news

Several hundred people witnessed the heated debate on the 20th c. Polish literature that took place today. Prof. Michał Paweł Markowski and the invited guests, Inga Iwasiów, Anna Nasiłowska and Piotr Śliwiński, who are renowned literary scholars, tried together to establish the basis for a new literary canon.

Readers will have a chance to meet Olga Tokarczuk, Stefan Chwin, Andrzej Stasiuk as well as prof. Michał Paweł Markowski, Piotr Mucharski and Grzegorz Jankowicz during the Book Fair in Krakow due to begin this Thursday. From Friday to Sunday the Festival’s stall (no P14, directly by the main entrance to the fair) will be where you can meet.

On the second day of the Festival, Massolit Books welcomed the editors and contributors of Literatura na Świecie (World Literature) – one of the most renowned Polish periodicals devoted to literary translations. In Massolit’s new hall, which was filled to the brim, Małgorzata Łukasiewicz, Anna Górecka, Jacek Gutorow, Andrzej Sosnowski and Marcin Szuster talked about the influence of certain translations on Polish literature and culture as well as about some foreign writers’ popularity in Poland. A lot of attention in the discussion was also given to issues connected with translation theory.

On Tuesday, Stefan Chwin conducted the first Lesson, thus initiating the series of four Reading lessons with… planned to take place during this edition of the Conrad Festival. Together with secondary school students, Chwin discussed William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. 40 students from selected secondary schools from Krakow, Łódź and Olsztyn took part in this unusual class.

Today at 10 am, in Cafe Camelot, Pascal Quignard met translators of French literature and critics of mainly francophone literature. He talked about his writing, his editorial work for Gallimard publishers as well as the tasks of the translator (Quignard translates from Chinese and classical languages), and film adaptations of his novels. A comfortable, relaxed atmosphere and unhurried rhythm of the conversation contributed to this highly inspiring discussion on the essence of literature and its future.