Klerykal fiction (rarely, klerykal fantasy,[1] anti-klerykal fantasy,[2] or klerykal fiction) is a term for a subgenre of Polish science fiction and broader religious fantasy that addresses Christian themes. The term was coined in the early 1990s.
According to some definitions (Marek Oramus), this genre is usually critical of religion (especially organized church structures), while others include stories that are neutral or even positively disposed towards religion within this genre.
Formative works for the emergence of this genre are considered to be Jacek Dukaj's short story (1990) and Rafał Ziemkiewicz's The Public Sinner (1991). One of the most prominent representatives of this genre is Marek Huberath.
This genre emerged in Poland[3] at the turn of the 1980s[4] and 1990s[5] [6] and is a subgenre of broader religious fantasy[7] as well as social science fiction.[8] Formative or fundamental works for the emergence of this genre include Jacek Dukaj's short story (1990)[9] and Rafał Ziemkiewicz's The Public Sinner (1991).[10] Tomasz Kołodziejczak, credited with coining the term,[11] described these works as a reaction to the social fears of the end of the decade.[12] Western novels critical of traditional religious models, such as Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) and Michael Moorcock's Behold the Man (1969), may have played a role in shaping the genre.[13] Klerykal fiction texts are often described as critical of religion. In 1994, proposed dividing religious fantasy into devout, theistic, and klerykal fiction, with the latter characterized by an "anti-church" approach (though not necessarily without a theistic perspective).[14] [15] In 1995, Marek Oramus criticized this subgenre, which he defined as describing the dangers of yielding to the church, lamenting under church rule, the torment of going to confession, and the adverse effects of priestly interventions on individual freedom and private life. He considered it the most primitive first-level fantasy, falsified and rendered non-existent by reality. In 2002, Jacek Dukaj characterized klerykal fiction as the weakest and most ephemeral trend in Polish fantasy, describing the term "klerykal fantasy" as pejorative and attributing it to a narrow class of works that were literary echoes of the anti-church sentiments and movements of the early 1990s. Olszański considered church criticism to be classic for Anglo-Saxon literature with Protestant (anti-Catholic) traditions.
Adam Mazurkiewicz, in 2006, stated that the term klerykal fiction had not yet been accepted by genre criticism and might be unnecessary, although in 2014, he devoted a deeper analysis to it, describing the genre as a phenomenon at the intersection of literature and socio-political journalism... marked by ironic distance, reflecting the specificity of the phenomenon by referring to the petrified vision of a hero associated with church structures. He called works in this subgenre scandalous and aggressive, comparing them to pasquinades ridiculing their enemies.
In 2022, Stanisław Krawczyk described the genre as a critique of formalized, ossified religiosity, especially institutions similar to or directly identified with the Roman Catholic Church.
A common element of klerykal fiction is criticism of the church's excessive presence in (Polish) society. The church is often identified as a totalitarian institution and becomes a collective negative protagonist. Such works often have a satirical or grotesque character. In some works of this genre, the stereotype of a theocratic, totalitarian Poland emerged.Mazurkiewicz also noted that many klerykal fiction works can be associated with liberal-left-wing views or environments and represent an artistic response or reaction to works from neoconservative-right-wing environments, which include fascination with the connections between fascism and religion, modeled on interwar movements (mentioning authors such as Rafał Ziemkiewicz,,, and Bronisław Wildstein).
However, Natalia Budzyńska (1999, 2002, 2009) defines klerykal fiction as Polish fantasy literature addressing Christian themes and includes texts that are positively disposed towards religion, siding with Christianity, showing authentic faith, or permeated with evangelical content, including pro-life themes.[16] Mazurkiewicz sees such works (analyzing Polish religiosity in the context of fantasy, where the ideological stance of their authors is not polemically charged) on the fringes of this trend. simply defined klerykal fiction as Polish fantasy literature addressing faith issues. Similarly, Ewa Kozak cites Marcin Zwierzchowski's definition of the subgenre as stories referring to matters of faith or the church.
An example of classification difficulties can be some of Ziemkiewicz's works, classified as klerykal fiction, but simultaneously described as fervently religious in the best sense and thoroughly permeated with evangelical content. They are classified as klerykal fiction because of their criticism of church institutions, but the church criticized by Ziemkiewicz is not the current church, but a warning against its degeneration into a church of pharisaism (false and hypocritical). Ziemkiewicz describes a permissivist post-church that [...] has lost faith in its Founder, agreed to the relativity of Christ's Truth, and ceased to proclaim the Good News and is no longer needed by anyone.
Mazurkiewicz, as well as Wojciech Orliński, considered Marek Huberath one of the most prominent representatives of this genre.
The genre is sometimes called historical; its period of popularity is attributed to the first half of the 1990s. This period was characterized by, among other things, a decline in public trust in the church, combined with the church's entry into politics, which led to the emergence of anti-church movements.[17] In 1992, Wojciech Sedeńko, in the introduction to the religious fantasy anthology , wrote that the fear of clericalization of the state is quite common (certainly influenced by the church's recent spectacular successes, such as the return of religion to schools, the recovery of vast property in real estate, becoming an opinion-forming factor in many areas of life).[18] After the so-called post-communist environments came to power in Poland in the mid-1990s (the Democratic Left Alliance's victory in the 1993 elections), there was a certain restoration of trust in this institution and a simultaneous decline in the popularity of literature critical of the Church, including klerykal fiction.
The classification of specific works into this subgenre is sometimes subjective. Among the pioneering works in this genre – Polish science fiction addressing metaphysical and religious themes – one can include, for instance, the novel His Master's Voice by Stanisław Lem from 1968, the short story First-Hand Report by Janusz Zajdel from 1982, the short story Karlgoro, 6 PM by Marek Baraniecki from 1983, the novel Adam, One of Us by Konrad Fiałkowski from 1986, and the short story Jerusalem by from 1988.
In 2002, Jacek Dukaj estimated this subgenre consisted of about 40 texts.
Works classified as clerical fiction, in chronological order, include:
Dukaj also classified unspecified short stories by as clerical fiction.