O niezasadności pojęcia „polski romantyzm krajowy”

Abstract

The article opens with an observation that the notion of “Polish national Romanticism” seems invalid and of little use. Any attempt to classify a given author as either home‑based or emigrant is problematic due to the difficulties with finding a suitable criterion for making such a distinction. It appears that neither the author’s place of residence nor the place of publication of a particular work offers a solution to the problem. Furthermore, it is highly debatable to talk about one national literature, as it was not universal but divided into different schools and region dependent. The article focuses upon two theses: firstly, national literature was not always written in the country; and secondly, Poland failed to function as a country (in political and administrative terms) in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the second part of the article, the author postulates to introduce additional terms. i.e. “national circulation of literature” and “emigrant circulation of literature”, being, however, aware that these circuits were not closed but open and interwoven with each other.