Culture in Poland: Guide

Writing and Literature by Polish authors

Polish History and Culture

Polish Poetry

Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012)
(poems in translation)

• Neglect (2007)
• Psalm (2007)
• Any Case (2007)
• Innocence (1998)
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Short Stories

• The Rat, by Witold Gombrowicz (1939)

Videos

• Hidden Poland (PBS, 2020, 56 minutes) This one-hour special hosted by CBS News Travel Editor Peter Greenberg gives viewers a look at Poland’s enduring culture. Watch Peter take a hot air balloon ride over the 13th century Czocha Castle and glide across the Tatra Mountains.
• Learn about the history of Poland's changing borders (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010, 6 minutes) Video illustrating the changes in Poland's territory from the 11th century to present.
• Coming Out, Polish Style (2013, 1 hour 2 minutes) This film offers a rare look into the lives of "out" gay people in Poland. Despite cultural homophobia, Polish gays and lesbians are finding more and more friendly clubs to attend, and there is a determined core of activists pushing for gay rights at the national level.
• Magda (2015, 1 hour) As a Polish woman born into a noble family, Magda was a teenager while living in Nazi-occupied Warsaw during the early 1940s. Magda was recruited by her brother to become a spy for the Polish Underground Resistance Army during World War II.
• Polska (Frontline Films, 1990, 52 minutes) Polska is the personal journey of 28 year old Polish journalist Beata Ligmann as she traces her country’s experience from the concentration camps of Auswitz and World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Databases