Czytelnicze pasje księdza Emila Szramka

Abstract

Priest Emil Szramek belonged to a group of persons strongly engaged in the creation of a new cultural image of the interwar Silesia. One of the planes of his activities was scholarly work whose effects were numerous articles and books on the church history, folklore, regional literature, art and sociology. Those articles and books are rich source of knowledge about Szramek’s readings and his reading preferences. Emil Szramek knew Polish literature very well, especially that from the period of Romanticism. Fragments of works by Zygmunt Krasiński, Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki frequently appear in the priest’s texts as exemplifications, confirmations of his own views and ideas. Except the great Polish Romatics among his readings there can be also found his contemporary writers, especially those who made Silesia and its inhabitants protagonists of their books. Thus the presence of Pola Gojawiczyhska, Zofia Kossak, Gustaw Morcinek is not surprising. Another group comprises the regional writers among whom one can mention Konstanty Damrot and Norbert Bonczyk. Szramek found their works particularly valuable because according to him they were a reflection of attachment to locality, to the “little fatherland”. The reading passions of the Katowice scholar were not confined to literature. He drew his vast knowledge from numerous academic elaborations undertaking various problems. He made use of, among others, the works of Aleksander Bruckner, Colmar Grunhagen, Florian Znaniecki. Books accompanied priest Szramek throughout his life. They provided inspiration, enriched his knowledge, consoled him — they were, as he himself wrote in one of his articles, his “friends”.