Łódzka (po)niemieckość w literaturze polskiej jako trop nowoczesności
The (Post-)Germanness of Łódź in Polish Literature as an Indicator of Modernity

Author(s): Wojciech Browarny
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Cultural history, History of ideas
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: modernity; Germanness; city; Polish literature; cultural memory; regionalism
Summary/Abstract: The author of the article explores the tropes and meanings of (post)Germanness in Polish literature dedicated to modern Łódź, delving into theoretical frameworks of regionalism, geopoetics, and studies on collective memory. He reads selected texts or their fragments that present and problematize the presence of Germans in the culture, economy, and history of the city, as well as the local experience of its Germanness. The primary goal of these reflections is to interpret the relationship between literary depictions of the multicultural industrial-commercial center and the model of a metropolis fitting into modern integral nationality. By analyzing representations of Germans in Łódź and Germanness, the author raises the question of how concepts such as civilization, technology, progress, otherness, urbanity, and bourgeoisie are entangled in Polish identity and national memory in the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century.

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