Projects & Grants




The cultural image of the peasant in Polish and Czech literature of the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. Selected aspects
Project IdSGS11/FF/2022
Main solverprof. dr hab. Agnieszka Maria Czajkowska
Period1/2022 - 12/2022
ProviderSpecifický VŠ výzkum
Statefinished
Anotation For several years in Polish literary studies, there has been a discussion about the sources of Polish identity, which has so far been identified with the traditions of noble culture. Literary works and scientific works in the field of the history of literature and anthropology are written, which not only appreciate the participation of peasants in the creation of national identity, but also point to those elements of Polish history which - due to the folk character - have so far been silenced, hidden by the traditional uniform cultural narrative. The aim of the project is to show the transformation of the image of the peasant on the basis of selected works of Polish literature from the 19th to the 21st century and to compare these images with the cultural representation of the peasant in selected works of Czech literature in the same time frames. The basis for the comparison will be the cultural and historical proximity (Slavicism, the lack of an independent state in the 19th century, the entanglement of peasant issues in the communist ideology, the need to reconstruct the national identity in democratic conditions), and similar economic relations. The subject of comparison will be the differences related to the role of the peasant in national identity discourses in Czech and Polish literature. According to Jan Patočka (essay Who are the Czechs?), The peculiarity of the Czech nation is its national identity built from the rural, peasant factor. In Poland, the culture of the nobility is most often mentioned.