W kręgu Conrada

Abstract

The book in question consists of 10 articles in which the relations between the biography and the literary output of Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski as well as his Polish origin are discussed. The introduction to this biographical issues constitutes an in-depth analysis of the interview the author of Lord Jim gave to Marian Dąbrowski, a representative of the Polish press, in 1914. In this interview, the English writer formulated a series of important postulates defining his attitude to the Polish heritage as well as the Polish modernity at that time. The next text constitutes an attempt to synthesise the role a several-time stay in Kraków, where Conrad spent a part of his youthful years and visited it already as a famous English writer, played in his life. Subsequently, an attempt is made to define the role the noble heritage of the author deriving from the borderland intelligentsia of a noble origin played in shaping his attitudes and viewpoints. The second part of the book is historical-literary and sociological-literary in nature. It opens with a suggestion to locate Conrad’s writing on a literary map by means of contrasting the relations of his literary output to such trends as Romanticism, Realism, as well as Symbolism and Impressionism so as to show specific “Conradian” features compared to the above-mentioned. What is presented, on the other hand, constitutes the main types of the interpretation of Lord Jim dominating mainly in the Polish criticism of the last century. The very text is supplemented with the presentation of the Polish reception of Lord Jim between 1904 and 2004. A receptive nature accompanies a description of the history of Conrad’s dramas (The Secret Agent and Victory) on the Polish stages in the Interwar period. The receptive issues are also present in the descriptions of the history of the Polish translation of Shadow Line as Smuga cienia, the expression of which has become a well-known quotation in the contemporary Polish. Separate considerations are devoted to a half-century reception of a collection volume Conrad żywy [Conrad alive] published in the exile in London in 1957. The very book played an important role in shaping the image of the writer not only in the exile, but also in Poland. The publication under discussion closes with the presentation of interests Leszek Prorok (1919—1984), a writer, displayed in relation with Conrad. Prorok was both Conrad’s critic and activator of many Conradian issues in Poland, as well as made a brave attempt to write a biographical novel on Conrad entitled Smuga blasku [The brightness-line].