Abstract
This chapter focuses on the first chairman of the Department of Polish Language and Literature at Charles University in Prague - literary historian Marian Szyjkowski (1883-1952). The article analyses Szyjkowskiʼs synthetic works devoted to the history of Polish literature (Współczesna literatura polska z wypisami (1863-1923), 1923; Literatura współczesna dla użytku szkół średnich, 1930).
By way of an example of the chapters dedicated to Stefan Żeromski it analyses his position between the positivist tradition on the one hand and the more modern comparative access to literature on the other hand.