Life writing competitions. Memoir-writing practices in Poland in the 20th and 21st centuries. Part 1: Memoirs of Peasants

elective courses
general courses

The seminar will be devoted to the phenomenon of Polish memoir competitions in the 20th and 21th centuries (especially in the interwar period). This phenomenon, both when it comes to its quality and quantity, is impressive not only in the scope of Poland, but also on an international scale. Memoir-writing competitions have greatly contributed to increase of our knowledge about social processes in 20th century Poland, but also to a change of paradigm of thinking about them (a shift from statistical approach to qualitative research). The seminar will have 5 parts in five consecutive semesters, but each part will be a separate entity at the same time. The following parts are: I. Memoirs of peasants. II. Memoirs of workers and the unemployed. III. Memoirs of emigrants. IV. Memoirs of Jewish youth. V. Pandemic memoirs. In the second semester of the academic year 2021/2022, we will discuss the memoirs of peasants.

The scientific goal of the seminar is a comprehensive description of Polish memoir-writing competitions in the XX and XXI century (especially in the interwar period 1918-1939) on the basis of materials from these competitions. This phenomenon, both when it comes to its quality and quantity, is impressive not only in the scope of Poland, but also on an international scale. Moreover, its significance surpasses one scientific discipline or even research area. Memoir-writing competitions have greatly contributed to increase of our knowledge about social processes in 20th century Poland, but also to a change of paradigm of thinking about them (a shift from statistical approach to qualitative research). On the other hand, they influenced the development of social sciences, as well as Polish and worldwide humanities.

Over twenty memoir-writing competitions took place in interwar Poland. After the war there were a great many competitions for peasants' memories The object of our interest will be mainly the three major competitions and the published materials from these competitions

- Competition for the Memoirs of Peasants (1933), Institute for Social Economy (Instytut Gospodarstwa Społecznego): 498 memoirs; publication: Memoirs of Peasants (Pamiętniki chłopów) vol. 1 (1935), vol. 2 (1936);

- Competition for a Description of Life, Work, Thoughts and Desires of Rural Young People (Konkurs na opis życia, prac, przemyśleń i dążeń młodzieży wiejskiej) (1936), State Institute for Cultural Advancement of Rural Areas (Państwowy Instytut Kultury Wsi): 1544 memoirs; materials used in Józef Chałasiński’s work The Young Generation of Peasants (Młode pokolenie chłopów. Procesy i zagadnienia kształtowania się warstwy chłopskiej w Polsce), vol. 1-4 (1938, second ed. 1984);

- Competition for Memoirs of the young generation in rural areas of the People's Republic of Poland (1961), ZMW, LSW, Committee for Contemporary Culture of the Polish Academy of Sciences: 5500 memoirs; publication: Młode pokolenie wsi Polski Ludowej. Pamiętniki i studia [The Rural Youth of People’s Poland. Memoirs and studies], vol. I-IX, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1964-1981.

The memoir-writing competitions were addressed primarily to social groups of low literacy levels. People who attempted to write memoirs or started to write diaries as an entry for competitions were often “the first readers”, “the first writers” – persons, who were first in their families to complete elementary school and possessed the ability to write and read. Among the memoir writers there were also illiterate people, who would dictate their experiences. Writing, reading, and books were present in the consciousness of many “folk memoir writers” (R. Sulima). From this point of view, a major part of the project will constitute the presentation and description of specific literary practices of memoir writers, as well as their reading practices.

It will be equally important to analyze the content of the memoirs. We will analyze to what extent their content was shaped by the competitions’ requirements, in which it was explicitly suggested to write about certain topics or to pay attention to particular subjects. Our interests lay in the questions: what was the memoir-writing practice for their authors – was it a form of complaint, accusation or grievance about one’s fate, or was it perhaps a form of auto-analytical work, which allowed the authors to become (at least partially) aware of their own social condition? Did it help writers to see themselves as political subject? This is further connected with the issue of emancipatory character of practices and genres and other questions that we will attempt to answer to: assuming that certain genres are associated with class hierarchy, does it mean that the usage of “sophisticated” – that is, made by literary culture – genres, by lower classes has an emancipatory character? To what extent is subversion a bottom-up answer to every form oppression? These issues are connected with the very nature of writing and writing practices, in which the tension between oppression and emancipation has always been present. It will be also important to examine how known memoir-writing practices and genres were used, changed and shaped by their authors for their literary needs. In other words, it will be crucial to examine the influence of oral traditions and practices and attempts to mimicry “the oral” in “the written”.

