Zapomniana epopeja. Polskie konkursy pamiętnikarskie i literatura
Forgotten Epic: Polish Memoir Writing Competitions and Literature

Summary/Abstract: The article highlights the exceptionally rich and important Polish tradition of memoirwriting competitions and related publications; in the twentieth century exceeding 1500such events! From the very beginning, the competitions sparked lively discussions andraised questions about the place of competition memoirs in modern Polish literature. Forexample, after the publication of Jakub Wojciechowski’s 1930 Życiorys własny robotnika(Autobiography of a Laborer) or the 1935–1936 Pamiętniki chłopów (Peasant Memoirs).The article contextualizes the relationship between personal document and literaturewhile attempting a definition of “folk literature.” Against Andrzej Leder’s notion of“unwritten epic,” the article posits that the thousands of competition memoirs andjournals represent a very significant – albeit largely forgotten – component of an epicabout civilization and social changes in the twentieth-century Poland.

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