Literature and nationalism in partitioned Poland, 1795-1918 /

In his afterword to this information-packed survey of the literature of nationalism in Poland under the partitions, Eile deftly demonstrates that his subject not only belongs to the past it documents but remains a vital component of contending Polish self-definitions today. From 1795 to 1918, Poland existed as an independent country only in the minds of those who envisioned its recovery from its tripartite division into territories incorporated into the Russian and Austrian Empires and the Prussian state. Out of this desperate situation arose the potent myth of Poland as the Christ among nations, and Poles as the chosen people of the New Testament. A plethora of secondary myths and demands for behavior appropriate to such a divine national calling accompanied this vision, including the elevation of self-sacrifice for the national cause and a cult of patriotic martyrdom. Eile's fascinating book documents how intensely this myth has gripped Polish writers, who have found themselves bound to engage it, whether affirmatively or with passionate disdain for its destructive power. Not a study of literature as verbal art, but a superb introduction to "Polishness," this book is recommended for collections supporting Eastern European cultural studies as well as Slavic literature. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. M. G. Levine; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill