Od europejskiej ekspansji i kolonializmu po doświadczenie polskie
From European Expansion and Colonialism to the Polish Experience

Summary/Abstract: Review: Jan Kieniewicz, Ekspansja, kolonializm, cywilizacja [‘Expansion, colonialism, civilisation’], DiG, Warszawa 2008 Benefits are discussed as yielded by adaptation of the instruments elaborated by post-colonial or subaltern studies to the Polish realities. An inspiration was provided to this end by Jan Kieniewicz’s book. His considerations on the so-called Third World lead to elaboration of the categories of: contact, meeting, and civilisation-related oppression – worth applying in comparative studies devoted to the vicissitudes of the Eastern Europe. For a postcolonial (or, post-subaltern, as I prefer to call it) afterthought on Polish literature of the early periods, the Partition era, the People’s Republic of Poland and the one written after 1989, of importance are Mr. Kieniewicz’s recognitions on how serfdom/bondage attitudes were shaped and on threats stemming from those attitudes to Polishness and its condition as an entity that ‘has gone through a lot’. Special attention is deserved by convincing arguments given to support the historian’s thesis claiming that Russian conquests in Europe were colonial in nature.

• Details
• Contents