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The Undivine Comedy

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The Undivine Comedy (Polish: Nie-Boska komedia) is a drama by Zygmunt Krasiński, a Polish nationalist poet. A "tainted masterpiece", it serves as a foundational myth of Polish antisemitism in the modern era. This work is profoundly embarrassing yet canonical in Polish culture, similar to The Merchant of Venice. Krasiński, a conservative catastrophist, presents a vision of impending disaster of revolution.

The Undivine Comedy positing a Jewish conspiracy against Christians was among the first or possible the first work in a string of modern antisemitic literary works in Europe leading to the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and is similar to the work by by Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt in 1938. Krasiński ‎work was enthusiastically received by G. K. Chesterton, a notorious antisemite, who saw the work as portending the Russian communist revolution. Krasiński's views of Jews being anti-Polish and anti-Christian are the polar opposite of Adam Mickiewicz who envisioned a free and equal Poland.

While the antisemitic motif of this piece is accepted by Polish literary specialists, it is suppressed in the Polish public. This work is taught in Polish high schools, however educational materials are silent on antisemitism and discard uncomfortable material.

Modern adaptations

Konrad Swinarski 1965 theater adaptation, preceded the 1968 expulsion of the Jews from Poland and produced twenty years after the Holocaust in which Polish society were mainly bystanders. Swinarski's adpatation highlighted Krasiński's antisemitism as a fundemental ideological frame, making everything "part of a plan to destroy the Christian world, realized by the Satanic-Jewish conspiracy".

In 2013, a Oliver Frljić's adaptation titled "The Un-Divine Comedy: Remains" (Polish: Nie-Boska komedia. Szczątki) set to premiere at Helena Modrzejewska National Stary Theater in Kraków was suspended after right-wing pressure, the most drastic censorship in theater since the collapse of the Polish People's Republic. Theater director Jan Klata stated the cancellation was for the "the safety of the actors and the entire theatre". Frljić intended to show Polish society, with "obscene bluntness", the antisemitic core around which it formed.

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  2. Szczuka, Kazimiera (2011). "Bohater, Spisek, Smierc: Wyklady Zydowskie (Hero, Conspiracy Death: The Jewish Lectures)". Shofar. 23 (3): 53.
  3. Janion, Maria (2009). Bohater, spisek, śmierć. W.A.B. p. 90. ISBN 978-83-7414-268-7.
  4. Adamiecka-Sitek, Agata (2016). "Poles, Jews and Aesthetic Experience: On the Cancelled Theatre Production by Olivier Frljić". Polish Theatre Journal. 1.
  5. Duker, Abraham. "THE MYSTERY OF THE JEWS IN MICKIEWICZ'S TOWIANIST LECTURES ON SLAV LITERATURE". The Polish Review. 7 (3): 53.
  6. Bronner, Stepehn Eric (2019). A Rumor about the Jews: Conspiracy, Anti-Semitism, and the Protocols of Zion. Palgrave macmillan. p. 67.
  7. Massey, Irving (2000). Philo-Semitism in Nineteenth-Century German Literature. Max Niemeyer Verlag. p. 7.
  8. Segal, Harold (1997). Polish Romantic Drama: Three Plays in English Translation. Harwood academic publishers. p. 28-29.
  9. Fiecko, J. (2008). "A DISPUTE BETWEEN MICKIEWICZ AND KRASINSKI OVER THE PLACE OF JEWS AMONG POLES". Pamiętnik Literacki. 99 (2): 5–21.
  10. Adamiecka-Sitek, Agata (2016). "Poles, Jews and Aesthetic Experience: On the Cancelled Theatre Production by Olivier Frljić". Polish Theatre Journal. 1.
  11. Adamiecka-Sitek, Agata (2016). "Poles, Jews and Aesthetic Experience: On the Cancelled Theatre Production by Olivier Frljić". Polish Theatre Journal. 1.
  12. Adamiecka-Sitek, Agata (2016). "Poles, Jews and Aesthetic Experience: On the Cancelled Theatre Production by Olivier Frljić". Polish Theatre Journal. 1.