Wracając do Babadag
Babadag revisited

Summary/Abstract: This paper attempts to revisit one of Andrzej Stasiuk’s most important books, On the Road to Babadag, in order to identify plots that, twenty years after its publication, can still be instructive. Firstly, it concerns (Central) European themes, seen in a literary-geopolitical context and through the prism of the idea of taking up such a topic at that time; secondly, it deals with the historical and cultural ontology of this part of the continent, which, although presented in the form of prose, has the potential to be a voice that transcends the sphere of literature; thirdly, it is a reflection on the town itself – its place on Stasiuk’s imagological and literary map of “this part of Europe” and the meanings that could once (and can still) be attributed to this town; fourthly, it is a discussion of a more general ideological stratum of this writing, which is usually associated with it. All these circumstances result in a high, clearly marked qualitative rating which, in the author’s opinion, can be fastened to this prose.

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