Utopian Studies in Poland: A Preliminary Survey

ABSTRACT The article presents a general overview of utopian studies in Poland from the late nineteenth century until recent times. Since the very beginning an important role was played by attempts to formulate an adequate definition of the utopian genre. Apart from the communist period, in which a highly politicized approach predominated, in later times the essentially individualistic and polycentric character of Polish utopian studies came to the fore. The downfall of the communist system brought about a rapidly rising interest in utopian studies facilitated by Polish translations of some of the most important studies by Zygmunt Bauman, Bronisław Baczko, Fredric Jameson, and Leszek Kołakowski. The last twenty-six years witnessed the publication of numerous monographs, collective volumes, special issues of scholarly journals, and individual articles on various aspects of utopias and utopianism considered from different ideological and disciplinary perspectives.