The motif of improvement of human work in the Polish literature in the 20th century. Education versus literature

The article considers the thread of work in the Polish literature in the 1930s and 1950s.These two periods were divided by World War II. In Poland, this war lasted from 1939 to 1945.Also in the history of Polish literature, two different periods can be distinguished - before and after World War II. The motive of improvement of work was evident in the pre-war Polish literature, intended for readers from the countryside and for the intelligentsia involved in improving rural life. An impulse for the appearance of a work thread in literature was the study of sociologists regarding life in the countryside. Books describing the life of peasant families were published. The division of work between wife and husband was described. The analysis of the wife's working day and the schedule of works with hours were evidence of the hard life of a rural woman. The authors of the books not only described reality. They postulated greater concern for the health of rural women and demanded a different organization of work in rural households. Support for ideas contained in the literature was sought in education and in extramural vocational schools for girls and boys. However, curricula in vocational schools were not as sensitive to social issues as literature and the dreams of sociologists. The motif of improving work was different after 1945.Post-war literature was dependent on great politics, it was part of the propaganda of communism. Nowadays, literature has been created for workers working in factories and on construction sites. The most vocal thread of improving work was the idea of heroes of work, i.e. shock workers, which was created in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Soviet Communists called on all workers in other communist countries to work more efficiently. One of the books describes an experiment based on the analysis of work of two Soviet workers. It was calculated that one of the women worked a few seconds faster than the other. Soviet books were translated into Polish. Polish writers were also inspired by Soviet books. In Poland, as in other countries in the East of Europe, the work race was disseminated in many books written to order of communists. Information about shock workers reached the public through radio, press and propaganda books. The heroes described in the literature were artificial, they had little in common with real people. They were happy because of hard work, they had no problems and no existential doubts. The Communists wanted vocational schools to help in promoting the work race. However, the school programme was more resistant to propaganda than literature.