Introduction

Summary

For the past twenty years, Polish cultural historians and literary critics have debated inconclusively whether the politically transformative year of 1989—which saw the fall of communism in Poland—should also be seen as a turning point in Polish literary history. Literary historian Anna Nasiłowska argues that though it is indisputable that 1989 brought fundamental changes to the political life of Poland, it remains unclear whether the changes in its literary life were distinctive enough to constitute a new paradigm. She finds that the aspiration for thematic and aesthetic novelty was palpable in literary works as early as the second half of the 1970s, which is when, according to her, the actual transformation of the political system in Poland began to take place. Nasiłowska points out that one of the reasons for the acceptance of 1989 as the year that brought literary transformation is the Poles’ embarrassment at having to admit that their postcommunist literature has roots in the People's Republic of Poland. Literary historian Włodzimierz Bolecki also notes that 1989, unlike 1918, 1945, 1956, or 1968, does not contain significant literary events but is commonly perceived as a literary watershed because the sociopolitical changes of that year drastically altered the literary milieu. Literary critics Przemysław Czapliński and Piotr Śliwiński argue in the same vein that the literary process is neither strictly determined by nor absolutely independent of the political, economic, and spiritual life of a nation. In this sense, a change of literary paradigm is not a mere consequence of a political revolution, but its cultural equivalent, one that is equally motivated by and motivational for the political realm.

Despite its questionable status as a periodization marker, the year 1989 brought fundamental changes to the Polish literary landscape, with the lifting of censorship, discontinuation of state subsidies, establishment of a free literary market, and dismissal of the imperative of political engagement. The dismantling of the system had a snowball effect and drew in other cultural components from local and foreign traditions that were woven into the regime's ideological fabric in order to enhance its legitimacy.