With Open Eyes: The Young Narcyza Żmichowska’s Reception of Western Cultural Influences

The article discusses the influence of non-Polish authors on the thought and literary works of Narcyza Żmichowska (1819–1876). Using evidence taken from her early diary and prolific lifelong correspondence, it concentrates on the earlier part of her career, regarding this as formative, in particular her visit to France in 1838–1839 and then the period 1840–1846, after she had returned to the Polish lands and was closely involved with the progressive intellectual milieu of “The Scientific Review” (“Przegląd Naukowy”). She was phenomenally well-read and self-educated, especially in French and German authors. The culmination of this period was her best-known novel The Heathen (Poganka, 1846), in which many commentators have observed the influence of foreign literary texts. Her unorthodox approach to religion is also discussed, likewise inspired by reading foreign authors. In conclusion, the question is posed as to whether Żmichowska was as unusual as she appears, or whether more research needs to be done into the foreign reading of other Polish writers of the first half of the 19th century publishing “at home” and not in emigration.