Culture, Literature

Poland has attained its highest artistic recognition in the field of literature. The greatest literary period is generally regarded as the Romantic period of the 19th century, the chief figures being Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Slowacki, Zygmunt Krasinski, and Cyprian Kamil Norwid. Romanticism in drama and poetry was followed by realism, most notably in the novels of Boleslaw Prus, Henryk Sienkiewicz, and Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont. Stanislaw Wyspianski is regarded as the founder of modern Polish drama. Among the many prominent figures after 1945 were Jerzy Andrzejewski, Tadeusz Rozewicz, Stanislaw Lem, Leon Kruczkowski, and Zbigniew Zaluski. The emigre Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1980. The 1996 Nobel Prize in literature was awarded to poet Wislawa Szymborska, the fifth Polish-born writer to receive the prize.