Why the History of Polish Literature of the Last Thirty Years Will Never be Written Cover Image

Dlaczego nie powstanie historia literatury polskiej ostatnich trzydziestu lat?
Why the History of Polish Literature of the Last Thirty Years Will Never be Written

Author(s): Andrzej Niewiadomski
Subject(s): Cultural history, Polish Literature, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: recent literature; modernism; postmodernism; literary generation; breakthrough in literature; periodization; literary criticism;

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with attempts by literary critics and literary historians to order Polish literature of the last thirty years. It points to the low operational value of the categories and terms used by researchers when trying to define the most important features of literature of that period. Periodization that pinpoints the literary breakthrough to the year 1989 cannot be such a sorting order, nor can it be the category of literary generation or the distinction between modernist and postmodern literature in Poland. An attempt to create the history of literature on the thirtieth anniversary of the political breakthrough encounters significant difficulties connected mainly with the fact that there is no identifiable closing event for that period. The first steps towards a reliable description should be, although it is a very difficult task, to give up used terminology, diversify research reflection and introduce a broader historical perspective going back beyond 1989.

  • Issue Year: 2020
  • Issue No: 43
  • Page Range: 5-22
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish