George Orwell and Communist Poland

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George Orwell and Communist Poland is the first major account of George Orwell’s Polish reception during WWII and the cold war.

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 Jeleńska, 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.

Obsah

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 Wiadomości’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–Jeleńska; Giedroyc–Mieroszewski; Giedroyc–Świderska; 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