Rewriting
Capitalism: Literature and the Market in Late Tsarist Russia and the
Kingdom of Poland by Beth
Holmgren (1998), 240 pages.
In
the first part, the author quickly establishes that the entire milieu of
the Polish literary world differed profoundly
to
me that this was not only caused by the political situation in Eastern
Europe, but also by the fact that the industrial revolution
and the capitalism which accompanied it arrived here decades later, and
the Polish society was slower to adapt to the changes. For one, a middle
class hardly existed, while it was the backbone of the bourgeois way of
life in the West. Thus the merchant or capitalist hero in Polish
literature differs from the hard-nosed prototype in Western literature.
He never completely loses his "szlachetność" (nobility of
character), his "szeroka dusza" (wide soul), his sense of
nationalism, or his romanticism. The best known example of such a hero is
Wokulski in Lalka (The Doll) by
Boleslaw Prus, for whom "doing good business is never an end in
itself, but a means to a still unclear goal -- whether that be
technological progress or a cozy environment for a surrogate family or a
base from which to perform good works." The novel and its characters
are discussed by Holmgren at length, and the influence of capitalism upon
them is analyzed. Incidentally, the author considers The Doll to be the
best Polish novel, a judgment while well justified may distress
enthusiastic admirers of novels by Sienkiewicz, Żeromski, or Reymont. A
lesser literary work that became immensely popular, Helena Mniszek's Trędowata
(The Leper), more typically a romance, is also discussed at some length
because the hero Michorowski exhibits qualities of a capitalist in being
an effective and successful manager of his property, even though he is a
nobleman. This novel is also representative of what we would today call
middlebrow literature.
The
second part of the book discusses the proliferation of publications made
possible by the growth of the marketplace. An entire chapter is devoted
to the contributions of the Tygodnik
Ilustrowany (The Illustrated Weekly), whose contents covered an
enormous range of topics, including belles lettres, biographical
articles, poetry, history, theater and other arts, reviews of books,
current events, and included illustrations. In it important novels such
as The Teutonic Knights, The Peasants, and Ashes were serialized. The
author points out that despite the somewhat more liberal attitudes of the
other occupying powers, especially those of Austro-Hungary, Poland's
creative and artistic development flourished in the Russian part, despite
heavy tsarist censorship. Newspapers such as Kurier
Codzienny or Kurier Warszawski
showed an astounding growth in membership. In addition to periodicals,
due credit is given to the commercial publishing firm of Gebethner &
Wolff. Thus the marketplace, i.e. capitalism, functioned as a carrier of
information and enhancer of cultural and artistic appreciation.
There
is much more in this scholarly and excellently researched book than a
limited review can cover. Frankly, it requires a close and, on occasion,
patient reading by those not too familiar with the period in question:
1880-1914. Certainly reading The
Doll (available in our library in both languages) will help. But it
is good news that Polish literature has been given such a painstaking and
sympathetic attention in this country.
George
E. Suboczewski
