of Joseph Conrad in Poland1
W IESLAW KRAJKA
Joseph Conrad, the author o f “Heart of Darkness,” Lord Jim, Nostro- mo, The Secret Agent, Under Western Eyes, was one of the greatest English writers. He certainly belongs to both English and world litera
ture: his diverse literary output is studied and read all over the world (Krajka 2004: 1). He is international also in the sense of being bom to and steeped in Polish language and culture, influenced by French language and literature, to later serve in the British Merchant Navy, settle in England and write his wonderful prose in English, which has become a global language. He transmitted Polish ethos and mentality worldwide in ways attractive to the world (Krajka 1993: 49).
Conrad spent the first seventeen years o f his life in partitioned Poland under the shadow o f autocratic Russia and lost independence.
Then followed four years o f early manhood in Marseille which largely formed various sides of his personality and proved to be a kind of “rite o f passage” into the political, marine and emotional aspects of his adult life (Krajka 1991). Next came sixteen years o f service in the British Merchant Navy, a period which was decisive in shaping his mature self. The remaining years o f life were spent creating his lite
rary identity. His life was like a succession of jumps into four distinct realities, each completely different from the previous one.
Conrad wrote in English which was his third language (Polish was his native language, and French was his second language). However, in the course of the sixteen years o f service in the British Merchant
1 This text is based on Krajka 1993.
Marine he ceased to be foreign to the English language. He learnt it from his fellow-mariners and extensive readings: English became the language o f his thoughts and he later followed a natural impulse to write his novels, short stories and essays in it. At this stage he was only slightly foreign to the English language: in his writing he com
mitted some mistakes which resulted from transfer from Polish and partly from French. Whenever English did not have a grammatical category which appeared in Polish, he translated his Polish mental construction into a similar English one, which sometimes resulted in language eccentricities and even errors. For example, he rendered Polish reflexive voice through English intransitive verbs (Morzinski 1994). Linguistic studies have shown him to be stylistically eccentric and very different from his contemporary English and American wri
ters (Lucas 2000; Morzinski 1994). Despite this, the depth and complexity o f the message o f his novels, short stories and essays made him the second (after Shakespeare) most international writer in English literature (Krajka 1999: 1-2). In his lifetime he enjoyed popu
larity and success with his English and American readership.
Understandably, biographical studies have been focused on the impact of each o f the four periods in Conrad’s life upon his literary works, and the influence of his experiences at sea was of course a crucial issue: many works o f criticism discuss comprehensively and convincingly the significance of Conrad’s particular voyages for his fiction. The influence, however, of the first two phases of Conrad’s life, the Polish and the French, have not been so well explored. Biographical studies, both book-length and shorter, reveal areas of obscurity con
cerning Conrad’s Marseille period: some facts are vague and difficult to explain, others are controversial (Braun 1989: 11-113).
The importance o f Conrad’s Polish years for his literary creation is even more difficult to evaluate, since obscure details o f his childhood and early youth are concerned here. Some (mostly biographers and Western critics) have worked to establish the facts of Conrad’s early period and their relevance to his later life, personality and works.
Polish literary critics, on the other hand, have mainly examined the relationship between the writer’s novels, short stories and essays and the culture and literature of his first homeland.2 They have con
2 For a survey o f these comparative investigations see Zabierowski 1971:
82-87, 115-155.
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vincingly pointed to influence of certain general characteristics of Polish national mentality, ethos and cultural tradition (D^browska 1974; Dyboski 1933; Helsztynski 1958; Hostowiec 1957; Jablkowska 1961: 5-81; Jablkowska 1981; Kocowna 1967; Krzyžanowski 1932:
246-248; Najder 1965; Najder 1974; Najder 1976: 85, 88-89; Zabie- rowski 1971). There are two types of studies concerning the impact of Polish literature upon his writings: one concentrates on general ten
dencies and movements in the history of Polish literature, whereas the other — on particular writers or works. The most valuable contribu
tions of the former include those emphasizing elements of the litera
ture of Polish Romanticism (especially Chwalewik 1963: 445-451;
Janion 1978: 3; Kridl 1929: 81-82; Zabierowski 1971: 82-87, 122- 155, 167-174) as well as of Polish variant of the oral tale (gaw^da) (Borowy 1963; Wyka 1969: 58-60, 65, 94). The latter is best illustrated by those who have traced the impact of positivists, like Prus or Sienkiewicz (Jablkowska 1961: 205-213; Zabierowski 1971: 175—
185), and o f Mickiewicz’s works (especially Konrad Wallenrod and Pan Tadeusz) upon Conrad (Krzyžanowski 1963; Najder 1965: 14-16, 19-21, 104—105, 109; Wyka 1969/1970: 77-80; Zabierowski 1971:
133-142). The results o f analogous comparative investigations con
cerning some other Polish romantics (Slowacki, Krasinski, Malczews- ki, Norwid and Fredro) are interesting though fragmentary and less convincing (Zabierowski 1971: 142-155). Even these sketchy com
ments confirm that Conrad’s writings owe to Romanticism more than to any other period in the history o f Polish literature, that Romanti
cism forms one o f the principal Polish contexts of his output.
