„Cichosza. Nie ma Mickiewicza i nie ma Miłosza” — alternatywna historia literatury
„Hush. Shh. There is no Mickiewicz and there is no Miłosz” — alternative history of literature

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to analyze the alternative history of literature presented in alternative history novels as well as in scholarly and journalistic studies in literary history. First, important proposals for renewing/reviving/modernizing and rethinking the scope and methodology of literary history, for opening it to new areas, asking new question and reorganizing the structure and manners of writing it are discussed. It is suggested that probabilistic inquiry in the field of literary history may be seen as an important and innovative tool for understanding the nature of the creative process, the formation of movements in literary history and its periodization, and, last but not least, the nature of necessity and coincidence therein. For literary historians as well as for theoreticians of literature, imagining altered biographies of famous writers and poets may be an interesting experiment. The richest material for such counterfactual deliberations is provided by alternative history novels; therefore, the following works are analyzed — P’s Correspondence by N. Hawthorne, Different Engine by W. Gibson & B. Sterling, Muza dalekich podróży by T. Parnicki, Widma. Historia Polski bez Powstania Warszawskiego by Ł Orbitowski, Dumanowski by W. Szostak.

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