Obraz Polaków w felietonach Henryka Sienkiewicza

The aim of the article is to reconstruct the linguistic image of the Poles on the basis of Henryk Sienkiewicz’s feuilletons. This image is determined by the speaker’s point of view. Creating his image of Polish society, Sienkiewicz adopted the following points of view: the POV of a Pole, the POV of a thrifty economist, the POV of a positivist and the POV of a Christian. As a Polish citizen, he criticizes his compatriots for the fact that they do not respect their native tongue. As a thrifty economist, he exposes numerous instances of their profligacy. As a positivist, Sienkiewicz notes the backwardness of the countryside and proposes specific initiatives to address this problem. Finally, assuming the perspective of a Christian, he unmasks false piety. This image of the Poles is predominantly negative. The fact that Sienkiewicz highlighted his compatriots’ weaknesses and focused on their wastefulness, rather than on their positive attributes, could be motivated by censorship concerns. Russian censors were very effective in suppressing all forms of manifesting Polish national identity and were more inclined to accept critical opinions.