Traumatyczna niepamięć: doświadczenie Wielkiej Wojny w polskiej literaturze dwudziestolecia
Traumatic Nonmemory: the Experience of the Great War in Polish Literature of the Interwar Period

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to show the possibility of changing the angle from which we perceive Polish literature on World War I written in the interwar period. In Polish literary studies, there is a dominating tendency to see the Great War exclusively in terms of political event which led Poland to regain its independence; in other words, as a theme or motive of a politically oriented literature. Yet, there were many writers who considered the war a cruel and traumatic event which radically changed their ways of experiencing reality. Thus, the paper’s goal is to show how the Great War might be perceived as a modern even and how its influence on literary expression might be considered. Having provided an overview of trauma as a modern concept and basic premises of cultural trauma theory, the present paper subsequently investigates three specimens of interwar Polish literary production and discusses them within the framework of trauma studies so as to show how this kind of reading might prove beneficial to one’s perception of modern Polish literature.

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