Toward the Idea of Polishness: Implications of 1918 for the Former Eastern Galicia, 1918–1939

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Toward the Idea of Polishness: Implications of 1918 for the Former Eastern Galicia, 1918–1939

Journal Title: Przegląd Humanistyczny - Year 2018, Vol 62, Issue 4

Abstract

The paper analyzes the Polish literary discourse on the former Habsburg province of Galicia, developing after the restoration of Poland’s independence (1918) and the Polish victory in the Polish-Ukrainian War of Eastern Galicia (1918–1919). Before WWI, especially before the epoch of Galician autonomy (1867–1914), the prevailing discourse on the province was imbued by the idea of multi- and transnationalism grounded upon the Habsburg political culture. After the war, when Galicia became a part of the reborn Poland, the discourse pertaining to the region underwent a fundamental change. In the interwar Polish literature, the idea of multi- and transnational Galicia was a subject of specific transfers: sometimes in a continuative, usually, however, in a deconstructive version. Namely, it was disassembled and its components, referring to a revised political context, were ideologically used to strengthen the representation of reality from the exclusive, Polish point of view. The paper focuses on literary representations of the Polish-Ukrainian War of Eastern Galicia. It discusses the stages of the aforementioned disassemblement, from the idea of Polish-Ruthenian “brotherhood” to the vision of Polish-Polish brotherhood, i.e. the homogenous Polish nation, from which the Others (Ukrainians, Jews and Austrians), depicted as enemies, were excluded with no exception. Such a vision prevailed in the Polish literature up until 1939; it has also had its continuations nowadays.<br/><br/>

Authors and Affiliations

Jagoda Wierzejska

Keywords

Galicja wschodnia wojna polsko-ukraińska nacjonalizm wielonarodowość Polacy Ukraińcy Żydzi

EP ID EP600020
DOI -
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