From Szlachta Culture to the 21st century, between east and west

The volume opens with an appreciation of Conrad's Polishness by Jerzy Buzek, The President of the European Parliament. Its first section provides new illuminations of Polishness in Conrad's personality and oeuvre: from the szlachta cultural heritage of his ancestors and Polish contextualizations of "Prince Roman" through some aspects of the writer's identity and references to Polish culture and autobiographical elements in his works to their Polish translations and reception. The Eastern-Western frame for these studies is provided by insights into some relations of his literary works to Russian literature (Dostoevsky, Turgenev) and their reception in Ukraine and Germany. The essays represent various methodological approaches to studies in biography, historical-cultural contextualizations of literature, fact-and-fiction relationships, history of ideas, literary reception (documented surveys, translative and creative reception) and comparative literary criticism.