''Syzyfowe prace'' (''The Labors of Sisyphus'' in English) is an

autobiographical novel An autobiographical novel is a form of novel using autofiction techniques, or the merging of autobiographical and fictive elements. The literary technique is distinguished from an autobiography or memoir by the stipulation of being fiction. ...

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

author

Stefan Żeromski Stefan Żeromski ( ; 14 October 1864 – 20 November 1925) was a Polish novelist and dramatist belonging to the Young Poland movement at the turn of the 20th century. He was called the "conscience of Polish literature". He also wrote under t ...

which first appeared in the magazine ' in 1897. The work was published under the pseudonym Maurycy Zych and it was the writer's first published work. The novel is based on the author's personal experiences as a child and adolescent in the Russian-controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

. It is a portrait of his school and its students' attempts to resist the policy of

Russification Russification (russian: русификация, rusifikatsiya), or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian cultur ...

imposed by the

Tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East Slavs, East and South Slavs, South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''Caesar (title), caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" i ...

ist authorities. The title refers to the

Greek myth A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...

Sisyphus In Greek mythology, Sisyphus or Sisyphos (; Ancient Greek: Σίσυφος ''Sísyphos'') was the founder and king of Ancient Corinth, Ephyra (now known as Corinth). Hades punished him for cheating death twice by forcing him to roll an immense bo ...

, and portrays the attempts to indoctrinate the students as an occasionally successful, but ultimately doomed to failure, endeavor. The novel is set in the fictional town of Kleryków. One of the main characters, and one of the leaders of the rebellious students is Marcin Borowicz, originally named Andrzej Radek, a farmer's son. In 2000, it was adapted into a film of the same name by

Paweł Komorowski Paweł Komorowski (14 August 1930 – 28 November 2011) was a Polish film director and screenwriter. He directed twenty films between 1955 and 2000. Selected filmography * ''Pięciu ''Pięciu'' ("Five") is a 1964 Polish drama film dir ...

References

1897 novels 19th-century Polish novels Autobiographical novels Polish novels Novels set in 19th-century Russia Polish novels adapted into films Works originally published in Polish magazines Works published under a pseudonym {{Poland-stub