Polish Literature - Interbellum and The Return To Independence

Interbellum and The Return To Independence

Literature of the Second Polish Republic encompasses a short, though exceptionally dynamic period in Polish literary consciousness. The socio-political reality has changed radically with Poland's return to independence. In large part, derivative of these changes was the collective and unobstructed development of programs for artists and writers. New avant-garde trends had emerged. The period, spanning just twenty years, was full of notable individualities who saw themselves as exponents of changing European civilization, including Tuwim, Witkacy, Gombrowicz, Miłosz, Dąbrowska and Nałkowska (PAL). They all contributed to a new model of the twentieth-century Polish culture echoing its own language of everyday life.

The two decades of Interbellum were marked by rapid development in the field of poetry, undivided and undiminished for the first time in over a century. From 1918 to 1939, the gradual and successive introduction of new ideas resulted in the formation of separate and distinct trends. The first decade of Polish interwar poetry was clear, constructive, and optimistic; as opposed to the second decade marked by dark visions of the impending war, internal conflicts within the Polish society, and growing pessimism. The whole period was amazingly rich nevertheless. In 1933 Polish Academy of Literature (PAL) was founded by the decree of the Council of Ministers of the Republic (Rada Ministrów RP), the highest opinion-forming authority in the country awarding Gold and the Silver Laurels (Złoty, and Srebrny Wawrzyn), two highest national honors for contribution to literature. One of the most prominent poets of the interwar period was Bolesław Leśmian (member of PAL) whose creative personality developed before 1918, and in large part influenced both decades (until his death in 1937). The literary life of his contemporaries revolved mostly around the issues of independence. All Polish poets treated the concept of freedom with extreme seriousness, and many patriotic works had emerged at that time, not to mention a particular variant of a poetic cult of Piłsudski.

Jan Brzechwa (1900–1966) Maria Dąbrowska (1889–1965) Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969), Ferdydurke Bruno Jasieński (1901–1938) Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz (1894–1980) Maria Kuncewiczowa (1899–1989) Jan Lechoń (1899–1956) Bolesław Leśmian (ca. 1877–1937), PAL Józef Mackiewicz (1902–85) Kornel Makuszyński (1884–1953), Koziołek Matołek, PAL Zofia Kossak-Szczucka (1890–1968), Krzyżowcy

Andrzej Strug (1871–1937) Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885–1939), Nienasycenie Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska (1891–1945) Bruno Schulz (1892–1942), Sanatorium Pod Klepsydrą Julian Tuwim (1894–1953) Kazimierz Wierzyński (1894–1969), PAL Stanisław Młodożeniec (1895–1959) Antoni Słonimski (1895–1976) Aleksander Wat (1900–1967) Julian Przyboś (1901–1970) Halina Poświatowska (1935–1967)

Further information: Skamander and Polish Academy of Literature