„A może się nawet zdarzyć, że zostawiając tak za sobą książki niby zeschłą skórę węża, po to, żeby uciekać w przód od tego, co zrobiło się dawniej, dostaje się Nagrodę Nobla”, Czesław Miłosz. Polscy nobliści
“And it may even happen that, leaving books behind like a snake’s shed skin in order to escape forward from what one has done before, one receives the Nobel Prize.” – Czesław Miłosz, Polish Nobel Laureates

Author(s): Karolina Kołodziej
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: Nobel Prize in Literature; Sienkiewicz; Reymont; Miłosz; Szymborska; Tokarczuk
Summary/Abstract: The article presents the profiles of Polish laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature, outlining the circumstances surrounding the awards and the controversies that accompanied them. The text focuses on their Nobel speeches, highlighting the most important themes addressed by the laureates. Henryk Sienkiewicz, honored in 1905, believed that the award demonstrated that Poland, despite being partitioned by foreign powers, was still alive. Władysław Stanisław Reymont, awarded in 1924, did not receive the prize in person due to poor health; he was embittered that he won the laurel at a time when illness prevented him from fully enjoying it. He interpreted it as a bitter irony of fate. Czesław Miłosz (laureate of 1980) sought to show the entanglement of Polish literature in history and its dependence on writers of earlier eras. The poet was not pleased with the “commotion” surrounding him caused by receiving the Nobel Prize. In 1996, the prize was awarded to Wisława Szymborska, who, in her Nobel lecture, spoke among other things about what it means to be a poet and about the wonder contained in the simple phrase “I don’t know.” Olga Tokarczuk, awarded in 2018, focused, among other issues, on explaining the idea of the “tender narrator” and reflecting on contemporary ways of reading. The second part of the text discusses the reception of the works of Polish Nobel laureates in Italy, pointing to the great popularity of Henryk Sienkiewicz and Wisława Szymborska.

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