Kaukaski tekst literatury polskiej. Rozpoznania

Abstract

The author of the article argues that there is a separate ‘Caucasian text’ in Polish literature, which has its own thematic, aesthetic, and genre distinctions. It began to form in the 15th century when the Republic of Poland established diplomatic, and economic channels with the Caucasus region, Persia, and Turkey. In repression for speaking out against Tsarist Russia, Poles were conscripted into the Russian army in the 19th century. Many of them were poets and wrote travel accounts. Relations with the region were strengthened in the 20th century, and after 1989 a large amount of reportage prose from the region began to be published. The Caucasian text has many of its ethnocultural subtexts: Georgian, Armenian, Chechen, Azeri, Ossetian, etc. The author of the article notes that the primary reason for the regression of research on this text is the lack of critical editions of 19th-century Polish literature created by the so-called Caucasians. He is also critical of non-scientific editions which modernize 19th-century texts (e.g., The Caucasus. Memoirs from Twelve Years of Captivity by Matthew Gralewski from 1877 in a scandalous 2015 popular edition, in which the text was „rewritten” into 21st-century Polish).