“Our ‘I’ and History”: The Polish Reception of Walter Pater

The essay focuses on the Polish reception of Walter Pater’s works. The author raises three main points: fi rst, that Pater’s texts were translated into Polish and were lively discussed by reviewers mainly during the period of the so-called “Young Poland” (1890–1918); second, that the reasons for either the interest in Pater’s writings or the neglect or disapproval of them were related to variously defi ned concepts of the human subject, i.e. the “I”, individuality or soul, which, regardless of the differences, remained most valid to Young Poland writers and critics searching for the fundamental meaning in works of art and literature. Third, that with time the attitude of Polish writers, artists and poets towards Pater changed and initial accusations of sterile aestheticism or positivistic pedantry, levelled at him in the fi rst decade of the 20th century, gave way to encomia on the stylistic quality of his texts and on the psychological accuracy of his Imaginary Portraits.