Yes, the title of this post is so clearly referring to the video that I’ve made almost two years ago. This time it’s time to write a post about it! And yes, it’s the end of writing posts about things that I’ve already said. Now this blog and my YT channel will always be standing in the same row…

You can watch two videos at first. In the first one I talk about the literature only and it got quite long so the next part appeared in the next video at the ending. Find the 10:19 min out there in the second video.

Literally epoques I talk about in these two videos: Enlightenment (18th century), Romanticism, Positivism, Young Poland (19th century), Interwar Period (1918-1939), The Time of War and Occupation (1939-1945), Modern Literature (1945-1989) and The Latest Literature (after 1989).

So, where to start…? Yep, in Middle Ages! I didn’t mention about it in my videos but that’s where I need to start now. Because that’s when the history of Poland starts but also that’s when people started to realize that they speak a different language than others. I mean that’s why Germany is Niemcy in Polish – because they are dumb. In other words, it was impossible to communicate.

It is worse with the written language because those Poles form 10th century simply couldn’t write. After the baptism they took the Latin letters and started trying to write down what they heard while our other Slavic neighbors already had a lot of practice or their own alphabet…

So, the official language of the documents was Latin for many centuries but there are some historical monuments that were written on margins. And yes, some of those text were… Dirty poetry works!

Another group of those the oldest written Polish texts are religious books. In the end it’s Middle Ages! And they were written in Polish so simple people could understand the religion and the message of various symbols or rituals. Also, some queens ordered translations of the Bible and that’s believed to be one of the most precious treasures.

Have I been trying to read such old texts? Yes. It was tough like hell! More annotations on per page than the original text! I mean I had a course about literature of Middle Ages during my first year of stories. Next literary epoques were shows to students during the second semester (Renaissance, Baroque and Enlightenment). We also came back to those translations of Bible and sermons during the fifth year and I’ve learned then that one letter had even 5 different meanings! So, this kind of science is very close to playing games, constant guessing and trying to find a proof that you’re right…

Enough of Middle Ages. Now let me tell you about the Renaissance. That’s a very important time for Polish literature because those wise people started to think about Polish orthography, about the Polish language and Jan Kochanowski was the first to start to write and publish Polish poetry. He’s as much important to us like William Shakespeare to English…

The next literary epoque is Baroque and I don’t like this short period of time to much, really! The main idea of this era literature is comparing love to death and it reminds me of dense macabre…

After Baroque we have Enlightenment and I mentioned about it in the first video. It’s the time of science, first magazines, novels and Izabela Czartoryska lived then! You, know, it’s the duchess that inspired by 4th book Great Lady’s Diary… Honestly I love this time so much and I’ve read all books that I had on the list from that time as the second thing in the row (after Middle Ages; later I remember I was filling gaps from Renaissance and Baroque). It’s also the time when Poland lost independence and that’s when romantic ideas reached this land…

I’m an expert when it comes to romantic references, you know… So, forgive me if this part gets too long!

Romanticism started in Polish literature in 1822 and that’s just a symbolic date – that’s when our main romantic – Adam Mickiewicz – published his debut poetry book entitled Ballads & Romances. I’ve published my debut exactly 200 years after him and you can only guess what is means to me! Other important names are: Juliusz Słowacki (one of main characters of my master’s thesis), Zygmunt Krasiński and Cyprian Norwid. The last poet was discovered during the Young Poland era and Krasiński was forgotten because people couldn’t understand him anymore…

These names that I gave you are those who lived on emigration and were publishing in Paris. The second group is Poles creating in those old Polish cities like Lvov, Ukraine. I mention about it because this group of poets writing in Polish was as much popular as those emigrants back then.

What makes Polish Roanticism so special? Patriotic content. There is no other Romanticism that can be descibed using this word. Because when the coutry is gone… We poets can only assume our lads that the fight is the only way to get it back…

Yes, Romanticism is a very large era that lasted until the second national uprising in 1863… Because then people discovered new philosophical trends and that’s why the next epoque (I really like this French word) is Positivism. That’s when poetry disappeared but now quite (Maria Konopnicka and Adam Asnyk are those the best among romantic poets of another generation and yes, Konopnicka is the second person about whom I wrote my master’s thesis), novels come back (Henryk Sienkiewicz is the first Polish Nobel prize winner and he’s the most worth reading; other names – Bolesław Prus and Eliza Orzeszkowa – their writings are lovely too and not worse at all) and that’s when people realized that improving the quality of life is a better way of fighting for independence… Because the best weapon is knowledge!

The second part of third year Polish studies when it comes to the History of Literature course is Young Poland. It’s the comeback of romantic ideas in a new form! But it’s also much more… Because the art of that time is impressionistic, expressionistic, symbolic, decadent and naturalistic… I don’t like those last two adjectives but when it comes to other things… It’s truly fascinating!

That’s also when the last person about whom I wrote my master’s thesis (Stanisław Wyspiański) lived but this era also gave Poles the second Nobel prize winner – Władysław Raymont.

It’s the time when we get all types of literature… Those two above belong to drama and prose and when it comes to poetry I can mention names – Jan Kasprowicz and Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer. The personality that is hard to define is Stanisław Przybyszewski… Just reading his biography sounds like a movie script!

The 19th century ends in 1918 when Poland regains an independence right with the end of the Great War. That’s when the Interior Period starts and it’s as much fascinating as 19th century… In the end my 5th book is inspired by this era… But I also have many other book ideas…

So, it’s the 4th year! The second part of it was The Time of War and Occupation (1939-1945). And again… I love this historical time and literature very much! It’s all called Modern Literature by some and that’s why historical events currently symbolically make separate name courses. I mean that’s very probable that it will gain other names one day…

The last year of studies brought… Modern Literature (1945-1989) and The Newest Literature (after 1989). Some writers were writing during more than one era and that’s why I will simply give you few names – Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska (both got Nobel prizes), Aleksander Wat, Roman Jaworski, Ryszard Kapuściński, Zbigniew Herbert, Stanisław Lem and the latest Nobel prize winner – Olga Tokarczuk. All those poets and writers’ books are totally different and that’s why I believe that it’s worth to learn more about all of them but there are obviously many more!

The last thing today – why 1989 is so important to writers? Because that’s the end of communism. In other words – no more censorship!

And this way I’ve told you about all literary epoques that make Polish literature. I hope you liked it and you’d like to learn more now! Btw, give me names of literary eras that are a part of your national literature. In comments, you know. I’d be happy to learn more as well!

The next post is coming soon and let me surprise you with the topic then…

Greetings!

A.A.