Abstract
The novel With Fire and Sword by Henry Sienkiewicz (1846–1916) is an example of the interweaving of fiction, historiography, and national collective imagination. It was written at the end of the period of Polish partition (1882–1888) and deals with events that marked the history and the collective imaginations of Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews: the history of the Khmel’nyts’kyy Uprising (1648–1657). The epic nature of these historical events already carried the seeds of a powerful and emotional narrative that lends itself to mythicization. However, the reading of this book in a later situation, the Second Polish Republic (1921–1939), led the Polish Sanacja government to withdraw it from the compulsory reading in Polish schools in 1932.This aspect of the Jędrzejewicz school reform sparked a lively debate in the Polish press, whereby historians, literature scholars, and journalists discussed the function that this book should have in the patriotic education of young Polish citizens, against the backdrop of tensions between the state and the political opposition on the issue of minorities, namely the Ukrainian minority. This discussion discloses the central place that Sienkiewicz has been given in Polish culture. At the same time, it examines the position that Polish intellectuals attribute to the Ukrainian minority in the Polish state and culture.
Highlights
Résumé : Le roman Par le fer et par le feu de Henry Sienkiewicz (1846-1916) est un exemple d’entrelacement de fiction, d’historiographie et d’imaginaires collectifs nationaux
What happens to a novel that depicts a vision of a society’s past that is strongly anchored in a particular historical situation, when the context changes? With Fire and Sword [Ogniem i mieczem] was written by Henry Sienkiewicz (1846–1916) towards the end of the period of Polish partition (1882–1888), about the history of the Khmel’nyts’kyy Uprising (1648–1657), which led to the creation of a Cossack Hetmanate in Ukrainian lands
We propose to focus here on this discussion in the Polish press that took place in 1933–1934 during the Second Polish Republic, in the context of tensions between
Summary
Sienkiewicz succeeded in capturing and simultaneously shaping the Polish collective representation of a crucial period in the region’s history. In 1905 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel Quo Vadis His works were published, as was customary, in newspapers, in serialised form (as a series of “felietons” —the word is derived from the French feuilleton), initially in the conservative dailies Słowo in Warsaw and Czas in Kraków, between 1882 and 1884 (Bujnicki 2016, 127). As was customary, in newspapers, in serialised form (as a series of “felietons” —the word is derived from the French feuilleton), initially in the conservative dailies Słowo in Warsaw and Czas in Kraków, between 1882 and 1884 (Bujnicki 2016, 127) In other words, his serialised novel was read across partitioned Poland. The format may have had some influence on the sensationalism of the text, including the frequent brutal scenes that later became the focus of criticism
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