W poszukiwaniu autentyczności. Kultura polska i natura teorii postkolonialnej
Seeking the Authentic: Polish Culture and the Nature of Postcolonial Theory

Summary/Abstract: In Poland, postcolonial theory has proven especially attractive to various thinkers associated with the conservative right. This is surprising when we consider that postcolonial theory in its canonical forms owes a great deal to Marxist, postmodernist and feminist theories. The author begins by examining this paradox, assessing why the theory might be so appealing to conservative intellectuals and how they have employed it. Yet postcolonial theory has also appeared in a very different ideological context – namely, in the work of Maria Janion, who belongs to the opposing side of the ideological divide in Poland’s contemporary “culture wars” between “traditionalist” and “progressive” factions. The author suggests that the fundamental imaginative repertoires fueling quite disparate visions of Poland’s past and future may turn out to have a great deal in common. On this basis, he brings the Polish case into broader discussions on the very nature of postcolonial theory.

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