"POLSKI ORZEŁ NA TLE SZWAJCARSKIEGO KRZYŻA”: REFLEKSJE NA TEMAT RECEPCJI WSPÓŁCZESNEJ NIEMIECKOJĘZYCZNEJ LITERATURY SZWAJCARSKIEJ W POLSCE W NAWIĄZANIU DO UTWORU RETO HÄNNY’EGO AM BODEN DES KOPFES. VERWIRRUNGEN EINES MITTELEUROPÄERS IN MITTELEUROPA
“The Polish Eagle set on the Swiss Cross”: Reflections on the Reception of Contemporary Swiss German Literature in Poland in Reference to Reto Hänny’s, "Am Boden des Kopfes. Verwirrungen eines Mitteleuropäers in Mitteleuropa"

Summary/Abstract: In Poland, contemporary Swiss German literature remains primarily associated with the work of Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Representatives from the next generation of Swiss writers are recognized by only a small circle of Polish readers, primarily Polish scholars of German. The article refers to the until recently unresolved essential question about whether or not there is a Swiss literature while it outlines in general terms the reception of that literature in Poland and, especially, as regards examples of that literature that have been published after 1968. The second part of the article discusses briefly the Reto Hänny’s work "Am Boden des Kopfes. Verwirrungen eines Mitteleuropäers in Mitteleuropa" (1991). The Swiss writer created a documentary report when he traveled around Poland in the autumn of 1989. The work sketches both images of Poland and Switzerland as two ‘special cases’ in Europe in the late 1980s. The author was provoked by what he saw to propose the creation of a company – similar to the Joint Venture and then setting up a common emblem – the Polish eagle on the background of the Swiss Cross.

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