Przemysław Czapliński – Professor of 20th and 21st c. literature, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. Essayist, translator, literary critic. Co-founder of the School of Anthropology of Literature (UAM), chair of literary-criticism specialization, member-correspondent of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Author of over 10 books, recently: Polska do wymiany (2009) [Recycling Poland], The Remnants of Modernity, Peter Lang, 2015; Poruszona mapa (2016). Editor of, among others: Nowoczesność i sarmatyzm (Poznań 2011) [Modernity and Sarmatism], Literatura ustna (2011) [Oral literature], Kamp. Antologia przekładów [Camp. An Anthology of Translations] (co-edited with Anna Mizerska; 2013). Curator of many debate series, such as: „Moc truchleje. Debaty o polskim katolicyzmie” (Debates on the Polish Catholicism, Centrum Kultury Zamek, Poznań), „Boskie narracje. O wierze, religii i bogach rozmowy z pisarzami” (Divine narrations. Talking about belief, religion and gods with writers, Poznań 2015/2016); „Bioklasy: segregacje i sojusze” (Bioclasses: segregations and alliances, Warsaw 2016), „Nie-boskie narracje. O lęku i gniewie” (Non-divine narrations. On fear and anger, Teatr Polski, Poznań 2016/2017), „Prognozowanie teraźniejszości” (Forecasting the present, UAM, Poznań 2016/2017). Visiting Professor at universities abroad (Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Hungary, the USA). Awards: the L. Fryde Award (1997), The Kościelscy Foundation Award (1998), the Kazimierz Wyka Award (2004); the Medal of Merit to Culture Gloria Artis (Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, 2014) and the Medal of National Education Commission (Ministry of National Education, 2016). Field of research: Polish literature and the problems of late modernity.
On the Origins of Post-Enlightenment Nations
The paper will discuss two questions: “Where do the present nations come from and how are they being formed?” (the stated problem implies that we are dealing in Central Europe with the process of nation formation, and that this process is different from previous ones – in the 19th and in the first half of the 20th century). As to the question: „Where does the present-day nation come from?”, I answer: from the experience of a lost revolution – the one that began in 1980 in Poland and which allegedly won in 1989. For economic transformation to win, the revolution had to lose. And the main actors of the revolution – i.e. social classes – had to be put to shame. The victorious transformation left behind most of all fears, the lost revolution left behind most of all anger. The nation that emerges after the lost revolution is a response to fear and humiliation. Logically, a nation creates itself as a secure and shame-resistant community. Can the collective be safe today? Can the nation be immune to shame?
