Reading List for the Departmental Ph.D. Minor in Polish

Students are responsible for developing a general understanding of the history of Polish literature, its periods, major movements, themes, and authors, from the Renaissance to the present. Students should also be aware of the stylistic hallmarks that represent them. Representative works are given for each period. Students should consult with Professor Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozova on priorities and any modification to this reading list.

  1. The Renaissance

         Jan Kochanowski, esp. “Threnodies/Laments,” “Trifles”
  2. Sarmatianism: The Ideology of the Polish Nobility
  3. Romanticism

         Adam Mickiewicz, Pan Tadeusz

         Aleksander Fredro, Revenge
  4. Positivism

         Boleslaw Prus, The Doll

         Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis
  5. Young Poland

         Wladyslaw Reymont, The Peasants
  6. The Avant-Garde

         Witold Gombrowicz, Ferdydurke

         Bruno Schulz, The Street of Crocodiles

         Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz,“The Wilko Girls”
  7. Polish Literature after World War II

         Jerzy Andrzejewski, Ashes and Diamonds

         Slawomir Mrozek, Emigrants

         Czeslaw Milosz, New and Collected Poems, 1931-2001,Poezje wybrane

         Wislawa Szymobrska, Poems New and Collected, 1957-1997; Wiersze wybrane

         Pawel Huelle, Who Was David Weiser?

         Tomek Tryzna, Miss Nobody

Graduate students who have chosen to complete a minor in Polish are expected to have read at least a portion of each text in the original Polish. Each writer has an individual style with which students should be familiar.

  • Jan Kochanowski(1530-1584).

         Treny. 1580.

         Fraszki. 1584.
  • Aleksander Fredro (1793-1876).

         Zemsta. 1834.
  • Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855).

         Pan Tadeusz; czyli ostatni zajazd na Litwie.Historia szlachecka z roku 1811  i 1812 we dwunastu księgach wierszem pisana. 1834.
  • Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916).

         Quo Vadis. 1895.
  • Boleslav Prus (Aleksander Głowacki; 1847-1912).

         Lalka.1887–1889.
  • Władysław Reymont (1867-1925).

          Chłopi. 1904-1909.
  • Bruno Schulz (1892-1942).

         Sklepy cynamonowe. 1934.

         Sanatorium pod klepsydrą. 1937.
  • Jaros ławIwaszkiewicz (1894-1980).

         Pannyz Wilka: opowiadania. 1933.
  • Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969).

         Ferdydurke. 1937.
  • Jerzy Andrzejewski (1909-1983).

         Popiół i diament. 1948.
  • Czesław Miłosz (1911-2004).

         Poezje wybrane. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1998.
  • Wisława Szymborska (1923-).

         Wiersze wybrane. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2000.
  • Sławomir Mroże k(1930-).

         Emigranci. 1974.
  • Tomek [Tomasz] Tryzna (1948-).

         Panna Nikt. Written 1988/Published 1994.
  • Pawel Huelle (1957-).

         Weiser Dawidek. 1987.

While students are not expected to have read all of the following, and while this list is by no means exhaustive, students are expected to be familiar with important secondary sources for Polish literature.

  • Norman Davis. Heart of Europe. A Short History of Poland. Oxford: Clarendon Press,1984.
  • Dictionary of Polish Literature. E.J. Czerwinski, ed. Westport, CT, London: Greenwood Press, 1994.
  • Czeslaw Milos. The History of Polish Literature. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press,1983.
  • Michael Mikos. Polish Renaissance Literature. An Anthology. Bloomington, IN: Slavic Publishers, Inc.,1995.
  • Jerzy Ziomek. Renesans. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2006.
  • Mieczysław Klimowicz. Oświecenie. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo NaulowePWN, 2008.
  • ____________. Polish Romantic Literature. An Anthology. Bloomington, IN: Slavica, 2002.
  • Roman Koropeckyj. Adam Mickiewicz. The Life of a Romantic. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2008.
  • Anna Witkowska, Ryszard Przybylski. Romantyzm. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN,2006.
  • ____________. Polish Literature from 1864-1918: Realism and Yong Poland. An Anthology. Bloomington,IN:Slavica,2006.
  • Artur Hutnikiewicz. Młoda Polska. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN,2007.
  • Jerzy Kwiatkowski. Dwudziestolecie międzywojenne. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2003.
  • Jerzy Ficowski. Regions of the Great Heresy. Bruno Schulz. A Biographical Portrait. Theodosia Robertson, ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.
  • Gombrowicz’s Grimaces. Modernism. Gender. Nationality. Ewa Plonowska-Ziarek, ed. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.
  • Halina Stephan. Transcending the Absurd: drama and prose of Slawomir Mrozek. Amsterdam; Atlanta, GA: Rodopi,1997.
  • Andrew Wachtel. Remaining Relevant after Communism: the role of the writer in Eastern Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
  • Teresa Halikowska-Smith. “The Past as palimpsest. The Gdansk school of writers in the 1980s and 1990s.” The Sarmatian Review 1 (2003): 922-28.
  • Przemysław Czapliński. Ślady przełomu: o prozie polskiej 1976-1996. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie,1997.

Downloadable Copy of the Reading List for the Departmental Ph.D. Minor in Polish (.pdf)