Hundred Years of Avant-Gardes: The Literary Experiment in Poland and Beyond 1917-2017

For many Central-European countries, the inter- and post-war periods marked the beginning of their statehood and entailed the laying of the foundations for literary language itself. Experimental tendencies became a laboratory of bold and ambiguous visions of the world, inspiring many artists to join in the process of rebuilding their communities. Unlike other parts of the world, in Poland experiments thus conceived were not just about contesting bourgeois habits and forms, or testing the boundaries of social and aesthetic conventions. On the contrary, revolutionary-oriented circles supported the building of new centres of intellectual life, joined the cultural mainstream in the broadest possible sense, and, with time, became an important point of reference for the entire panorama of literary and artistic life.