Maria Renata Mayenowa and the Forgotten Legacy of Polish Theory of Literature and Poetics

Abstract:This article examines the figure of an outstanding Polish philologist — Maria Renata Mayenowa (1908–88) — attempting to interpret her life trajectory with the help of sociological tools. It is argued that Mayenowa's biography is significant in the context of the history of Polish, as well as Eastern European intellectual thought, for several reasons. First, it can be helpful in the reconstruction of the Polish involvement in the development of social theory in the twentieth century. Second, it provides insight into Polish-Russian, and more broadly, Polish-Eastern European intellectual relations in the twentieth century. Finally, the third reason is the non-obvious forms in which the history of Eastern European Jewish elites, and in particular the Jewish bourgeoisie, manifested itself in her biography.