A separate issue that will be investigated during the seminar is the literary value of said memoirs. In the interwar period this issue was a matter of discussions and controversies. In the 1930s, the memoirs of peasants, workers, the unemployed, emigrants were published in print—in firm, heavy volumes. It is significant that the introduction to the Second volume of Memoirs of Peasants was written by an outstanding and respected Polish author Maria Dąbrowska. Thanks to her, the volume received an Award for the Best Book, funded by Wiadomości Literackie (the most important literary magazine in Poland back then). In response to the attacks on her views, Dąbrowska has written an article “Documentary and Literature” in which she claimed that “A text, not intended as a work of literature, and written by uneducated people, can nevertheless become a work of literature.” Similarly, Jakub Wojciechowski’s 1930 memoir A Worker’s Life History Written by Himself (Życiorys własny robotnika), hailed by Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński as “a Polish classic in a labor sweatshirt,” has caused a similar discussion, but was awarded the Golden Laurel by the Polish Academy of Literature (Złoty Wawrzyn Polskiej Akademii Literatury). Currently, the issue of literary dimension of memoir documents still sparks interest. Some scholars point to necessity of including “peasant autobiographies” for understanding peasant current of Polish literature, others draw attention to the limitations and the necessity to define the category of literature itself.

This is connected with another crucial issue which will be examined during the seminar: the significance of memoir-writing competitions and their materials from the point of view of Polish social history in the 20th century. In the last few years, interest in social history enjoys a revival. In Polish research more and more attention is being devoted to marginalized in mainstream narratives groups: peasants, workers, the unemployed, or economic migrants. Their participation in different social processes – modernization or changes in Polish social consciousness – becomes an object of research as well. We are certain that many gaps still exist in this area and our project will contribute to reclaiming social aspects of Polish history which, especially in reference to the 20th century, has been overshadowed by political aspects. In the context of social history memoir materials can be read as one factor of the interwar process of the emancipation of peasants or workers. It can be observed that these phenomena reflect both the process of democratization of Polish writing, but also its saturation with historical experiences (The First World War, the economic crisis of the 1920s and 30s.), as seen from history from below perspective. As a context for various memoir-writing phenomena, we will also consider other social initiatives and endeavors, such as the long-lasting activity of the Institute for Social Economy, the dynamic development of the Polish cooperative movement, development of social pedagogy and social welfare. The long history of Polish intelligentsia provides another significant context, as the initiatives of memoir-writing competitions, addressed to peasants or the unemployed, came from the persons and institutions representing Polish intelligentsia. Therefore, the question of whether these competitions were an extension of Polish intellectuals’ perception about state, society, nation, and themselves becomes imperative.

Primary sources:

Chałasiński Józef, Młode pokolenie chłopów [The Young Peasant Generation], vol. I-IV, Państwowy Instytut Kultury Wsi, Warsaw 1938 [1984]

Młode pokolenie wsi Polski Ludowej. Pamiętniki i studia [The Rural Youth of People’s Poland. Memoirs and studies], vol. I-IX, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1964-1981.

Pamiętniki chłopów [Memories of Peasants], vol. I, intr. Ludwik Krzywicki, Instytut Gospodarstwa Społecznego, Warsaw 1935.

Pamiętniki chłopów [Memories of Peasants], vol. II, intr. Maria Dąbrowska and Ludwik Krzywicki, Instytut Gospodarstwa Społecznego, Warsaw 1936.

Pamiętniki Polaków 1918-1978. Antologia pamiętnikarstwa polskiego [The Memoirs of Poles 1918-1978. Anthology of Polish Memorism], vol. I-III, ed. Bronisław Gołębiowski, Mieczysław Grad, Franciszek Jakubczak, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1983.

Thomas, William Isaac and Florian Znaniecki. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. Monograph of an Immigrant Group, vol. 1-5, Richard G. Badger, The Gorham Press, Boston 1918-1920.

Secondary sources:

A Bibliography of Polish Memoirs Selected Books from 1924 to 1978. Memoirs Contributed to Competitions, prepared by Society of Friends of Memoirs, Warsaw, “Sisyphus Studies”, vol II: The Polish Memoir Sociology. Origins – Dilemmas – Hopes (1982): 203-213.

Adamski Władysław, Memoir-based Sociology: between Intuition and Quantification, “Sisyphus Studies”, vol II: The Polish Memoir Sociology. Origins – Dilemmas – Hopes (1982): 97-116.

