Concerning Elitism. Three Case Studies

Abstract

This article examines literary criticism in Poland after 1989 from the dynamic perspective of elites and elitism. Drawing on various elite theories, mainly the more contemporary ones, for which the most important point of reference is Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of distinction, the author shows how these concepts function in relation to the aesthetic and social dominants of the Polish literary scene after 1989. The author analyzes three “critical case studies:” Krzysztof Uniłowski’s article from 2005, a Facebook event related to the “auctioning” of Konrad Góra’s book of poetry in 2020, and recent trends in the language used by the young generation of critics. The author is interested in the relationship between literature and criticism and the dominant aesthetic tendencies and the socio-political context, especially the use of the concepts of elites and elitism, be it analytically or persuasively, consciously or unconsciously, positively or negatively, etc.