Russia 'outside the guidebook'. Some remarks on the margin of Mariusz Wilk’s 'northern cycle' Cover Image

Rosja „poza bedekerem”. Uwagi na marginesie „cyklu północnego” Mariusza Wilka
Russia 'outside the guidebook'. Some remarks on the margin of Mariusz Wilk’s 'northern cycle'

Author(s): Aleksandra Chomiuk
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku
Keywords: north; Russia; ethnography; spirituality; Mariusz Wilk

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents the evolution of the way of perceiving Russia in four works constituting M. Wilk’s northern cycle, which is the most interesting description of Russian experience in Polish literature in the recent years. The most important change is the transition from the assumptions regarding the North as the ‘essence of Russianness’ to ethnographic-historical search revealing the presence of the peoples from before the Russian colonization on this land. In the effect of the discomfort felt by the writer as a result of the clash of the communist accumulations of idealized ‘Russianness’ and everyday experiencing it the thematic shifts towards ‘exploring own soul’ and towards the process of the initiation into the spiritual reality of the North are becoming more and more expressive in the last volumes of the diary.

  • Issue Year: 2010
  • Issue No: 01
  • Page Range: 121-134
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish