1. Imagining Mickiewicz as a National Poet From the Non-National past to the Nationally Delimited Present Literature and Union, University of Glasgow, Nov 21, 2014 Dr Tomasz Kamusella University of St Andrews

2. Mickiewicz: CV Adam Bernard Mickiewicz Born on 24 Dec 1798 in Nowogródek, Russia (today’s Навагрудак, Navahrudak in Belarus) Died on 26 Nov 1855 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (today’s Istanbul) Sir Thaddeus, or the Last Lithuanian Foray: A Nobleman's Tale from the Years of 1811 and 1812 in Twelve Books of Verse Nobleman, Coat-of-arms: Poraj 1812-15 Napoleonic troops in the Grand Duchy (today’s Belarus & Lithuania) 1815-19 University of Wilno (today’s Vilnius, Lithuania) 1819-23 teacher in Kowno (Kaunas, Lithuania) 1817-23 independence movement 1823-24 Imprisonment 1824-29 Exile, teaching, travels in St Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Crimea 1829-32 Grand tour, Saxony, Italy, Switzerland, France NEVER visited Warsaw, Cracow or Poznań 1834-55 in Paris, married, 3 children 1840-44 Prof of Slavic Languages & Literatures, Collège de France 1848 Polish legion in Rome 1851-55 Under police surveillance 1852-55 Librarian, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Paris 1855 Polish & Jewish legions in Constantinople

3. Polish National Poet? Litwo! Ojczyzno moja! ty jesteś jak zdrowie; Ile cię trzeba cenić, ten tylko się dowie, Kto cię stracił. Lithuania, my country! You are as good health: How much one should prize you, he only can tell Who has lost you. (translation by Marcel Weyland)

4. Which Lithuania? Commonwealth of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

5. Lost Fatherland Three Partitions of Poland-Lithuania 1815: Polish-Lithuanian lands Re-Partitioned

6. Independence for What / Whom? Mickiewicz’s nobility-oriented (pre- national) imagination Poland 1 – shorthand for Poland- Lithuania Nation 1 (naród) = Polish-Lithuanian nobility Leading religion = Catholicism But full inclusion for Protestant nobles Muslim nobles Orthodox / Uniate nobles (language of little import) some inclusion (autonomy) for Jews No inclusion for peasants, who remained serfs with no access to politics (language of no import) Polish national imagination nowadays Poland 2 – the nation-state founded in 1918 & territorially refashioned in 1945 Nation 2 (naród) = all speakers of the Polish language Leading religion = Catholicism But grudging inclusion for Protestants Less inclusion for Greek Catholics (Uniates) Even less inclusion for Orthodox Christians No inclusion for Judaists (Jews) religion No inclusion for non-Polish-speakers language I RONY I RONY : Majority of today’s Polish nation are descendents of Catholic Slavophone peasants (serfs), but at school they read Mickiewicz and learn to identify with Poland-Lithuania’s nobility

7. Whose Mickiewicz? Adomas Mickevičius Ponas Tadas Адам Міцкевіч Пан Тадэвуш Adam Mitskevich Pan Tadevush Адам Міцкевич Пан Тадеуш Adam Mitskevych Pan Tadeush אדם מיצקביץ ' פן טדאוש ḏm mṣqḇṣ' p̄n ṭḏwš

8. A Mickiewicz’s Poetry in Yiddish translation published for Communist Poland’s Jewish citizens in 1955