THE BOUNDARIES AND OUTBOUNDS OF HISTORY OF LITERATURE IN TIMES OF LIQUID POLISH STUDIES

In his article the author suggests that we should think over four fundamental hypotheses: That one cannot study the history of Polish literature (particularly abroad) without entering onto the field of comparative literature.

Historisising one or more literary works for the needs of a foreign recipient consists, on the whole, in the transposition of linguistic historical and cultural contexts; in other words, it has a lot in common with the normal translation process. It is precisely the history of literature (more than criticism, theory or even journalism and translation itself) that is the privileged field of study of a foreign Polish scholar which allows him to undertake most effective academic, cultural or even political activities. By trying to avoid all forms of ideological Polocentrism, the new Polish literary historiography should therefore strive to emphasize most distinctly the various cultural, ethnic, religious and sex-and-gender oriented elements within the complex and often internally contradictory entity which we refer to as „Polish literature”, emphasizing at the same time the „cultural nature” of a literary work, that is all types of entanglements in culture.