Studia Humanitatis (Apr 2016)
Polish memoiristics in the world literature of the 17th century
Abstract
The article deals with the Polish memoirist prose of the 17th century and draws attention to its literary dimension. The battlefield chronicles and journal books display the Ancient social system, the tribal relations and spiritual quests of the famous Polish leaders and ordinary citizens. This genre is represented by Nikolai Radziwill Syrotka, Stanislav Reshka, Matsei Rivotsky, Yan Pyotrkovsky, Samuil Maskevych, Yan Chrysostom Pasek, Kasper Vilkovsky. The article concludes that the authors of memoirs used the most sophisticated literary style namely clear composite structures distant in time from the depicted places and events. The Polish gentry’s raptulyarys became of the least value for literary scholars.
