Some Remarks on the Methodological Compulsions in the Studies on Old-Polish Literature

The Polish version of the article was published in “Roczniki Humanistyczne,” vol. 56 (2008), issue 1. The paper is a hidden polemic with the texts that have recently been published (not quoted by their names or indicated in the footnotes). These texts have brought forth a diagnosis that there is a delay in terms of methodology with regard to the studies on Old-Polish literature and have postulated their application to the studies on ancient literature. The author formulates her belief that traditional philology is indispensable in the studies on Old-Polish literature with an awareness that there should be a free choice in selecting the method of its interpretation. The text emerges from a protest against the rhetoric of methodological directives formulated under the influence of fashion, ideology, or fatigue with the object of research and from radical distrust to methodological directives as such, and the majority of directives in general.