Why Poland?

Some basic info for the English

Publishers

Economy? Values? Quality?

• Economy – politics: in 2015 - 916 000 Poles

lived in GB: add their neighbours, friends, co-
workers etc. so you can tripple this number or
duplicate it

Poles are one of the biggest minorities in UK

Moral obligations

• We encounter some acts of violence against

Poles in GB, especially after Brexit

• Situation is difficult but it will exist in time: we

should do something to explain Poles to their
neighbours

• Help them to understand women and men

from Poland

What average English/man/woman

knows about Poland?

• Some of them know Krakow as a never-ending

party town

• Some of them relate Poland with such terms

as Holocaust, WW2 etc.

• Better educated know something about

Solidarnosc, communist era etc

Values from the Past

• Republicanism (civil society)
• Freedom:
• civil rights (since Neminem captivabimus act

1423)

• Freedom of the speech
• Multicultural and multireligious Polish-

Lithuanian-Ukrainian Commonwealth (15-18 th

centuries)

• Tradition of religious tolerance
(The biggest settlement of Jews in Europe)

What English Publisher should know?

• power of culture: in the 19th century

literature and culture played the crucial role in
social and intellectual life: Polish identity was
shaped not by participation in political
process, but by the culture and literature

• Power of literature – for centuries literature

was the real and the only one Ambassador of
Polish state in the Western Europe

Between responsibilities and

expectations

• Author’s Responsibilities for the Polish identity

(participation in the struggle for
independence) – 19th century - till 1989

• Expectations from the audience
• This situation created a special meaning of

Polish literature and was responsible for the
international position of Milosz, Lem, Herbert,
Szymborska etc.

After 1989: new demands

Modernism - postmodernism (Bauman’s liquid
modernity)
Historicism - posthistoricism (Nowak)
Tradition - modernity (Gombrowicz)
Conservatism - progress (Kolakowski)
Religion (catholicism) – secularism (John Paul II)
Conclusion: all the most fundamental discussions of
a modern world you can find in Polish
contemporary literature

Genres

• Essay – (historical) Andrzej Nowak, (philosophical) Dariusz

Karłowicz etc. School of Polish essay: Milosz, Micinski, Kolakowski,

• Poetry – the flagship of Polish literature (Noble Prize Winners:

Milosz, Szymborska)

• Si-fi, fantazy – Stanislaw Lem and his followers (Jacek Dukaj, Ela

Cherezińska, Lukasz Orbitowski etc)

• Novel (Jacek Dehnel, Olga Tokarczuk, T. Czarnyszewicz, W.

Mysliwski)

• Reportage (Kapuscinski and his followers: do we have the school of

Polish reportage? Michał Książek – poetic reportage, Domosławski

– sociological reportage etc.)

• Crime novel (will the Scandinavian narration be dethroned by Polish

storytellers: Krajewski, Miłoszewicz, Bonda,

• Children literature (illustrators, and authors: innovative, modern,

folklore – inspired etc.)

Why translate and publish Polish

literature?

• Because The Polish Book Institute is

supporting your work!

• Because you must better understand your

neighbours

• Because Polish literary discussions throw a

new light on the problems of a modern world

• Because it can be profitable (I believe)