Norwid i sztandary. Przyczynki do interpretacji i historii recepcji wiersza „Żydowie polscy” – dwugłos
Norwid and Standards. Contributions to Interpretation and Reception History of the Poem “Żydowie polscy” (“Polish Jews”)—a Two-Voice Approach

Summary/Abstract: The article falls into in a series of comments on a famous Cyprian Norwid’s poem “Żydowie polscy” (“Polish Jews,” 1861). The authors, referring to the poem’s interpretations to this day, focus first and foremost on the potential of its actualisation in the context of the contemporary reflection on the Polish-Jewish relationships, and in effect they turn attention to the risk of instrumentalisation that this mode of analysis brings about. A flagrant example of such practices is the reception of the text that took place in connection with the celebration of the poet’s 50th death anniversary in 1933 in the papers of disparate worldview and political orientation (from “Myśl Narodowa” <“National Thought”> to “Nasz Przegląd” <“Our Review”>). The analysis of the statements allows to settle that the poem’s variously profiled clarifications reveal its ambiguous reading in the context of Norwid’s alleged attitude to Polish Jews and their place in citizen society, and in our perspective also induces to verify the modes of their presentation in the Polish imaginarium.

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