , a Polish campus of National-Louis University....

     (born 1942)
  • Ryszard Legutko
    Ryszard Legutko
    Ryszard Antoni Legutko , born 24 December 1949. Polish philosopher and politician. Professor of philosophy at the Jagellonian University in Kraków, specializing in ancientphilosophy and political theory....

     (born 1949)
  • Paweł Huelle (born 1957)
  • Jerzy Pilch
    Jerzy Pilch
    Jerzy Pilch is one of the most important contemporary Polish writers and journalists. Critics have compared Pilch's style to Witold Gombrowicz, Milan Kundera, or Bohumil Hrabal....

     (born 1952)

  • Nobel laureates

    • Henryk Sienkiewicz
      Henryk Sienkiewicz
      Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. A Polish szlachcic of the Oszyk coat of arms, he was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his...

       (1905)
    • Władysław Reymont (1924)
    • Czesław Miłosz (1980)
    • Wisława Szymborska (1996)

    See also

    • Socialist realism in Polish literature
      Socialist realism in Polish literature
      Socialist realism was a political doctrine enforced in Poland by the Soviet-sponsored communists government soon after the end of World War II and the Soviet takeover of the country. It was a considerably short period in the history of Polish literature marked by public fear caused by the gross...

    • Science fiction and fantasy in Poland
      Science fiction and fantasy in Poland
      Science fiction and fantasy in Poland dates to the late 18th century. During the later years of the People's Republic of Poland, social science fiction was a very popular genre of science fiction. Afterwards, many others gained prominence. Currently there are many science fiction writers in Poland....

    • Polish comics
      Polish comics
      Polish comics are comics written and produced in Poland. Very few of these comics have been published in languages other than Polish.- History :...

    • Polish poetry
      Polish poetry
      Polish poetry has a centuries old history, similar to the Polish literature.Three most famous Polish poets are known as the Three Bards: Adam Mickiewicz , Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński ....

    • Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich
      Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich
      The Stowarzyszenie Pisarzy Polskich is a Polish Writers' Association, an organization of major Polish writers, poets, playwrights, critics and translators. SPP is a continuation of the Polish Writers Association, founded in 1920....

    • Samizdat
      Samizdat
      Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...

    • List of Polish-language authors
    • List of Polish-language poets
    • List of Poles: Literature

    External links

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