Nienapisana epopeja. Kilka uwag o zapomnianym wyzwoleniu
The Unwritten Epos: Some Remarks on a Forgotten Liberation

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the memory of emancipation in Poland – or rather, the lack of such a memory. Leder argues that stories about the emancipation are needed – an entire cycle of stories, a series of novels, films or images. Leder discusses the emancipation of signs, or signifiers, bemoaning the fact that only a few novels are known, and mostly to academics. These cultural texts do not function in the collective discourse; they are not transformed into scenarios that structure the collective imagination. They are not signifiers in the sense of structuring the collective subject’s self-representation. Leder does not argue that all stages of the emancipation ought to be described in detail, nor that their dramaturgy be foregrounded, nor that representations are needed of their potential and value as elements of a hitherto unwritten narrative. Rather, he proposes that we should introduce into our conscious memory the great historical current which, through conscious memory itself, has achieved the goal that has been Poland’s most important one over the last 150 years: the attainment of the maturity to be free – a process that has been completely repressed from our memory.

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