The aim of the article is to analyze the essays of Ignacy Wieniewski, a translator and historian of literature, one of the representatives of the twentieth-century Polish independence emigration in London. The considerations are woven around three collections of essays Powrót na Via Appia (1951), Antycznym szlakiem (1964) and Kalejdoskop wspomnień (1970). The author focused on the main problems taken up by Wieniewski: the relationship between Polish culture and European culture, the key role of the ancient Greek and Roman tradition in shaping European culture and recalling the ancient sources of culture and the original meaning of key ideas of the Mediterranean world. The article highlights the essential arguments of the essayist, proving the lasting importance of the ancient tradition not only in relation to the achievements of classical philosophy, art and literature, but also the broad foundations of the Latin-Christian culture of the West, formed thanks to such ideas as love of man, attachment to individual, social and national freedom,
equality of all people, humanitarianism, patriotism, the cult of the rule of law as the basis of the state or care for the development of culture. The conducted analysis brings the little-known essay writings of Ignacy Wieniewski closer to a wider audience and indicates his place among the Polish writers of the essay.
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Vol. 32 No. 2 (2023)
Published: 2023-03-29