Debates on the Polish Literary Canon in the Second Half of the 20th and Early 21st Centuries

Abstract

The purpose of this article is a synthetic and historical overview of the debates on the Polish literary canon, which took place in the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The article attempts to classify post-1945 attitudes toward the canon and the works that constitute it. Political, historical and social circumstances greatly influenced the choice and assessment of works what were considered the most important in the history of Polish literature. In presenting and analyzing the views of renowned critics and literary historians (as well as other experts on the subject), the essay reveals that the outlook on the canon, which is one of the key elements of any nation’s culture, is heterogeneous, multilayered and embedded in many different contexts.