„Opowieść” o pięknie tragicznym. Książę Józef Poniatowski w międzywojennych antologiach szkolnych

Abstract

The author analyses all biographical texts presenting the life of Prince Józef Poniatowski in textbooks during the interwar period. Poniatowski’s fictional and documentary depictions were written under a huge influence of historians (Stanisław Bogusławski, Ignacy Prądzyński, Władysław Smoleński, and in particular Szymon Askenazy). The apotheosis of the people who played an important part in the history of Poland had to be idealized to some extent. It regulated the relations between the truth of history and fiction. Poems, short narrative forms (stories and short stories), as well as adaptations of the fragments of biographies for the general public consolidated the social functions of legend and the national myth of Prince Józef.