| Author | Stanisław Uliasz |
|---|---|
| Title | Jerzy Stempowski’s story of Polish Eastern Borderland. A research reconnaissance |
| Keywords | Polish literature of the 20th century, borderland narratives, Jerzy Stempowski, Ukraine, Polish Eastern Borderland |
| Pages | 477-496 |
| Full text | |
| Volume | 33 |
The following paper is an attempt to analyse Jerzy Stempowski’s ‘writings of Ukraine’ in the context of significant borderland discourses. The author of Berdichev Essay placed himself far beyond the typical literary current in which Polish Eastern Borderland is a stronghold preserving Polish identity, a ‘besieged fortress’, specifying the antemurale christianitatis imagery or expressed as the Book of thorns and glory. The conventional ‘song of our land’ does not reverberate there either. Believing in the implementation of an idea of Commonwealth, Stempowski created a moral dimension of a sublime myth in his essays on Borderland and Ukraine. Additionally, he debunked many Polish myths concerning Polish Eastern Borderland, thus joining the group of writers who revised national stereotypes.