Wieś doświadczona, wieś wyobrażona? Wiejskie imaginarium w pismach Jana Szczepańskiego
The Experienced Village, the Imaginary Village? The Village Imaginarium in the Writings of Jan Szczepański

Summary/Abstract: The sociologist Jan Szczepański was born in a peasant family and after the First World War grew up in a village near Cieszyn. Subsequently, he stressed upon numerous occasions how convictions and attitudes dating from that period (a sense of duty, rigorous work, and prudent management, including that of time) determined his fate. Szczepański included his recollections in autobiographical essays: Korzeniami wrosłem w ziemię, in which nostalgia and mythologisation are intertwined with somatic memory. Furthermore, references to rural youth appear also in his diary; in his capacity as a sociologist Szczepański often voiced opinions about the part played by the countryside and the latter’s future. Importantly, his social promotion occurred prior to a tide of similar phenomena occurring at the time of the People’s Republic of Poland, while the situation of the rural inhabitants of Cieszyn Silesia differed somewhat from conditions typical for the rest of the country, and the values adopted by Szczepański were to a large extent influenced by the so-called Protestant ethos. By taking into account those circumstances the author of the article first discusses the extent to which the portrait of the village found in the sociologist’s texts is the result of the latter’s experiences and reminiscences, or remains a phantasm, and, secondly, asks what sort of a function does it fulfil in these texts. Moreover, the article demonstrates the principles upon which this likeness became part of Szczepański’s conception of the nation, culture and individuality as well as the sociologist’s vision of his life.

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