Romantic writer as a publisher. Klementyna z Tańskich Hoffmanowa

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of Klementyna Hoffmanowa’s place in the Romantic canon and her publishing initiatives as a response to Romantic interest in Old Polish writing. Literary historians consider the author of Pamiątka po dobrej matce to be a writer aimed exclusively at young readers and a heir of the accomplishments of the Polish Enlightenment. The biography, on the other hand, places the editor of “Rozrywki dla dzieci” in the center of the life of the Romantics, sometimes even as a precursor of
their activities, although it also proves the individual attitude of the multifaceted creator to various historical and literary phenomena.
Hoffmanowa, who was financially well off thanks to her writing work and highly regarded for her educational and cultural activities, was eager to promote and publish Old Polish writers. She did this in a highly professional manner, providing the published works with a careful editorial commentary. She shaped the reading reception of old writers in this way, but also the romantic writing of
 iterary history. She was not alone in her predilection for Old Polish literature. Thus, catalogs documenting the publishing and reading initiatives of the Romantics – as a testimony to the literary culture of the first half of the 19th century – still await study. In such a context, Tańska Hoffmanowa may prove close to the Romantics (not only through her biography) and gain a new place on the
Romantic Parnassus.