W uścisku „łaskawej melancholii”. Przypadki pisarzy kresowych
In the Embrace of “Merciful Melancholy”. Cases of Authors from the Eastern Borderlands

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with an insufficiently recognised aspect of Eastern Borderland melancholy. Selected texts by three authors – Czesław Miłosz, Tadeusz Konwicki, Zbigniew Żakiewicz – demonstrate that Eastern Borderland melancholy possesses a bright side and is a phenomenon much more complex than merely a longing for the lost land of our childhood or a collective manner of experiencing trauma. The titular melancholy discloses also features of its modern counterpart, which appears as the subject’s reaction to a rapidly changing world. Eastern Borderlands belonged to a universe of the pre-modern world, while the melancholy “I” of Borderland literature interiorised its loss and thus ensured refuge for the most valuable objects of an obliterated world. It was in post-war Borderland literature that multilingualism came into being, the Other returned, and a non-normative Polish language reversing Polish identity made itself known.

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