Jakub vs. Jakób Szela: The ghoul’s comeback

This article is intended as an updated addendum to the history of the reception of Jakub Szela, leader of the peasant uprising in Galicia in 1846, in Franciszek Ziejka’s Złota legenda chłopów polskich [The Golden Legend of Polish Peasants], published in 1984. It seems that practically all of the accounts of the bloody events of 1846 follow either of two master narratives distinguished by their characteristic patterns of sidetracking and omissions. The two narratives also differ in their contrarian ideological leanings and aesthetic sensitivity. Another important observation concerns the congruence of the narrative written by the gentry and the traditional national history, and a similar congruence of the peasant narrative with the approach of social history.