Antropologia praktyk językowych, ed. Grzegorz Godlewski, Agnieszka Karpowicz, Marta Rakoczy, Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warsaw 2016.

Bertaux Daniel, Le récit de vie, Armand Colin, Paris 2005.

Chałasiński Józef, The Life Records of the Young Generation of Polish Peasants as a Manifestation of Contemporary Culture, in: Biography and Society. The Life History Approach in the Social Sciences, ed. Daniel Bertaux, Sage Publications Inc, Beverly Hills/London 1981: 119-132.

Chałasiński Józef, Autobiographies as Data for Sociological Analyses, “Sisyphus Studies”, vol II: The Polish Memoir Sociology. Origins – Dilemmas – Hopes (1982): 33-49.

Chałasiński Józef, Młode pokolenie chłopów, vol. 1-4, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1984 [1938].

Chałasiński Józef, Pamiętnikarstwo jako świadectwo przeobrażeń narodu polskiego [Memorism as a Testimony of Metamorphosis of the Polish Nation], in: Pamiętniki Polaków 1918-1978. Antologia pamiętnikarstwa polskiego [The Memoirs of Poles 1918-1978. Anthology of Polish Memorism], vol. I., ed. Bronisław Gołębiowski, Mieczysław Grad, Franciszek Jakubczak, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1982: 9-29.

Chałasiński Józef, Życiorys jako materiał socjologiczny [Life History as Sociological Material], introduction to: Jakub Wojciechowski. Życiorys własny robotnika [A Worker’s Life History Written by Himself], ed. Władysław Markiewicz and Józef Chałasiński, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1985 [1930] : 19-22.

Dąbrowska Maria, Dokument i literatura. O „Pamiętnikach chłopów”, in: eadem, Pisma rozproszone, vol. 2, Wsydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 1964: 139-161.

Giza Anna, Życie jako opowieść. Analiza materiałów autobiograficznych w perspektywie socjologii wiedzy, Wrocław 1991.

Gluza Zbigniew, Archiwa społeczne [Social Archives], „Karta”, no 36 (2002): 140-142.

Jahoda Marie, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Hans Zeisel, Bezrobotni Marienthalu, przeł. Robert Marszałek, red. naukowa Antoni Sułek, Oficyna Naukowa, Warsaw 2007.

Jakubczak Franciszek, Konkursy pamiętnikarskie w Polsce 1921-1966 [Competitions for Memoirs in Poland 1921-1966], Warsaw 1966.

Jakubczak Franciszek, Theoretical Basis of the Autobiographical Documents Method, “Sisyphus Studies”, vol II: The Polish Memoir Sociology. Origins – Dilemmas – Hopes (1982): 117-132.

Jakubczak Franciszek, Zasoby pamiętników. Zasady i zakres ich użytkowania, “Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny”, vol LI, 1989, z. 2: 259-268.

Kłoskowska Antonina, Types of Personal Documents, “Sisyphus Studies”, vol II: The Polish Memoir Sociology. Origins – Dilemmas – Hopes (1982): 71-74.

Kosiński Krzysztof, « Pamiętnikarstwo konkursowe jako źródło historyczne » (Les mémoires des concours comme source historique), Polska 1944/45-1989. Studia i materiały, 6, 2003, p. 134. 21.

Kubera Jacek, Not only The Polish Peasant. Znaniecki’s Poznań School of Sociology as a sociological and a research issue, “Przegląd Socjologiczny”, vol. 68, no 4 (2019).

Lebow Katherine, Autobiography as Complaint: Polish Social Memoir Between the Two World Wars, “Laboratorium. Russian Review of Social Research”, vol. 6, no 3 (2014): 13-26.

Lebow Katherine, Conscience of the Skin: Interwar Polish Autobiography and Social Rights, “Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development” 2012, no 3 (3): 297–319.

Markiewicz-Lagneau Janina, La formation d’une pensée socjologique. La société polonaise de l’entre-deux-guerres, Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris 1982.

Metoda biograficzna [J. Leoński], in: Encyklopedia Socjologii, vol. 2, Oficyna Naukowa, Warsaw 1999.

Metody badań jakościowych [Methods of Qualitative Research], ed. Norman K. Denzin, Yvonna S. Lincoln, polish ed. Krzysztof Podemski, vol. 1-2, PWN, Warsaw 2014.