Considerations of affinities with Polish Positivism are inseparable from the debate over Orzeszkowa’s accusation that Conrad betrayed Poland (Orzeszkowa 1963: 23-24). She was a remarkable writer and ardent spokesman for positivistic ideology. Unfortunately, her intole
rant attack upon Conrad’ choice o f a career as an English author (un
like her own, which she viewed as the only one possible for a Pole) severely distorted Conrad studies in Poland. She channeled them in a false direction and made the dispute over the question of betrayal highly emotional. Instead of simply understanding the emigre and his reasons for leaving Poland, many o f those taking part in the dispute engaged in a passionately partisan argument which was doomed to end with condemnations o f the “unpatriotic” writer. This debate centred upon an accusation which is in fact unprovable, because it is
framed in such a way as to be non-falsifiable. For those who accept Orzeszkowa’s ideology the conclusion is reasonable; otherwise it is empty. In neither case can it be proved or disproved on independent grounds. But it has re-surfaced, haunting Polish critics, readers, and admirers of Conrad, casting a slur on his reputation, and demanding that his actions be justified. It was of paramount importance to those whose creative life came in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, who were brought up according to romantic and positivistic stereotypes o f fight for Poland’s independence.3
During the first three decades o f this century many o f Conrad’s works were translated into Polish and there was strong interest in his biography (Zabierowski 1971: 204-205, 212). Guided by critics of previous generations, people read him with the context of Polish literature in mind, viewing him either as belonging to the Polish literary scene, or at least as being very close to it. At that time two images o f Conrad the writer were created in my country: one who followed the patterns o f Polish Romanticism and as an author of sea fiction, exotic-adventurous romances. The interwar period, especially the years 1932-39, articulated the importance o f philosophical, ideolo
gical and ethical strains in Conrad’s works, thus adding the third major interpretative perspective, which ranged between viewing them in terms of personalism and o f political conservatism (Zabierowski 1971: 211-212, 215-217; Zabierowski 1979).
What were the later developments of these three basic interpre
tations? The occupation o f my country by Germany and the Soviet Union between 1939-45, and especially the Warsaw Uprising in August and September o f 1944, saw the apex o f the writer’s popula
rity, particularly among the young generation (Gillon 1976: 214-216;
Gillon 1976a: 211; Mfynarska 1957; Najder 1957: 258; Prorok 1971:
131-132; Zabierowski 1968: 115-120; Zabierowski 1971: 216-218;
Zabierowski 1979a). It was mostly the romanticism and idealism of his heroes, especially the protagonist o f Lord Jim, which appealed to them. They wanted to fight and sacrifice their lives for some exalted cause, even a lost one: the happiness o f their community, the revival and freedom o f their nation. They intended to fulfil their ideal con
ception o f themselves in this way. Thus, Conrad’s works enhanced the
3 See Kurczaba’s account o f Gombrowicz’s censure o f this kind o f critical stance: Kurczaba 1993.
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rebirth o f romantic Polish fight for national independence, lost to Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Communist Soviet Union in 1939.
After the Warsaw Uprising had been crushed and Poland had been swallowed in the Soviet bloc, investigation o f psychological and ethical aspects of Conrad’s characters’ dilemmas became the leading tendency in criticism. The years 1945-^18 were a period o f compara
tive freedom and liberalism, yet at the same time of creeping Soviet totalitarianism into my homeland. They animated the natural conflict between a compromise with one’s conscience, co-operation with authorities, or on the other hand, resisting them, following strictly one’s own convictions. At that time, it meant for Poles a choice between whether to accept the new reality of Communist rule and adjust to it through moral compromise, or rather to defy it and remain loyal to one’s ideals, principles, values and oaths. The former would have been a kind of defeat or betrayal, the latter amounted to serving a lost cause. This moral choice was well dramatized in Jerzy Andrze- jew ski’s famous novel Popiöl i diament (Ashes and Diamonds), which was one o f many literary works addressing such issues. In this novel the young fighters from “Armia Krajowa” (Home Army) are tom between loyalty to the military oath made in the time of war, to their former political aspirations and ideals, and the necessity of coming to terms, after the war. with a new socio-political reality, much different from what they expected. The characters o f Popiöl i diament, not black-and-white creations, experience typically Conradian conflicting loyalties, the ordeal o f guilt and remorse, and a whole range of complex ethical problems. The authors o f this kind o f literature were made sensitive to ethical problems largely by their reading of Conrad’s masterpieces.
