Invisible Country

Invisible Country is the latest book to emerge as part of a long-term practice-led translation project focusing on late nineteenth-/early twentieth-century Polish naturalistic drama. The book builds on two existent volumes, The Morality of Mrs. Dulska (Bristol/Chicago: Intellect, 2006) and Zapolska’s Women (Bristol/Chicago: Intellect, 2009). This introduction to Invisible Country: Four Polish Plays is presented in five short sections. In Section A: The Translation Project, the rationale for creating the collection and the research methodologies employed has been explained and outlined. Section B: Partitioned Poland provides an overview of the Polish historical contexts within which these plays can be read and understood, indicating further research routes for the reader. Section C: Play Synopses contains plot summaries of all four texts, on account of the plays’ relative obscurity, and is provided in order to ground Section D: Polish Naturalism, which in turn offers analyses of the playwrights’ various approaches to questions of theatrical form. Section E: Biographies contains more specific information about each playwright, and this can most usefully be read in light of preceding sections. The second part of the book contains four play translations.