Gawęda szlachecka


Gawęda szlachecka is a Polish literary form in which works are presented as a story told by a Polish nobleman stylized as a Polish oral tradition of storytelling known as gawęda, i.e., a tale of no particular plot, a series of loosely connected episodes narrated in colloquial language with many embellishments. It is associated with the tradition of Sarmatism. The Dictionary of Polish Language by PWN defines gawęda szlachecka as "a story in verse or prose demonstrating an image of Sarmatian traditions". Developed in the first half of the 19th century, Henryk Rzewuski being the most influential figure in this respect, with his
. Due to the association with Sarmatism the style was also known as "pogadanka kontuszowa", with kontush being a distinctive Sarmatian-style garment of Polish nobility.

Influence of the ''Memoirs of Soplica''

Czesław Miłosz wrote about Rzewuski and The Memoirs of Soplica as follows:
The Memoirs of Soplica spawned a large number of followers and thus popularized the genre of gawęda szlachecka. In particular, it impressed Adam Mickiewicz so that he created his own szlachta story, Pan Tadeusz, in which the main character belongs to the fictional Soplica family, the name borrowed from Rzewuski.

Gawęda

A 19th century Polish writer gave the following description of gawęda:

Works in ''gawęda szlachecka'' style