Projekt : historia literatury

The author diagnoses the situation that “history of literature” found itself in as a subdiscipline of literary science in first decades of the 21st century. He sees the reasons for its weakened status in a methodological differentiation, resulting in multiplication of interpretational practices in postmodernism; emergence of a new field of literature, described by J. Culler as “theory”; theoretical, and historical and literary self-awareness of writers, increased in late modernism questioning the ability to write an objective history (H. White); the dawn of “great narratives” (J.-F. Lyotard); finally, superseding history of literature from school textbooks. In the opinion of the author, other sources of disturbing the status of history of literature are practices in the field of literary history, which excessively deal with often artificial breakthroughs and divisions in history of literature, radically questioned by an increasingly widespread belief in “long-lasting” modernist formation, as well as a crisis of the University institution and its authority, which began around the year 1968 (already commented on by W. Gombrowicz in his Diary). In conclusion, the author of the sketch seeks a chance for history of literature – after a “cultural shift” in literary research – in “new historicism”. It is important however for literature scientists to stop being “ashamed” (as S. Szymutko put it) of the object of their studies. Having said that, even though writing a new history of Polish literature seems necessary, such objective history will never emerge and one should rather expect many subjective histories.