George Orwell and Communist Poland

Émigré, Official and Clandestine Receptions
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-40953-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 364 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 653 g

Reihe: Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature

George Orwell and Communist Poland is the first major account of George Orwell’s Polish reception during the Second World War and the Cold War era. It shows how Orwell, the epitome of a censored writer in the Soviet bloc, enjoyed a fulsome reception both outside and within communist Poland. It does so by developing a tripartite framework to study reception in conditions of state-imposed censorship, where three modes are likely to develop in response: émigré, official and clandestine.

The book thus brings to light Orwell’s overlooked relationships with Polish exiles who informed his work and looked upon him not only as a writer but also a personal friend and political ally. They eagerly translated his works and sought multinational promotion, even behind the Iron Curtain. The volume argues that Orwell also experienced official reception, smuggled into state-controlled culture in officially accepted ways. Additionally, communist censorship files reflect his reception within the state apparatus. Finally, the book examines passionate clandestine responses to Orwell's writing and myth in diaries and letters from as early as under Stalinism and explores Orwell’s popularity among underground publishing networks, which enabled his works to become bestsellers.

The book draws on sources in foreign languages and previously unseen material, including Orwell’s ‘lost’ letters to Teresa Jelenska, the Polish translator of Animal Farm. The volume significantly broadens our understanding of Orwell’s life, work and legacy. It also contributes to discussions in English literature and comparative literature, literary exchanges, translation, reception and censorship and East European studies.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wieszczek, Krystyna

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Strömungen & Epochen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Chapter 1 Émigré Reception – Orwell a Friend and Political Ally

The Rare British Friend Speaks up for the Polish Cause Orwell a Friend and Political Ally Poland in Orwell’s Writing Censorship Troubles Orwell’s ‘Omissions’ Polish Friends Reciprocate

Polish Friends Speak up for Orwell Polish Émigré Media and Orwell Good for All How Appropriate for Us: Animal Farm in Polish Animal Farm to Save the World with a Little Help from Polish Friends Not Only Animal Farm: An Overlooked Would-Be Essay Collection in Polish The Most Poignant Book of Our Times: Echoes of Nineteen Eighty-Four

Dead but Much Alive: Orwell’s Afterlife among the Polish Diaspora Polish Exiles Mourn the Author’s Death Another Paris-London Collaboration: Nineteen Eighty-Four in Polish A Weapon in Unorthodox Cold War Offensives Orwell Defies Détente The Orwell Year 1984 Commemorated

Chapter 2 Official Reception – Orwell an Enemy

Orwell and the Communist Censorship System

Banned Yet Present – Smuggled, Disguised, Misread Innocent and Anonymous Socialist Realism Versus a Shadowy Enemy of Humankind The 1956 Thaw Attempts to Tame the Foe The Nemesis Frozen for Decades But Lurking in Libraries But Evoked in Official Culture The 1980s and Orwell Back in Sight Reinscribed Books Back in the Fourth Estate under Censor’s Keeping The Orwell Year Relief of Alliance Transmutations Affable Anonymous Aspidistra for the Relentless Crisis Aspidistra Is Not the Orwell; or, a Death Foretold

Chapter 3 Clandestine Reception – Orwell a Liberator

Orwell Ammunition

Before the Paper Revolution Orwell in Diaries, Letters and Other Writing A Homo Sovieticus Antidote

After the Paper Revolution Top of the Charts Orwell Published Underground The Solidarity Carnival Big Brother’s Return: Martial Law The Orwell Year Looming Life after 1984

4 Orwell Good for All

Appendix A: Orwell’s Response to Wiadomosci’s Survey on Joseph Conrad (1949)

Appendix B: List of Orwell’s Polish Clandestine Book Editions (1976–1989)

Appendix C: List of Selected Polish Translations of Orwell’s Essays and Shorter Pieces by the Chronology of Their First Appearance

Selected Thematic Bibliography

Letters, Diaries and Memoirs Letters: Orwell–Jelenska; Giedroyc–Mieroszewski; Giedroyc–Swiderska; and Giedroyc–Weintraub Other Letters, Diaries and Memoirs

Polish Communist Records Unpublished Published

Polish Émigré and British Records

Interviews

Other Communication

Broadcasts

Artefacts and Transformations

Publications of Orwell’s Works Émigré Official Clandestine Non-Polish and Polish Post-1989

Polish Publications Concerning Orwell from the Period Émigré Official Clandestine

Secondary Sources Orwell Criticism and References Translation and Reception Censorship Émigrés and Diaspora Official Culture in Poland Clandestine Printing and Second Circulation Reference Works Literature Major Sources Available Online

Archives Consulted

Über Autor(innen)

Krystyna Wieszczek is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Verona, Italy, and Columbia University, New York. She specialises in twentieth-century English literature and literary translation, reception and censorship. Her current project investigates empirical reception and the potential impact of literature on empowerment. Previously, she taught at the University of Bologna and the Ignatianum Academy in Krakow, and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Milan. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Southampton, UK.