Contemporary Methods of Study on Old-Polish Religious Literature

Abstract

This paper reviews the methods applied in the studies on Old-Polish religious literature. The author is sceptical about the usefulness of historical and literary analyses in the studies on the actual religious attitudes. She states that the methods of the history of literature serve mainly to unveil the sources and structures of religious culture; she stresses that the use of intertextual methods is particularly effective in the most recent works. She also emphasises that need for a better recognition of the specific genres of Old-Polish religious literature and the types of writing (sermons, postillas, hagiographies, and religious epic), and she distances herself from such categories (more and more often found in studies) as metaphysical, meditative, and mystic literature. She points at difficulties in their definition, and stresses that their scope if blurred.