Under the rule of Stalinist hardliners in Poland (1948-56) Conrad was banned by political censorship. The censors used Jan Kott’s essay to label the writer “an agent o f imperialist companies.”4 In the jargon of Communist propaganda this was passing sentence on him: between 1950-55 almost nothing on Conrad and nothing by Conrad was published. The only significant exception was a collection of his short
4 Kott 1946: 151-156. See the interpretation o f Kott’s attack upon Conrad in the context o f the post-war polemic with the ideological program of the Polish underground movement: Zabierowski 1979b. See also an extended presentation o f Jan Kott’s attitude to Conrad and o f the development o f this attitude: Szczerbakiewicz 2004.
stories which appeared in 1952: it comprised “An Outpost o f Pro
gress,” “Heart o f Darkness,” “Amy Foster” and “The Partner” — a selection meant to show him not as an admirer but as a critic o f capita
lism.5 However, neither this edition nor attempts at defence against Kott’s attack altered his position in my country. Between 1948-56 the authorities were trying to erase his name from the Polish mind and tradition. The Stalinist ban echoed in the early 1980s, after the declaration of Marshall Law in Poland in December of 1981.
The political thaw in 1956 started a real renaissance o f Conrad studies in my homeland.6 Both the centenary o f his birth in 1957 and the fiftieth anniversary o f his death in 1974 were celebrated by nume
rous conferences and publications. The Neophilological Committee of the Polish Academy o f Sciences organized international Joseph Conrad conferences in 1957 and 1972 — the proceedings of both being published by “Ossolineum,” a leading Polish scientific publisher (Jablkowska 1975; Jablkowska 1979). A few local Conrad confe
rences in Polish were held as well. The first complete edition o f his works was issued in 1972-74 (the pieces rejected by censorship appeared in London as the 28 th volume) under the editorship of Zdzislaw Najder (Conrad 1972-1975). Polish Conradian Club, created at the Maritime Museum in Gdansk, edited several numbers of Infor- macje Polskiego Klubu Conradowskiego (The Conrad News. Polish Conradian Club). Many critical works, books and articles, appeared, too. Among them one finds popular publications addressed either to general reading public or to university or secondary school students (Jablkowska 1964; Кос 1989; Kocõwna 1969; Mroczkowski 1970), biographies and reconstructions o f Conrad’s artistic personality (JaWkowska 1961; Кос 1977; Kocõwna 1967; Najder 1980; Najder 1983), collections o f his private and professional correspondence (Bobrowski 1981; Conrad 1968; Najder 1964), others’ reminiscences of him (Kocõwna 1963; Najder 1983a; Prorok 1987), the only Polish monograph (JaWkowska 1961), prose and poetry inspired by his personality and oeuvre (Bilinski 1983; Skutnik 1977), impressionistic evaluations dominated by praise (e.g. D^browska 1974a; Mrocz
kowski 1970), collections of source materials (Najder 1983a), studies of sources and reminiscences evoked by travels to the places depicted
5 Conrad 1952; see the preface by A. Gohibiew (x i-x ii) to this collection.
See also Morf 1976: 264; Najder 1957: 260.
6 On Conrad studies in Poland between 1957—59 see Gillon 1960: 40 -5 4 .
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in Conrad’s prose (Braun 1970; Braun 1972; Braun 1989), surveys of his reception in Poland (mainly Zabierowski 1971; Zabierowski
1979c), discussions of the influence o f his writings upon the twentieth-century Polish literature (Prorok 1987; Zabierowski 1988), studies of select aspects o f his texts (D^browska 1974a; Kocõwna 1963; Kocowna 1967; Komar 1978; Kowalska 1973; Kowalska 1986;
Krajka 1988; Krajka 1992; Mroczkowski 1970; Najder 1965a; Zgor- zelski 1984). This revival o f Conrad research in my country meant not merely a substantial quantitative increase but also a qualitative change. The scene was now dominated not only by attempts to illumi
nate his life and character and to articulate his Polishness and romanti
cism but also by studies of moral and philosophical problems and formal elements in his fiction. The latter concern reflected some domi
nant tendencies in Polish literary criticism: formalism, structuralism, studies o f literary genres and modes, semiotics.
