| Abstrakt: | The paper presents the notion of English polonica from the mid-war period. It indicates the core of creativity of which the main inspiration was Poland with its culture, tradition, literature, art, science as well as politics. In the field of the very interests that among many absorbed the author were those creative achievements stemming from polonica that basically defined the nature and essence of the English-Polish cultural relations. Because of the character, the meaning and the truth of this whole output, it was the work of the English authors that chiefly became exposed, the one being penned by the literary men, publicists, essayists, historians having followed the path led by Polish themes and finding them the very food for thought. From the cream of writers whose work deserved mentioning, one cannot overemphasize the work of Alexander Bruce Boswell, Hilaire Belloc, G. Billiainkin, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Monica Gardner, J.H. Harley, Robert Machray, Moray McLaren, G.R. Noyes, Eric Patterson, V. Poliakov (Augur), William John Rose and Paul Super.
In the process of presentation one also could not disregard the following questions, namely: what were the main goals and other reasons of getting interested in Poland, what aims had there been made in the matter, as well as – the nature of subject that mostly intrigued the English authors. Apart from problems with a writer himself or his creation concerned, there were also some other, overall spheres of analysis equally considered, such as: the social aspect of polonica, the influence of culture and politics on the time when being written, etc. This paper actually gathers the whole thing embracing polonica from the period of 1918-1939 amounting over 600 titles. Through the notion of polonica, it illustrates the condition of English society becoming acquainted with Poland. The research tends to prove that the nature of English interest in Poland seemed to be the result of three kinds of inspiration, i.e. tradition, the English-Polish relations, the position of Polish state in context of its international outlook and the culture phenomenon. |