Racialisation of the nation and transmutation of race: Two-way transformation in Polish romantic writing Cover Image

Urasowienie narodu i przenarodowienie rasy, czyli o dwukierunkowej transformacji w polskiej refleksji romantycznej
Racialisation of the nation and transmutation of race: Two-way transformation in Polish romantic writing

Author(s): Joanna Nowak
Subject(s): Cultural history, History of ideas, Interwar Period (1920 - 1939)
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika
Keywords: race; nation; ethnicity; romantic reflection; racial myths;

Summary/Abstract: This article outlines Poland's two-way conceptual transformation from nation to race and race to nation in selected texts by authors writing in the inter-insurrectional period. This period was dominated by the Romantic movement, where the concept of nation overshadowed the discourse on human divisions. The latter included the notion of race reduced to a national or ethnic group with fixed characteristics. While the nation's racialisation was purposefully initiated by Polish political and intellectual elites, outside of these circles, writers racialised the nation by superimposing characteristics recognised as typical of the races they were describing onto the nation's cultural template.

  • Issue Year: 72/2024
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 133-155
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Polish
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