Age of -isms

This term, analogous to "Young Scandinavia" and "Young Germany," describes a variety of early Modernist trends in Polish literature. Its other -isms, often influenced by the relativism of Nietsche, the anti-determinism of Schopenhauer, and the "Art for Art's sake" of Poland's own Przybyszewski, included decadentism, symbolism, naturalism, impressionism, and neo-Romanticism. Despite their various differences, Polish writers seemed to share a fascination with the landscapes of the Tatra Mountains, the major resort of which, Zakopane, became a virtual cultural capital of (the nonexistent) Poland. Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer (1865-1940), the poet of melancholy decadence, was born in the area; peasant-born Jan Kasprowicz (1860-1926), symbolist and quasi-Pantheist, died there. The highly original poetry of Boleslaw Lesmian (1878-1937), born in a middle-class Jewish family in Warsaw, explored, in symbolist, naturalistic, and existentialist ways, the relation between man and God. For Stanislaw Wyspianski (1869-1907), lyrical poetry was perhaps his third occupation in terms of precedence; we was known chiefly as the author of symbolist, neo-romantic, national dramas (often in verse) such as November Night, Liberation, and The Wedding, and painter.