Polonistyka na rozdrożu
Polish Studies at the Crossroads

Summary/Abstract: This text attempts at presenting the present-day condition of Polish studies. The Author has identified the discipline’s achievements of the recent dozen-or-so years’ period, with particular regard to its constituent sciences, along with the trends of intense absorption and adaptation of our contemporary international humanities’ achievements to its specific needs, improved scientific standard of the area’s human resources, increased number of college students, and, the development of Polish studies and Polish faculties in State-owned and private colleges and universities. Outlined are also certain negative phenomena, such as the milieu’s ideological divisions exerting an impact on didactic processes, scientific research, and interpersonal community relations. Beside those, attention is drawn by the consequences of Polish universities’ weak financial standing and of Polish faculty propagation, including: the staff getting employed under several employment contracts at a time; deteriorated teaching standards; the number of compulsory/optional classes getting permanently reduced; depersonalisation of the educational process; negative selection of applicants; contemporary cultural issues being underrepresented in the syllabuses. The article’s final section discusses certain ideas of how to possibly improve the situation, with particular emphasis on building a model of open-ended Polish studies, as coupled with developing the reading and interpretative competencies of the students being sensitive recipients and lovers of literature and arts.

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