About one word: "post-German" Cover Image

O jednym słowie – „poniemieckie”
About one word: "post-German"

Author(s): Arkadiusz Kalin
Subject(s): Cultural history, Polish Literature, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Present Times (2010 - today), Theory of Literature
Published by: Akademia im. Jakuba z Paradyża
Keywords: post-German lands; Recovered Territories; Polish culture after 1945; Polish literature after 1989; Polish-German borderland;

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the cultural history of the term „post-German”. This approach goes beyond linguistic analysis – apart from the dictionary meanings of the word, the author presents the history of changes in its meaning since the Second World War. The word appeared at the end of the war and was almost immediately included in the political context and was subject to censorship restrictions in connection with the ideology of the eternally Polish Regained Lands in force in the new Polish post-war territories. The category of „post-German” gained a special role in literature after the cultural breakthrough of 1989 in the trend of „small homelands”, which was also inspired by the German critical Heimatliteratur. It also meant a specific theme, the creation of the depicted world and a narrative perspective in this type of literature, unique compared to other national literatures.

  • Issue Year: 27/2023
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 67-86
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: Polish