Misplaced Pages

Polish literature: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 17:11, 13 December 2006 edit81.107.27.122 (talk) External links: Link added← Previous edit Revision as of 15:58, 16 December 2006 edit undoPoeticbent (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers29,717 edits PoetsNext edit →
Line 108: Line 108:
* ] (]–]) * ] (]–])
* ] (]–]) * ] (]–])
* ] (]–])
* ] (b. ]) * ] (b. ])
* ] (b. ])
* ] (b. ]) * ] (b. ])
* ] (]–])
* ] (]–]) * ] (]–])
* ] (b. ]) * ] (b. ])

Revision as of 15:58, 16 December 2006

Part of a series on the
Culture of Poland
History
People
Languages
Traditions
Mythology
Cuisine
Festivals
Religion
Art
Literature
Music and performing arts
Media
Sport
Monuments
Symbols

Polish literature is the literary tradition of Poland. The majority of Polish literature was written in the Polish language, though other languages used in Poland over the centuries (including Latin, Yiddish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and German) have also contributed to Polish literary traditions.

Middle Ages

The earliest monuments of Polish literature date to the Middle Ages. Most were religious tracts transcribed by local copyists from Latin works popular in western (i.e. Christian) Europe. The first substantial books were created about the 11th century, when the first scriptoria were founded on Polish soil.

The first recorded sentence in the Polish language reads: "day ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai" ("let me grind, and you take a rest") and was a paraphrase of the Latin "Sine, ut ego etiam molam". The circumstances in which this phrase was written reflected the cultural conditions in early Poland. The sentence appears in the Latin chronicle Liber fundationis, the history of the Cistercian monastery in Henryków, Silesia, written between 1269 and 1273 by a German abbot, known simply as Piotr (Peter), and referred to an event almost 100 years earlier, supposedly uttered by a Bohemian settler, Bogwal ("Bogwalus Boemus"), a subject of Bolesław the Tall, when he felt compassion for his wife who "very often stood grinding by the quern-stone."

Notable works of literature from the medieval period include:


Several short Polish texts of the period were influenced heavily by western literature. These include Bogurodzica (Mother of God), a short hymn praising the Virgin Mary, which served as a national anthem, and Rozmowa mistrza Polikarpa ze śmiercią (Master Polikarp's conversation with death).

In the early 1470s the first printing houses were set up in Kraków and Wrocław. Twenty years later, the first Cyrillic printing house was founded in Kraków by Eastern Orthodox Church hierarchs.

The most famous Polish works of the late medieval/early renaissance period are the Latin Missal of Bishop Ciołek and Olbracht's Gradual.

Renaissance

With the advent of the Renaissance, the Polish language was finally accepted on an equal footing with Latin. Polish culture and art flourished under Jagiellonian rule, and many foreign poets and writers settled in Poland, bringing with them new literary trends. Such writers included Kallimach (Filip Buonaccorsi) and Konrad Celtis. Many other Polish writers studied abroad or at the Kraków Academy, which became a melting pot for new ideas and currents. In 1488 the Nadwiślańskie Bractwo Literackie (Vistula Literary Guild), the world's first writers' club, was created at Kraków.

One of the last Polish writers to use Latin as his principal vehicle of expression was Klemens Janicki (Ianicius), who became one of the most notable Latin poets of his time and was laureled by the Pope. Other writers such as Mikołaj Rej and Jan Kochanowski laid the foundations for a Polish literary language and modern Polish grammar.

Notable Polish writers and poets active in the 16th century included:

Enlightenment to the present

Writers and novelists

Main article: List of Polish language authors

Writers in chronological order of birth:

Poets

Main article: List of Polish language poets

Essayists

See also

External links

Category:
Polish literature: Difference between revisions Add topic