The Politics of literature: Poland 1945-89

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This study explores the relationship between literature and politics. It asks what literature can tell us about politics, and it does so by exploring Polish literary-political culture in the years 1945-89. During these years the Communist Party, for all its opposite intent, preserved the power of the word and the moral and political position of writers at a time when in western Europe and America writers were no longer taken very seriously as political commentators. This was a period when writers in Poland occupied a position of great moral authority. Many believed that, in spite of Soviet power, an independent Polish socialism was a possibility, and that even if they were not able to shake off the power of Moscow they might still be able to turn communism into a force for good.