The Ukrainian Studies Dimension of Comparative Literature in the Works of Antoni Serednicki
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17721/Keywords:
literary connections, comparative studies, history and theory of Polish comparative studies, contemporary Ukrainian-Polish literary contacts, the Kresy, imagologyAbstract
This article focuses on analyzing the range of Polish-Ukrainian comparative connections and how they were addressed in the scholarly work of the noted 20th-century Polish scholar Antoni Serednicki.
The study traces the main stages in the historical development of Polish comparative historical studies, the first of which dates back to the Renaissance, when cultural exchanges between Poland and many countries of Western Europe expanded significantly. These literary exchanges gained considerable momentum in all subsequent literary eras. The theoretical definition of “comparative literature” emerged in Polish philological scholarship at the beginning of the 19th century.
Polish comparative studies began to develop particularly rapidly starting in the second half of the 19th century and continue to this day.
An important part of Polish comparative interests has been and remains the Polish-Ukrainian literary ties and mutual influences, which have a long history, traced by A. Serednicki as far back as the 15th century.
According to A. Serednicki, the scope of contemporary comparative studies by Polish literary scholars encompasses thematic perspectives related to: general issues of Polish-Ukrainian cultural relations, various historical stages of their literary development (from ancient literature to the present day), issues concerning the Polish-Ukrainian borderlands (Kresy) from a literary perspective, questions of imagology and folklore studies, and research into mutual connections reflected in the works of individual Polish and Ukrainian writers (H. Skovoroda, T. Shevchenko, I. Franko, Olena Pchilka, Lesya Ukrainka, B. Lepkyi, V. Stefanyk, V. Vynnychenko, M. Rylskyi, Ye. Malanyuk, L. Kostenko, A. Mickiewicz, J. Słowacki, C. Norwid, M. Konopnicka, J. Kasprowicz, W. Orkan, J. Łobodowski, A. Stasiuk, and others.
According to A. Serednicki, the deepening of creative ties between the two literatures was also promoted by the significant expansion in the 20th century of the range of Polish publications focused on cultural dialogue, as well as the increase in the number of departments of Ukrainian studies at many universities in Poland.
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