Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-320) and index.
Contents:
Prologue: How It All Began -- Through the Lens of Humanism, with a View to Transcendence -- Postcolonialism in Poland -- National Identity in a Postcolonial Framework: Necessary Clarifications and Opening Suggestions -- Literature as Compensation: Comprador Intelligentsia vis-à-vis the Hegemonic Discourse-Preliminary Theoretical Remarks -- Confronting the Romantic Legacy -- The Natives' Exclusion by the Empire's Poet? (Adam Mickiewicz, The Crimean Sonnets) -- Identity as an Object of Inquiry (Paweł Huelle's Castorp) -- The (East-)Central European Complex (Andrzej Stasiuk, On the Road to Babadag and -- Fado) -- Colonized Poland, Orientalized Poland: Postcolonial Theory and the "Other Europe" -- Slavic Issues with Identity: Marginal Notes to Maria Janion's Uncanny Slavdom -- The Melancholia of Borderlands Discourse -- Afterword: Three Warnings.
Summary:
"Although for half a century East-Central Europe was part of the Soviet empire and was subject to its "civilizing" mission, its colonial status escaped the attention of most postcolonial critics. It still remains a blank spot in global studies of postcolonialism. In Polish Literature and Identity: A Postcolonial Landscape Dariusz Skórczewski argues for the advantages of applying postcolonial thought to Polish realities; at the same time, he modifes the theoretical framework worked out by other postcolonialists. The book seeks to reveal how Poland's two lines of experience-one of foreign hegemony since the late 1700s through 1989 (excluding a short period of sovereignty between the two world wars); and the other of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as itself a pre-modern empire-have shaped the culture of contemporary Polish society. The book focuses on identity transformations as reflected in Polish literature and critical discourses. It opens up the question of the identity of a postcolonial nation in contemporary East-Central Europe where globalization and cosmopolitanism clash with growing national sentiments, making predictions about a speedy advent of a post-national era premature. The first few chapters are devoted to the postcolonial theorizing of Poland in the East Central European context. This part of the book seeks relevant language(s) and registers for the analysis of the cultural condition of East Central Europe as a part of the world which slipped most postcolonial critics' attention. The second part of the book (Chapters 7-11) deal with the effects of the colonial encounter on Poles' self-perception and perception of Others, as reflected in Romantic and modern Polish literature. The book closes with a Postscript titled "Three Warnings," outlining a critique of postcolonial theory and criticism"-- Provided by publisher.
Series:
Rochester studies in East and Central Europe, 1528-4808
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.