“The Beginnings of Polish Comparative Literature:The Early Paradigm,” by Edward Kasperski – Editorial Comments by Żaneta Nalewajk

This article by Edward Kasperski discusses the early paradigm of Polish comparative literature,as well as the conditions of its introduction. A survey of the practices of writers from Ludwik Osińskiand Adam Mickiewicz to Cyprian Norwid, Kazimierz Brodziński, and Maurycy Mochnacki showsthat this paradigm was characterized by: 1) pluralism, 2) a search for explanatory constructs indicativeof the unity of literature, culture, and civilization in the face of common empiricism andsensual observation, 3) references to imagination, invention, intuition, and “sensing,” which freelyinterconnect with rational cognitive activity, 4) the comparative method, 5) community-based categories,6) issues of identity-based thinking (essentialist and realistic when it comes to the perceptionof universals), 7) concentration on the issues of emulation (similarity and repetition) and originality(difference), which polemically evokes the classics, 8) totalizing thinking, 9) the category of nationality,10) transgressiveness. The article is a posthumous publication and has been submitted andintroduced by Żaneta Nalewajk.