LITERATURE AND SOCIAL SYMPATHY LUDWIK KRZYWICKI'S ARTICLE WEDROWKA IDEI (THE MIGRATION OF IDEAS) AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEORETICAL PARADIGMS OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE AT THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY

This paper is a contribution to the study of the relationship between literature and sociology at the end of the 19th century in partitioned Poland. In particular, it explores the theoretical potential of Ludwik Krzywicki's concept of migration of ideas for comparative literature studies. It explains the context of the interplay of literary criticism and sociology among the Warsaw intelligentsia and examines how the work of foreign anthropologists and sociologists of literature (Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett, Charles Letourneau) was received in these circles. Even in the earliest sociologically based studies in the field of comparative literature, one can discern a postulate of functional connection between literature and what sociologists call the social bond (and what in the debate of the time often figures as social sympathy). The article reconstructs this line of reasoning and discusses the factors that led to it, disappearance in the subsequent history of the discipline.

Automated summary

This paper is a contribution to the study of literature and sociology in partitioned Poland in the late 19th century. It explores the theoretical potential of Ludwik Krzywicki's concept of idea migration in comparative literature studies. The paper examines the interplay between literary criticism and sociology among the Warsaw intelligentsia and analyzes the reception of foreign anthropologists and sociologists of literature (Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett, Charles Letourneau) in these circles. It reconstructs the functional connection between literature and the social bond advocated in early sociologically based studies of comparative literature and discusses the factors that led to its disappearance in subsequent disciplinary history.