The History of Polish Literature, Updated edition

This book is a survey of Polish letters and culture from its beginnings to modern times. Czeslaw Milosz updated this edition in 1983 and added an epilogue to bring the discussion up to date.

Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004) was born in Lithuania and was Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1980 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Preface to Second Edition
Introduction

I. The Middle Ages
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
LITERATURE IN LATIN
LITERATURE IN POLISH

II. The Fifteenth Century: The Late Middle Ages
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
LITERATURE IN LATIN-PROSE
LITERATURE IN POLISH
Poetry
Prose

III. Humanism and Reformation: The Sixteenth Century
and the Beginning of the Seventeenth Century
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
LITERATURE IN LATIN
Prose
Poetry
LITERATURE IN POLISH
The New Book Market
Encyclopedias and Picturesque Reports
The History of Polish .(iterature
Lukasz Gornicki
Mikolaj Rej
Jan Kochanowski
Other Lyric Poets
Descriptive and Satirical Poetry
Polemical Prose
The Theater
WRITINGS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

IV. The Seventeenth Century: Counter Reformation
and the Baroque
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
LITERATURE IN LATIN
LITERATURE IN POLISH
Lyric Poetry of the First Half of the
Seventeenth Century
Poets of Baroque Conceits
Moralistic and Satiric Poetry
Sarmatian Epic Poetry
Prose
The Theater

V. The First Half of the Eighteenth Century-
The "Saxon Night"
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
POETRY
THE PRECURSORS OF CHANGE

VI. The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century-
The Enlightenment
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
THE THEATER
MEN OF LETTERS
SENTIMENTAL POETS
THE REFORMERS
THE INCREDIBLE POTOCKI

VII. Romanticism
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
CLASSICISM AND PRE-ROMANTICISM
ADAM MICKIEWICZ
JULIUSZ SLOWACKI
ZYGMUNT KRASINSKI
THE UKRAINIAN SCHOOL
ALEKSANDER FREDRO
PROSE IN THE ROMANTIC PERIOD
HISTORIANS AND PHILOSOPHERS
STORY OF A FAMILY
CYPRIAN NORWID

VIII. Positivism
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
THE POSITIVISTS
THE KRAKOW SCHOOL
NATURALISM
BOLESLAW PRUS
ELIZA ORZESZKOW
HENRYK SIENKIEWICZ
OTHER PROSE WRITERS
POETRY

IX. Young Poland
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
THE INITIATORS
POETRY
Leopold Staff
Boleslaw Le§mian
THE THEATER
Stanislaw Wyspiaiiski
Naturalistic and Psychological Drama
A NEW OPPOSITION TO THE "MODERNA"
IN THE SATIRICAL VEIN
NOVELISTS
Stefan Zeromski
Wladyslaw Reymont
Wadaw Berent
CRITICISM AND PHILOSOPHY
Stanislaw Brzozowski

X. Independent Poland: 1918-1939
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
POETRY
"Skamander"
Revolutionary Poets
The First Vanguard
Toward the Second Vanguard
THE THEATER
Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz
THE NOVEL AND THE SHORT STORY
Witold Gombrowicz
THE ESSAY AND INTERMEDIARY GENRES

XI. World War II and the First Twenty Years of
People's Poland
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
POSTWAR LITERATURE
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Poetry
Prose
The Theater
The Essay and Intermediary Genres
Emigre Literature

Epilogue
On Polish Versification
Selected Bibliography
Index