George Orwell and Communist Poland is the first major account of George Orwells 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 Orwells 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 Orwells 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 Orwells lost letters to Teresa Jeleska, the Polish translator of Animal Farm. The volume significantly broadens our understanding of Orwells 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.
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 Orwells Writing
Censorship Troubles
Orwells 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: Orwells Afterlife among the Polish Diaspora
Polish Exiles Mourn the Authors 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 Censors 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 Brothers Return: Martial Law
The Orwell Year Looming
Life after 1984
4 Orwell Good for All
Appendix A: Orwells Response to Wiadomocis Survey on Joseph Conrad (1949)
Appendix B: List of Orwells Polish Clandestine Book Editions (19761989)
Appendix C: List of Selected Polish Translations of Orwells Essays and
Shorter Pieces by the Chronology of Their First Appearance
Selected Thematic Bibliography
Letters, Diaries and Memoirs
Letters: OrwellJeleska; GiedroycMieroszewski; Giedroycwiderska; and
GiedroycWeintraub
Other Letters, Diaries and Memoirs
Polish Communist Records
Unpublished
Published
Polish Émigré and British Records
Interviews
Other Communication
Broadcasts
Artefacts and Transformations
Publications of Orwells 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
Krystyna Wieszczek is a Marie Skodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Verona, Italy, and Columbia University, New York. She specialises in twentieth-century English literature and literary translation, reception and censorship. Her current project investigates empirical reception and the potential impact of literature on empowerment. Previously, she taught at the University of Bologna and the Ignatianum Academy in Krakow, and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Milan. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Southampton, UK.
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