Wymiary literackiego odpominania Zaolzia
The Dimensions of the Literary Recollection of Zaolzie

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns various dimensions of literary recollection of Zaolzie – the part of Cieszyn Silesia conceded to Czechoslovakia in 1920, although the Polish popula- tion dominated there. The area still generates the identity problems for inhabitants of Polish origin who feel, on the one hand, forgotten by Poland, and on the other hand – connected with it through the cultural memory. Their lives are easier, whenever they relate to Czech culture, but they are under pressure from the older generation, who oftentimes equate “Polishness” with regionalism and isolationism. Especially men and women of letters feel the weight of patriotic duties, as they therefore take into critical consideration the identity as well as recollect the past – recovering contents wiped from the social memory. The article’s author analyses how writers and poets struggle with Zaolzian taboos, historical traumas, troublesome phantoms and ideologies. In respect to seven types of forgetting detailed by Paul Connerton, she considers three main relations: with Poland, with the divided identity as well as with being locked in the locality.

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