Writers and Their Literary Criticism (The Writing of Sienkiewicz in the Discussions Conducted After the Second World War)

Abstract

Writers pursue criticism in a different way than "professional" critics, they are more subjective, metaphorical and aesthetic. The language of their statements is different, though their objectives and functions are similar. In the past half-century many leading writers dealt with the writing of Sienkiewicz. Gombrowicz, Gołubiew, Kijowski, Lem, Miłosz, Parnicki, Faulkner and Montherlant (among the foreign writers) devoted long texts to Sienkiewicz. Two attitudes towards the author of Trylogia are manifest here: a critical attitude, among the writers at variance with Polishness; and an approving attitude with the classicizing or (especially artistically) conservative writers. All the writers are positive about those meanings and values in the work of Sienkiewicz. They support their writing, and are dear to them. The basic context for the contemporary writers is history and literature after World War Two.