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Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. Most Polish literature has been written in the Polish language, though other languages used in Poland over the centuries (including Yiddish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, German and Esperanto, as well as Latin, a major language of Polish literature until the early 18th century) have also contributed to Polish literary traditions.
Middle Ages
Almost nothing remains of Polish literature prior to the country's Christianization. Poland's pagan inhabitants certainly possessed an oral literature, but Christian writers did not deem it worthy of mention and so it has perished.
It is customary to include among Polish literary works, works that have dealt with Poland, even if not written by ethnic Poles. This is the case with Gallus Anonymus, a foreign monk who composed his Cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum in sophisticated Latin. The important tradition of historiography in the Latin language was continued by Wincenty Kadłubek and Jan Długosz.
The first recorded sentence in the Polish language reads: "Day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai" ("Let me grind, and you take a rest")—a paraphrase of the Latin "Sine, ut ego etiam molam." The circumstances in which this phrase was written reflect the culture of early Poland. The sentence appears in the Latin chronicle Liber fundationis, a history of the Cistercian monastery in Henryków, Silesia, written between 1269 and 1273 by a German abbot known simply as Piotr (Peter), and refers 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, when he felt compassion for his wife, who "very often stood grinding by the quern-stone."[1]
Notable medieval works include:
- The Holy Cross Annals (early 12th century)
- The Chronicles of Gallus Anonymus
- The Chronicles of Wincenty Kadłubek (13th century)
- The Chronicle of Janko of Czarnków (14th century)
- The Holy Cross Sermons: the oldest extant manuscripts of fine prose in the Polish language.
- Queen Zofia's Bible (earliest Polish-language Bible)
- The Puławy Psalter
- Saint Florian's Breviary (late 14th century, partially in Polish)
- Bogurodzica: a hymn in praise of the Virgin Mary, written down in the 15th century though popular at least a century before; one of the earliest texts printed in Polish.
- Statua synodalia Wratislaviensia (1475): a printed collection of Polish and Latin prayers
- Jan Długosz's Chronicle (15th century)
- Jan Długosz's Catalogus archiepiscoporum Gnesnensium
Most early Polish vernacular texts were influenced heavily by Latin sacred literature. These include Bogurodzica ("Mother of God"), a short hymn praising the Virgin Mary, which served as a national anthem, and Rozmowa mistrza Polikarpa ze śmiercią ("Master Polikarp's Conversation with Death").
In the early 1470s the first printing houses in Poland (see Spread of the printing press) were set up by Kasper Straube in Kraków. In 1475 Kasper Elyan of Glogau (Głogów) set up a printing shop in Breslau (Wrocław), Silesia. Twenty years later, the first Cyrillic printing house was founded at Kraków by Schweipolt Fiol for Eastern Orthodox Church hierarchs.
Renaissance
With the advent of the Renaissance, 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 other Polish writers studied abroad or at the Kraków Academy, which became a melting pot for new ideas and currents. In 1488 the Sodalitas Litterarum Vistulana, the world's first writers' club, was founded at Kraków by Conrad Celtis.[citation needed]
A Polish writer who used Latin as his principal vehicle of expression was Klemens Janicki (Ianicius), who became one of the most notable Latin poets of his time and was laureled by the Pope. Other writers such as Mikołaj Rej and Jan Kochanowski laid the foundations for a Polish literary language and modern Polish grammar.
Notable Polish writers and poets active in the 16th century included:
- Biernat of Lublin (ca. 1465 – after 1529), Raj duszny (a prayer-book, Hortulus Animae, Eden of the Soul, 1513, the first book printed entirely in the Polish language, in Kraków, at Poland's first printing establishment, operated by Florian Ungler of Bavaria)
- Mikołaj Hussowski (Hussowczyk, ca. 1480 – ca. 1533)
- Andrzej Krzycki (1482 – 1537)
- Johannes Dantiscus (1485 – 1548)
- Jan Łaski (1499 – 1560), Communae Poloniae Regni privilegium
- Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (1503 – 72)
- Mikołaj Rej (1505 – 69)
- Klemens Janicki (Ianicius, 1516 – 42)
- Łukasz Górnicki (1524 – 1603)
- Jan Kochanowski (1530 – 84)
- Piotr Skarga (1536 – 1612)
- Bartosz Paprocki (ca. 1543 – 1614), writer, historiographer, genealogist
- Szymon Szymonowic (1558 – 1629)
- Daniel Naborowski (1573 – 1640)
- Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (1595 – 1640)
Baroque
The literature in the period of Baroque was significantly influenced by the great popularization of Jesuit high school, which offered education basing on Latin classics and being a preparation for a political carrier. The classes of poetry required from students practical knowledge of writing Latin and Polish poems, which radically increased the number of poets and versifiers. But on this soil of humanistic education not only average writers grew. Piotr Kochanowski (1566-1620) gave his translation of Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, a poet laureate, become known among European nations as Horatius christianus (Christian Horace) for his Latin writings. Jan Andrzej Morsztyn (1621-1693), an epicurean courtier and diplomat, extolled in his sophisticated poems valors of earthly delights. Wacław Potocki (1621-1696), the most productive writer of the Polish Baroque unified the typical opinions of Polish szlachta with some deeper reflexions and existential experiences.
