Another canon : the Polish nineteenth-century novel in world context

Polish contemporary literature is not a closed book to European and world readers. Those not involved professionally in the production or study of literature may well have heard of Stanisław Lem, Witold Gombrowicz, Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska or the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018, Olga Tokarczuk. The situation is different with Polish literature of earlier periods, including the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novel. The works of Ignacy Krasicki, Michał Czajkowski, J\'{o}zef Ignacy Kraszewski, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Maria Komornicka, Stefan Żeromski and Bolesław Prus - the exception perhaps is Henryk Sienkiewicz, whose novels were translated into many languages - did not enter European circulation on any large scale and have rarely been included in comparative studies. Our book attempts to change this perspective and poses the question as to whether another - expanded and more inclusive - literary canon is possible. Grażyna Borkowska is a professor at the Institute of Literary Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences, a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the president of the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Association Lidia Wiś niewska is a professor and the Director of the Chair for General and Comparative Literature at the Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz and vice-president of the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society Association