“Remove, omit, do not print…”. Self-censorship of Zamieć by Stefan Żeromski

Abstract

For almost twenty-five years Żeromski created and published under the pressure of restrictive and harsh Russian censorship. German censorship, which was in force in the lands of the former kingdom, supervised two novels written by the author: the book version of Nawracanie Judasza (1916) and the first printing of Zamieć (1916). Censors were not very strict – they removed only from Zamieć (from its book version) one short excerpt with a warning regarding the economic expansion of the Germans in the mining areas of Silesia and Galicia. Surprisingly, the censorship was supported by the author, who uncompromisingly treated the first printing of Zamieć – his action resembled the way in which Russian officials censored the Warsaw edition of Wierna rzeka.

The editorial history of Zamieć – a novel about Ryszard Nienaski’s obsessive jealousy of Xenia Granowska – is exceptional as it presents the only one example of Żeromski’s self-censorship for reasons relating to morality. Furthermore, the modification of the text was not the result of demands or expectations expressed by some institutions; it was the author himself who decided to introduce changes. In the letter addressed to the publisher of Zamieć, Jakub Mortkowicz, dated 18 April 1916, the author stated that he wanted to adjust the novel – prepared before the war – to the historical conditions: the writer wished to tone down the brutal language and erase erotic scenes which seemed inappropriate when correlated to the readers’ war experience. Although his motivation is not startling, the strategy adopted by Żeromski might be stupefying: the suddenness of his decision and the great extent of his irreversible interference.