Metoda biograficzna w socjologii [Biographical method in sociology], ed. Jan Włodarek, Marek Ziółkowski, PWN, Warsaw 1990.

Metoda biograficzna w socjologii. Antologia tekstów [Biographical method in sociology. Anthology of the texts], ed. Kaja Kazimierska, Nomos, Kraków 2012.

Milliou-Lajoinie M.-M., Reconstruire son identité par le récit de vie, avant propos de Ph. Lejeune, Paris 1999.

Pół wieku pamiętnikarstwa [Half a Century of Memorism], Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1971.

Rodak Paweł, La méthode biographique et la tradition des concours autobiographiques en Pologne, « La Faute à Rousseau », no 55 (octobre 2010) : 36-38.

Rodak Paweł, Past, Present, and Future of Autobiography Competitions and Archives in Poland, in: Life Writing Matters in Europe, ed. Marijke Huisman, Anneke Ribberink, Monica Soeting, Alfred Hornung, , Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg 2012: 75-88.

Rodak Paweł, Poland's Autobiographical Twentieth Century, in: Being Poland. A New History of Polish Literature and Culture since 1918, ed. by Tamara Trojanowska, Joanna Niżyńska, Przemysław Czapliński with the assistance of Agnieszka Polakowska, University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2018: 627-641.

Sulima Roch, Dokument i literatura, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1980.

Sulima Roch, Między oralnością a piśmiennością. Strategia kolekcjonera a ludowa kultura rękopisu (XIX–XX wiek), „Mazowieckie Studia Humanistyczne” 1997, no 1.

Sulima Roch, Pismo i pisanie w świadomości ludowych pamiętnikarzy, in: Sploty kultury [tom jubileuszowy dla Andrzeja Mencwela w siedemdziesiątą rocznicę urodzin], ed. Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska, Anna Gronowska, Agnieszka Karpowicz, Igor Piotrowski, Paweł Rodak, Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Warszawa 2010: 552-573.

Szczepański Jan, Metoda biograficzna [Biographical method], in: idem, Odmiany czasu teraźniejszego, [Changes of the Present Times], Książka i Wiedza, Warszawa 1973: 615-649.

Szczepański Jan, O Pamiętnikach Polaków (1918-1978), in: Pamiętniki Polaków 1918-1978. Antologia pamiętnikarstwa polskiego [The Memoirs of Poles 1918-1978. Anthology of Polish Memorism], vol. I., ed. Bronisław Gołębiowski, Mieczysław Grad, Franciszek Jakubczak, Ludowa Spółdzielnia Wydawnicza, Warsaw 1982: 30-47.

Szturm de Sztrem Tadeusz, Instytut Gospodarstwa Społecznego 1920-1944. Przyczynek do historii instytucji naukowo-społecznych w Polsce, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warszawa 1959.

Wierzchoś Dariusz, Zwyczajne życie zwykłych ludzi. Losy archiwum Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Pamiętnikarstwa [Everyday Life of Common People. History of the Archive of the Society of Friends of Memoir-Writing], Histmag : https://histmag.org/Zwyczajne-zycie-zwyklych-ludzi.-Losy-archiwum-Towarzystwa-Przyjaciol-Pamietnikarstwa-1750/

Ziątek Zygmunt, Wiek dokumentu. Inspiracje dokumentarne w polskiej prozie współczesnej, Warszawa 1999.

Znaniecki, Florian, The Importance of Memoirs for Sociological Studies, “Sisyphus Studies”, vol II: The Polish Memoir Sociology. Origins – Dilemmas – Hopes (1982): 9-15.

Życie codzienne (w) archiwum, red. Marta Zwodna-Stephan, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, Poznań 2019.

Knowledge: the graduate has gained knowledge and understanding of:

• chosen methodologies of cultural studies, epistemic strategies and methods of research on an advanced level;

• chosen aspects of Polish culture connected to the graduate’s research.

Skills: the graduate is able to:

• interpret selected material taking into account its historical, social and political context;

• determine the relation between the medium of cultural practices and messages to their content and function;

Social competences: the graduate is able to:

• critically assess their knowledge and received content;

• adapt a respectful and methodologically curious approach to diverse cultural phenomena and use their knowledge to solve problems and seek out expert opinions;

• care for cultural heritage and display an understanding of its importance for social life; actively work to preserve cultural heritage.

The final grade consists of: preparation for class and activity in class, and class attendance (3 absences allowed). Alternatively, preparation of a short, optional term paper.