A jednak filologia… Poloniści francuscy wobec dziedzictwa i teraźniejszości
And yet Philology. Polish Studies Scholars Facing Heritage and the Present

Summary/Abstract: The article commences with an examination of the origins of Polish studies in France, integrating this historical perspectivewith the evolution of Polish-French cultural interactions. A particular focus is placed on the legacy of the Great Emigration.The author goes on to discuss the first 20th-century institutional initiatives related to the teaching of the Polish languageand the literature and culture created in it. She demonstrates the pivotal role of eminent French philologists, includingPaul Cazin, Jean Fabre, Jean Bourrilly, Jean Lajarrige and Claude Backvis, who worked in Belgium, in the reception of Polishwriters. The reconstruction of the principles underlying their philological expertise based on the pillars of dissertation,translation and explication of the text allows for the demonstration of the specificity of Polish studies in France at the end ofthe 20th century and in the first decades of the 21st century, situating them against the background of the main theoreticaltrends in the broadly understood humanities. Within this extensive domain, old philological traditions meet various formsof modern hermeneutics. The pragmatism of recent comparative literary and cultural studies makes it possible to rethinkthe nature of this encounter and to exploit its cognitive potential in attempts to understand historical phenomena and theirsignificance for the present. The new, expanded philology can therefore be regarded as a public good, serving to protectsociety from the overflow of mass culture, consumerism, and conformism.

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