Polish Ukrainica in Antoni Serednicki’s Literary-Critical Reception

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze and systematize the thematic priorities of Polish writers, translators, and scholars’ artistic interests in Ukrainian subjects as reflected in the literary-critical receptions of the noted Polish literary scholar Antoni Serednicki.

The article argues that the study of comparative — and, in particular, imagological — reflections of creative relations between Polish and Ukrainian literatures is an especially timely task for contemporary literary scholarship and requires further systematization and methodological elaboration.

The study examines the thematic range of literary-scholarly research addressing the cultural-historical and, more specifically, literary aspects of Polish–Ukrainian creative contacts, as represented in Serednicki’s numerous literary-critical surveys. The thematic and research scope of his observations is analyzed on the basis of a large body of overview and monographic articles that evaluate the general development of Polish–Ukrainian literary relations as well as their representation in the work of individual authors from the two neighbouring literatures. In the present study the wide and multifaceted spectrum of Polish–Ukrainian literary relations is considered in the context of Ukrainian themes as they appear in the works of Polish writers of the first half of the twentieth century — e. g. Stanisław Wyspiański, Stefan Żeromski, Władysław Orkan, Władysław Reymont, Stanisław Vincenz, Wacław Lipiński, and others — and of authors of the second half of the century such as Jan Brzoza, Wacław Kubacki, Jerzy Stempowski, Włodzimierz Słobodnik, Józef Łobodowski, Wanda Wasilewska, Władysław Broniewski, Jerzy Harasymowicz, Maria Dąbrowska, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, and others.

The article separately highlights the contribution of Polish literary scholars, translators, and folklorists to the development of bilateral literary relations, demonstrating how their work fostered channels of cultural exchange and transnational intellectual networks between Poland and Ukraine.

It is concluded that, under contemporary political conditions, the topic of Polish–Ukrainian literary relations is acquiring growing importance and attracting increasing attention from researchers in both countries. This trend stimulates further interest in cultural exchange, deepens research in comparative literature and imagology, and strengthens creative contacts between our peoples.