Celebrating the Banned Books Week 2025 and the recent publication of George Orwell and Communist Poland: Émigré, Official and Clandestine Receptions (2025), the lecture will explore the complex Polish reception of this iconic author, who is also the theme of this year’s Banned Books Week. It will examine the translation and dissemination efforts in the West, as well as the creative smuggling methods – such as miniature editions, balloons, false covers, and diplomatic bags – that were used to bring Orwell’s works and ideas into Poland. The lecture will further explore why activists risked their lives for Orwell, engaging in underground printing, distribution, and reading. Finally, we will discuss the surprising ways Orwell’s work and name managed to appear in official, state-sanctioned culture as well, despite the long-standing ban, and how the ban itself contributed to sanctioning Orwell’s mythos as a symbol of resistance that inspired generations of rebels.
Krystyna Wieszczek is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Verona, Italy, and Columbia University, New York. She specializes in twentieth-century English literature and literary translation, reception and censorship. Her current project investigates empirical reception and the potential impact of literature on empowerment. Previously, she taught at the University of Bologna and the Ignatianum Academy in Krakow, and was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Milan. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Southampton, UK.
Location: Hunter College CUNY (Lexington Avenue & East 68th Street, 6 train). Elizabeth Hemmerdinger Center. Hunter East Building, 7th Floor
Directions: At the reception desk of the Hunter West Building, please present your ID to get a pass. From there, take the escalator to the 3rd floor, turn right and walk across the sky bridge to the Hunter East Building, then take the elevator to the 7th floor. Hemmerdinger Center is at the end of the hallway past the turnstiles.