2nd Half of the 19th Century Literature Department
Room 125, tel. (+48 22) 6572-876
The Department has existed at the IBL PAN since March 1981 (initially as a Group). Its Head in the years 1981-1998 was Professor Janusz Maciejewski, not only a formal supervisor but also the initiator of important conferences and collective publications (e.g. about the anti-positivistic break in the Polish culture of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, about the private and public sphere in the 2nd half of the 19th century, about the evolution of the formula of being Polish in the 2nd half of the 19th century).
The Department's work consists in searching for a broad diagnosis of the Polish culture in the 1864-1914 period. The first date does not require a commentary. The shift of the epoch's borders as far as to the outbreak of WWI is a consequence of a complex generation pattern: the coexistence of the positivists and modernists in the culture of the break of the century and in the first decade of the 20th century.
The specific research tasks of the Department for the years to come concern:
- the notion of the 19th century understood as a formation existing above centuries;
- the relations between the political situation of the post-January period and the condition of culture, as well as the ideological stance of particular writers (Kraszewski's stance towards Russia, Prus' "philosophy of life");
- works concerning the Eliza Orzeszkowa Archives (calendar of the writer's life and work, edition of her letters, etc.);
- the Jewish question in the 19th century;
- the conception of the epoch as consisting of many currents (not necessarily scientistic and realistic), of multiple philosophical, ideological and artistic inspirations;
- the so-called anti-positivistic turn, the modernist and Nietzschean currents.
Head of the Department - Grażyna Borkowska-Arciuch, Professor
Wednesday 10.00-14.00
Marek Pąkciński, Associate Professor
Wednesday 10.00-12.00
Jacek Wójcicki, Ph.D.
Wednesday 10.00-12.00
Agata Grabowska-Kuniczuk
Wednesday 10.00-12.00
Magdalena Rudkowska
Wednesday 10.00-12.00
Bartłomiej Szleszyński
Wednesday 10.00-12.00
Iwona Wiśniewska
Wednesday 10.00-12.00
Retired Professors participating in the activities of the Department:
Janusz Maciejewski, Professor.