Last time we talked about the early history of Polish literature. I promised we would continue, so let’s start with Enlightenment and the 19th Century.
The Enlightenment (Oświecenie) and particularly the reign of the last king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, was an important period in the development of Polish literature.
The first Polish novel, The Adventures of Mikołaj Doświadczyński (Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego przypadki), was written by Bishop Ignacy Krasicki (1735-1801), a moralist (moralista) and satirical poet (poeta satyryczny).
Polish romantic poetry (poezja romantyczna) played an important role in keeping nationalist sentiment alive. The outstanding writers at that time, Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki and Zygmunt Krasiński, wrote outside Poland. To this day, their work forms the canon of patriotic literature, whose jewel in the crown is Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz, which is both nostalgic evocation of the vanishing traditions of the nobility and the vision of the emergence of more modern social attitudes. Also notable at this time was the comedy writer Aleksander Fredro, whose works includes Revenge (Zemsta) and Husband and Wife (Mąż i Żona).
Another writer who holds a prominent place in the history of Polish Romantic literature is Cyprian Kamil Norwid, regarded at the precursor of modernism. Eliza Orzeszkowa (1840-1910) and Bolesław Prus (1847-1912) with famous Lalka are the principal figures in the next phase of the development of the Polish novel.
Another major writer of this time was Henryk sienkiewicz (1846-1916), best known in Poland for his trilogy (trylogia) of historical novels describing events in the 17th century Poland and The Teutonic Knights (Krzyżacy), which is devoted to the late 14th and early 15th centuries. 
Outside Poland Sienkiewicz is better known for Quo Vadis?, which deals with the beginnings of Christianity and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905. Quo Vadis was made into a movie – which I happened to be on the set of as an extra. It was a lot of fun and I spent the whole summer watching this movie being made.
20th Century Literature
From 1900 onwards Young Poland (Młoda Polska), a modern trend in Polish literature particularly associated with the artist community of Cracow, began to emerge. A key role in this was played by Stanisław Wyspiański (1869-1907), author of the Symbolist play The Wedding (Wesele), which was made into a film by Andrzej Wajda 70 years later. Also influential in the Young Poland was a Bohemian group surrounding Stanisław Przybyszewski.
Another Nobel laureate was Władysław Reymont (1865-1925) for The Peasants (Chłopi), which describes the lives of the inhabitants of a village near Łowicz. Between the wars, avant-garde writers such as Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (aka Witkacy, 1885-1939), Bruno Schulz (1893-1942) and Witold Gombrowicz (1904-69) came to prominence.
Polish literature after World War II spawned many famous writers, several of whom wrote from abroad for political reasons. Stanisław Lem wrote philosophical science fiction, which has been translated into many languages. His Solaris was made into a film by Andrei Tarkovsky. Tadeusz Różewicz, also well – known as a poet, and Sławomir Mrożek are prominent among playwrights. Hanna Krall and Ryszard Kapuściński are renowned for their documentary writing. Andrzej Szczypiorski, who wrote A Mass for Arras (Msza za miasto Arras) and the Beginning (Początek) has also achieved international recognition. Contemporary poetry has a special place in Polish literature. Apart from Tadeusz Różewicz, its main exponents are Zbigniew Herbert, Ryszard krynicki and Stanisław Barańczak. 
The best illustration of the achievements of contemporary Polish writers is the award of two recent Nobel prizes: the 1980 prize to Czesław Miłosz, and the 1996 prize, to the Cracow poetess Wisława Szymborska.
It is pretty easy to get most of the Polish books online and have them sent to USA. Of course I love to shop for them while I’m in Poland, but unfortunately can not do it too often…
I apologize if I didn’t name your favorite authors. I tried to mention the most important ones though.
Do następnego razu! (Till next time…)
Comments:
Polish Mama on the Prairie:
I have the book, Quo Vadis in English, and enjoyed reading it, not knowing it was such an important piece of Polish literature until afterwards. I actually have not yet seen the movie but will have to search it out and watch it.
I have Tadeusz Różewicz work in Polish as well… I love reading and have way too many books… I think this is a good list of the most important polish literature during that era.
pies bialy:
How coul you miss Joesph Conrad who is clearly the best kown writer of Polish origin
From the wikipedia ” Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Polish-born English novelist.
Joseph Conrad was born in Berdyczów (now Berdychiv, Ukraine), into a highly patriotic, noble (yet slightly impoverished) Polish family that bore the Nałęcz coat-of-arms. His father, Apollo Korzeniowski, was a writer of politically themed plays and a translator of Alfred de Vigny and Victor Hugo from French and of Charles Dickens and Shakespeare from English. He encouraged his son Konrad to read widely in Polish and French.
In 1861, the elder Korzeniowski was arrested by Imperial Russian authorities in Warsaw, Poland for helping organise what would become the January Uprising of 1863–64, and was exiled to Vologda, a city some 300 miles (480 km) north of Moscow.
His wife, Ewelina Korzeniowska (née Bobrowska), and four-year-old son followed him into exile. Because of Ewelina’s poor health, Apollo was allowed in 1865 to move to Chernihiv, Ukraine, where wıthin a few weeks Ewelina died of tuberculosis. Apollo died four years later in Kraków, leaving Conrad orphaned at the age of eleven.
In Kraków, young Conrad was placed in the care of his maternal uncle, Tadeusz Bobrowski — a more cautious person than Conrad’s parents. Nevertheless, Bobrowski allowed Conrad to travel at the age of sixteen to Marseille and to begin a career as a seaman. This came after Conrad had been rejected for Austro-Hungarian citizenship, leaving him liable to conscription into the Russian Army.
Conrad is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in English, though he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties (and then always with a marked Polish accent). He wrote stories and novels, predominantly with a nautical or seaboard setting, that depict trials of the human spirit by the demands of duty and honour.
Conrad was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English tragic sensibility into English literature. While some of his works have a strain of romanticism, he is viewed as a precursor of modernist literature. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced many authors.
Films have been adapted from or inspired by Conrad’s Victory, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, An Outcast of the Islands, The Rover, The Shadow Line, The Duel, Heart of Darkness, and Nostromo. “
Kasia:
@pies bialy Like I said – I apologize I did not mention all the writers. I’m looking forward to all the comments from everyone though. And thanks to you now we know about Joseph Conrad. Thank you.
russ:
Thanks for the useful summary! (Even if Joseph Conrad got left out. 🙂
Kasia:
@russ Thank you, I’m trying…