In search of the strength to exist: Polish Literature of Criticism between 1890 and 1914
Authors: Bakuła Bogusław 
Published: August 2023

The article describes the critical trends in literature and in socio-political thought known as the Polish Literature of Criticism (New Critical Order), which is part of the cultural heritage of the period from 1890 to 1914 that opposed decadent moods, the catastrophism of the end of the century, the cult of the individual and the modernist idea of art for art’s sake. Literature of Criticism was a multifaceted movement that produced programs for national revival and the reconstruction of a conscious, multi-class Polish society. Playing a fundamental role in this process, the Literature of Criticism consisted of various phenomena, the most important of which included (using selected examples): 1/ literary works and views depicting non-institutional civilizationism, taking into account the emergence of increasingly moral and sophisticated forms of the state through the sacrifice of individuals and groups for higher spiritual values (Henryk Sienkiewicz and Boleslaw Prus); 2/ works depicting the intelligentsia ethos of work and service to society (active patriotism of labour) as well as advancing the need to create a new collective ethic that respects the rights of the most vulnerable; works showing the struggle against imposed orientalisation (stereotypes) and national uprooting (Stefan Żeromski, Stanisław Brzozowski, and Edward Abramowski); 3/ works in which history and national myths are revised in the name of conquering the weakness of uncritical nostalgia for the heroic past (Wyspiański, Miciński, and Żeromski); 4/ writings showing various aspects of national and social solidarity or lack thereof, and postulating ethnic activism (Roman Dmowski, Adolf Nowaczyński, and Tadeusz Miciński), demanding a change in subaltern attitudes and, most importantly, self-improvement for the sake of the national future; 5/ literary attitudes demonstrating anti-passive, active attitude to the direct, soldierly struggle for a free homeland (Edward Słoński and Władysław Broniewski). The Literature of Criticism, which integrated these literary and philosophical trends, was a vibrant phenomenon in terms of artistic and social and political values, as well as a coherent current if we look at the general principle of its existence. It stirred up internal debate on submissiveness to historical processes and social languor, held in the name of the free Poland as a supreme value. It was a platform where both a socialist and a nationalist, a representative of landed conservatism and a supporter of progress, a critic of a conciliatory political stance and a revisionist, a former civil servant and a fighting soldier-legionary could meet. After years of national crisis, writers, columnists, philosophers and the intelligentsia and other strata that followed them outlined and pursued a program of action that led to an active stance towards the challenges of history. Anticolonial and pointing out directions for reconsidering the foundations of collective existence, including art in its broadest sense, and propagating an active attitude towards social and moral problems, the Literature of Criticism (New Critical Order) prepared several generations of Poles capable of shaping and fighting for state.