“To lift up people’s hearts and enlighten theirminds.” The series of historical novels by ǦurǧīZaydān and Józef Ignacy Kraszewski

Summary

Abstract

The paper analyses the life and work of the pioneers ofPolish and Arabic historical novels. Since thebeginning of the 19^th century, whenWalter Scott (1771–1832) contributed topopularization of the historical novel, the genrehas enjoyed a constant interest of readers,satisfying the demand for entertainment, providingknowledge about historical events, and finally,serving as an important medium of ideologicalcontent. The pioneer of the historical novel inPoland was Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812–1887), theauthor of an extremely extensive series of novels,in which, against the background of chronologicallydepicted history of the Polish nation, he presentshis historiosophical concepts. In the Arab world, aLebanese, Ǧurǧī Zaydān (1861–1912), is considered tobe the author of a pioneering series of historicalnovels. Both Kraszewski and Zaydān combined writingwith publishing, socio-political activities andjournalism. They also created under similarpolitical conditions, setting educational goals forthe novel. Recalling their nation's history wassupposed to shape and promote certain socialattitudes, arouse patriotic feelings and unite tofight.

Keywords: Polish literature, Arabic literature,historical novel, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, ǦurǧīZaydān

Introduction

The paper focuses on the early historical novels inArabic and Polish literature. The starting point forthe analysis is the assertion expressed by StanisławBrzozowski (1984) that the historical narrative is adocument of the age in which it was written, whereit can only describe the past that lives solely inthe mind of the author or the reader. The image andthe characteristics of this past are the product ofthe age in which the novel was born, and they areclosely linked to this age and defined by it. Everyhistorical novel is rooted in a certain philosophyof history, which is always an expression ofself-knowledge and self-definition of a particularsociety, the purpose the society believes it shouldserve, and the destiny it believes it should fulfill(pp. 57–58).

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812–1887) was the author of apioneer series of historical novels, in which hepresented his concepts of the history of the Polishnation, while in the Arab world, Ǧurǧī Zaydān(1861–1912) was the first to write a series ofnovels about the history of Islam, where heintroduced a kind of endorsement of Arabnationalism.