Enlightenment to now
Prose writers
Main article: List of Polish-language authors
Writers in chronological order of birth:
- Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801)
- Jan Potocki (1761–1815)
- Henryk Rzewuski (1791–1866)
- Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812–87)
- Edmund Chojecki (1822–99)
- Eliza Orzeszkowa (1842–1910)
- Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846–1916), Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905
- Bolesław Prus (1847–1912)
- Stefan Żeromski (1864–1925)
- Władysław Reymont (1867–1925), Nobel Prize in Literature in 1924
- Zofia Nałkowska (1885–1954)
- Stefan Grabinski (1887–1936)
- Maria Dąbrowska (1889–1965)
- Bruno Schulz (1892–1942)
- Józef Mackiewicz (1902–85)
- Witold Gombrowicz (1904–69)
- Eugeniusz Żytomirski (1911–75)
- Stanisław Lem (1921–2006)
- Tadeusz Konwicki (* 1926)
- Joanna Chmielewska (* 1932)
- Janusz A. Zajdel (1938–85)
- Andrzej Sapkowski (* 1948)
- Andrzej Stasiuk (* 1960)
- Olga Tokarczuk (* 1962)
- Rafal A. Ziemkiewicz (* 1964)
- Andrzej Majewski (* 1966)
- Daniel Koziarski (*1979)
- Dorota Masłowska (* 1983)
Poets
Main article: List of Polish-language poets
- Biernat of Lublin (ca. 1465 – after 1529)
- Mikołaj Rej of Nagłowice (1505–69)
- Jan Kochanowski (1530–84)
- Klemens Janicki (Janicius, 1516–43)
- Ignacy Krasicki (1735–1801)
- Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855)
- Juliusz Słowacki (1809–49)
- Zygmunt Krasiński (1812–59)
- Cyprian Kamil Norwid (1821–83)
- Antoni Lange (1863-1928)
- Franciszek Nowicki (1864–1935)
- Bolesław Leśmian (ca. 1877 –1937)
- Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska (1891–1945)
- Jan Brzechwa (1900–66)
- Aleksander Wat (1900-1967)
- Tadeusz Różewicz (born 1921)
- Miron Białoszewski (1922–83)
- Julian Tuwim (1894–1953)
- Władysław Broniewski (1897–1962)
- Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński (1905–53)
- Czesław Miłosz (June 30, 1911– August 14, 2004), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1980
- Eugeniusz Żytomirski (1911–75)
- Wisława Szymborska (born 1923), Nobel Prize in Literature, 1996
- Zbigniew Herbert (1924–98)
- Andrzej Bursa (1932–57)
- Halina Poświatowska (1935–67)
- Rafał Wojaczek (1945–71)
- Ewa Lipska (born 1945)
- Grazyna Miller (born 1957)
- Cezary Geroń (1960–98)
- Marcin Świetlicki (born 1961)
- Andrzej Majewski (born 1966)
- Jan Stanisław Skorupski (born 1938)
Essayists
- Bolesław Prus (1847-1912)
- Gustaw Herling-Grudziński (1911-2000)
- Andrzej Kijowski (1928-1985)
- Ryszard Kapuściński (1932-2007)
- Paweł Huelle (born 1957)
- Jerzy Pilch (born 1952)
- Ludwik Stomma
Nobel laureates
- Henryk Sienkiewicz (1905)
- Władysław Reymont (1924)
- Czesław Miłosz (1980)
- Wisława Szymborska (1996)
See also
- List of Poles
- Polish comics
- Polish poetry
- Science fiction and fantasy in Poland
- Skamander
- Three Bards
Notes
- ^ Mikoś, Michael J. (1999). "MIDDLE AGES LITERARY BACKGROUND". Staropolska on-line. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
References
- Czesław Miłosz, The History of Polish Literature, 2nd edition, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1983, ISBN 0-520-04477-0.
- Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski, ed., Literatura polska od średniowiecza do pozytywizmu (Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to Positivism), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979, ISBN 83-01-00201-8.