Targowica jako polskie niesamowite
Targowica as a Polish uncanny

Summary/Abstract: This article proposes perceiving the Targowica Confederation of 1792 and its later myth as a Polish uncanny (unheimlich) phenomenon. I present my reasoning through an analysis of treason cases during the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794. Legal institutions at that time were working on such affairs in a slow manner thus social unrests were needed to trigger more radical decisions on judging the treacherous deeds. This indolence was due to the elites’ fear of defining all nobles who received money from the foreign states as traitors. From this perspective Targowica becomes a symbol or a synecdoche not only of a treason but also of noblemen’s negative traits. As a result it is simultaneously well-known and disturbing, i.e. uncanny.

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