Votum důvěry? O cílech a funkcích literární historie

The article looks at the history of literature in contemporary times as an auto-reflexive discipline, capable of redefining its assumptions and of recovering from a crisis. The article aims to identify the causes and consequences of the crisis as well as to describe their specific character in the Polish context. The models of literary history are varied, because they are historical, which has been shown on the example of the differing methods of literary synthesis in the course of time. The article also proposes a procedure of literary analysis devoid of a historical reflection and describes its outcome.