:Janko Muzykant

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Janko Muzykant (translated into English as Janko the Musician, and less commonly as Yanko the Musician or Johnny the Musician) is a short story (also described as novella) by Polish writer and winner of 1905 Nobel Prize in Literature, Henryk Sienkiewicz. It has been described as one of his most successful works in that genre.

Janko Muzykant was first published in the Kurier Warszawski in 1879.

The story is representative of the positivism in Poland period in Polish literature, focusing on social injustice and the wasted life chances for peasant children. Other themes include the folk beliefs and superstitions of uneducated peasantry. The story focuses on the unfair treatment of a child, Janko. Janko is a peasant child with a talent for music who becomes fascinated by the fiddle he hears from a nearby noble manor. He sneaks to the manor to touch them, is captured, sentenced to flagellation, and dies from injuries suffered.

The story was well received in Poland, and was translated into a number of other languages, including English, Spanish and Russian. It was one of Sienkiewicz works cited by Carl David af Wirsén during his speech presenting Sienkiewicz with the 1905 Nobel Prize in Literature. Others have praised it for transcending national prose, and being universal. As early as 1957 the story had been translated by four different English translators, with seven different editions, the earliest of which was published in 1884. In Poland, it has been often included in the list of required school readings.

In 1930 the story was made into a movie under the same name, directed by Ryszard Ordyński. In 1992 it was adapted as a one-hour television special.

References

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite book|author1=Gale Research Company|author2=Laurie Di Mauro|title=Twentieth-century literary criticism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lgh7Lrv0J4IC|accessdate=28 May 2013|year=1993|publisher=Gale Research Co.|isbn=978-0-8103-7973-2|page=157}}

{{cite book|author=Horst Frenz|title=Literature: 1901-1967|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FeXbUO31BO4C&pg=PA36|accessdate=28 May 2013|year=1999|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-981-02-3413-3|page=36}}

{{cite web|url=http://www.filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php/521578 |title=Janko Muzykant |publisher=filmpolski.pl |date= |accessdate=2013-05-28}}

{{cite book|author1=Leszek Kamiński|author2=Elżbieta Ptaszyńska-Sadowska|title=Leksykon postaci literackich: od Antygony do Zagłoby|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RfwDAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=28 May 2013|year=1994|publisher=Real Press|isbn=978-83-85878-57-5|page=114}}

{{cite book|author1=George Thomas Kurian|author2=James D. Smith III|title=The Encyclopedia of Christian Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dk4G-52QT-8C&pg=PA564|accessdate=28 May 2013|date=16 April 2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7283-7|page=564}}

{{cite book|author=Iwona Morawska|title=Rola literatury w edukacji patriotycznej uczniów szkoły podstawowej (1944-1989)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tP0lAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=28 May 2013|year=2005|publisher=Wydaw. UMCS|isbn=978-83-227-2290-9|pages=160–161}}

{{cite journal|author=Walter Zebrowski|journal=Polish American Studies|title=Sienkiewicz's "Janko Muzykant": Criticism and Translation|volume=22|number=1|year=1965|pages=17–29|jstor=20140229|doi=10.2307/20140229}}

{{cite web |url=http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/sienkiewicz/QV.html |title=Poland in the classroom - Henryk Sienkiewicz and Quo Vadis |publisher=Info-poland.buffalo.edu |date= |accessdate=2013-05-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120130180026/http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/sienkiewicz/QV.html |archive-date=2012-01-30 |url-status=dead }}

{{cite book|author=Sheila Skaff|title=The Law of the Looking Glass: Cinema in Poland ; 1896 - 1939|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dO7fuEHARnIC&pg=PA202|accessdate=27 May 2013|year=2008|publisher=Ohio University Press|isbn=978-0-8214-1784-3|page=202}}

{{cite journal|last=Ordon|first=Edmund|title=THE RECEPTION OF THE POLISH SHORT STORY IN ENGLISH: REFLECTIONS ON A BIBLIOGRAPHY|journal=The Polish Review|year=1957|volume=2|issue=2/3|pages=125–132|doi=10.2307/25776123}}

{{cite book|author=Wacław Walecki|title=A short history of Polish literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BdUpAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=28 May 2013|year=1997|publisher=Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow Branch|page=50}}

{{cite journal|last=Windle|first=Kevin|title=Some Slavonic Translations of Sienkiewicz's "Janko Muzykant": The Translator as Naturalist|journal=The Modern Language Review|date=1 April 1990|volume=85|issue=2|page=388|doi=10.2307/3731818}}

Henryk Markiewicz, Sienkiewicz Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius, Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Tome XXXVII, 1997, p.205

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External links

[https://archive.org/details/yankomusicianan00curtgoog Yanko: The Musician and Other Stories], 1893 English edition, public domain full text
{{in lang|pl}} [http://literat.ug.edu.pl/hsnowel/000.htm Story], public domain full text
{{in lang|pl}} [http://wolnelektury.pl/katalog/lektura/janko-muzykant/ E-book of a story], public domain full text

Category:1879 in Poland

Category:1879 short stories

Category:Polish short stories

Category:Short stories set in Poland

Category:Polish novellas