Polish Conradians are best placed to reveal and appreciate his Polishness and the relation between his creation and Polish literature and culture. Polishness is deeply ingrained in his character and texts, and therefore it should be constantly re-examined. Poles should be proud o f the impact which their national culture, mind, and ethos had on Conrad. After all, since the Renaissance, Poland can boast of not too many writers and artists whose appeal has been truly international.
During the periods o f Romanticism, Positivism and Young Poland the greatest Polish writers served the cause of national independence with their pens, since this was the patriotic necessity and duty (although they fulfilled this mission in different ways, characteristic of the lite
rary and ideological trends of their epochs). Their visions were thema
tically limited though artistically magnificent, and appealed greatly to the Polish heart. This situation changed with the end o f World War I, in 1918, when Poland regained freedom and her literature was ab
solved from the obligation to the national cause, even though the fourth partition of Poland in 1939 again reversed this trend tempo
rarily. After 1918, such writers as Gombrowicz, Witkacy and Mrožek produced more universal works, many o f which caught the interest of foreign readers. Against such a background, Conrad should be admired as one of not too many cases o f world-wide transmission of Polish ethos (especially Romanticism). He made Polish values and heritage attractive, understood and appreciated by people of other nationalities. And for this reason Poles should be proud of him and
thoroughly study and disclose the elements of Polish literature and culture actually appearing in his texts.
Conrad’s position among the reading public in Poland after 1956 did not tread the same path as in literary criticism. Before 1948 he was read by the elite, intellectuals and youth, whereas after 1956 by a great many lovers of literature among the general public. But this was a result not of increased interest in this author but rather o f the growth of readership in general. Easy access to books and education was one of the few blessings of Communist rule in Poland: books became extremely cheap, and schools and libraries were free and open to everybody. This made reading literature and education in elementary and secondary schools available to the entire population. But these readers digested Conrad at a superficial level, focusing on the adventurous, the marine and the exotic aspects of his fiction, as well as on Lord Jim — an epitome of Polish Romanticism. It was these works by Conrad which produced the greatest number of editions in Poland. My secondary school syllabus had two of his works on the literature reading list: “Typhoon” and Lord Jim. Again, this illustrated the basic tendencies o f his reception in Poland: the first text represented his marine fiction and the second his most Polish, most romantic work which corresponded nicely to the masterpieces of our national literature discussed extensively during Polish lessons. Was this double-patterned reception a result of the interests of readers themselves or rather of skilful manipulation? I have never studied this question, but it seems likely that manipulation is the answer. In Communist Poland the political Conrad o f Nostromo, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes was never popular, nor was the Conrad of great ideological complexity in “Heart o f Darkness.”
This situation was slightly changed only in the 1970s by the publication of an almost complete edition of Conrad’s works in Polish and the films based on “Heart o f Darkness” (Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola) and The Shadow-Line (by Andrzej Wajda).
And I could sense political manipulation o f Conrad in 1983, under Martial Law, when a television adaptation of Under Western Eyes was turned into a story with a simple moral, condemning all conspiracy — especially if made against the military rulers of Poland (Huebner 1983). But complexity must have been another reason limiting the impact of his writings upon the general reader. In the late 1970s and 80s Conrad appeared in Poland also in the context o f Polish emigre
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literature. With the official recognition and appreciation o f the Polish emigre literature made in the early 80s and repeated in 1989, the position o f Conrad as one of its exponents rose (Krajka 1990).
The political order established in Yalta in 1945 was an act of injustice and immorality. H alf o f Europe was presented to the Soviet Union and Stalin the murderer. Poland was the only one o f the allies which was forced to lose the war: over six million of her citizens were killed (about 18% o f the population), the country was completely destroyed, her territory after the victorious war was smaller than before it, she was forced into Soviet-born Communism — alien and repulsive to the Polish mind, history and culture. Therefore people in Poland and in East-Central Europe interpret the “autumn of nations”
o f 1989 and the subsequent political changes as an act o f historical justice. It has been claimed that it is Poland’s mission to make politics as moral as possible. And Conrad’s works may help propound the idea of moral politics: in the 1980s one could read in Polish newspapers and hear in the mass media quotations from Conrad pointing to the necessity of introducing morality into public life.
My presentation has been subjective: I have outlined certain visions and tendencies rather than documented and validated theses.7 Let me end with a prediction for the future o f Conrad criticism and reception in Poland. The role o f Anglicists in these studies will gradually increase in spite o f the enormous and rapidly growing bulk o f critical works on Conrad, which discourages young students from undertaking research into his canon. Polish Conradology will become more international, stronger integrated with investigations conducted abroad. I expect that such masterpieces as “Heart of Darkness,” Nost- romo, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes will be “re
discovered” in Poland to become popular. I hope that the impact of
discovered” in Poland to become popular. I hope that the impact of