ON THE POSSIBLE BENEFITS OF TAKING UP POLISH STUDIES IN THE UNITED STATES

The article presents major challenges and opportunities facing Polish studies in the United States. Beginning with a brief historical survey, it assesses the state of American Polish studies at the start of the twenty-first century. It argues that to map the changing landscape of the field, it is necessary to move away from stereotypes that have hampered a fuller, more complex understanding of American Polonistics. It concludes by examining paradigm shifts that are taking place across the discipline as it is practiced in the United States.

∗Artykuł jest nieznacznie zmienioną wersją tekstu, który ukazał się pierwotnie w „Slavic and East European Journal” (vol. 50, no 1 [2006], s. 117–134) pod tytułem What Good Are Polish Literary Studies in the United States? Przedruk za uprzejmą zgodą redakcji.

Przełożył Tomasz Kunz

POLISH LITERARY CANON AS A CHALLENGE FOR A FOREIGN SPECIALIST IN POLISH STUDIES: THE PROBLEM OF TRANSLATION

In the article an attempt is made to answer the question why some Polish literary works are included in the world canon and some others, endorsed by Polish critics as excellent, are not. The author discusses The Western Canon of Harold Bloom and the criteria for including some literary works in Bloom’s canon and excluding others from this canon. There are only a few works of Polish literature on Bloom’s list. This is a starting point for the discussion about the presence of Polish literature in the world canon. As far as non-English literary works are concerned, the shape of the canon is influenced by several factors. Translation into English is only a prerequisite for a more important role in the world canon. Anthologies also play a decisive role in this process. However, there are a few other equally important factors: an influential, well known translator; a mainstream publishing house; recommendations of renowned critics; and reviews in prestigious journals and magazines. For that reason there are works and authors that can be found in the world canon, e.g. the latest translation of Ferdydurke, included as the only Polish literary work on a list of 501 Must-Read Books published by Bounty Books in 2007. This translation was included because it was published by Yale University Press, recommended by Susan Sontag and favourably reviewed by „The Observer”. This is also the case with the poetry Adam Zagajewski –he is in the canon not only because he is an excellent poet but also because he is a professor of prestigious American universities; his poetry and essays are present in magazines, such as „New Yorker”; he has an influential translator; his works  are published by well known publishers and revieweed by „The New York Review of Books”. Only in such circumstances is there a chance to include a work of a minor literature in the world canon.

DOES THE PHRASE „POLISH LITERATURE” MEAN THE SAME THING IN ENGLISH AND POLISH? (A PROBLEM OF RECEPTION THEORY AND MUCH MORE…)

This article challenges a notion that translators and scholars of Polish literature abroad typically take for granted, namely, that what the non-Polish reader understands as Polish literature could or should be equivalent to the literary canon in Poland. By considering fundamental concepts of reception theory, particularly as it has been developed by Hans Robert Jauss, as well as more recent arguments about the construction of so-called „world literature”, the author demonstrates how basic differences in readers’ access to linguistic, historical, and cultural information alters the dynamic interactions of reader and text in foreign versus native environments. As a result, the process of translating and interpreting Polish texts can never reproduce that literature in a foreign language environment, but can only produce a new text that will be absorbed as native.