Rejecting ‘Ehrenburgness’: Sławomir Mrożek on His Attitude to the Communist Poland, as seen in His Autobiographical Texts Cover Image
  • Price 4.50 €

Ku odrzuceniu „erenburgowatości”. Sławomir Mrożek wobec PRL-u w tekstach autobiograficznych
Rejecting ‘Ehrenburgness’: Sławomir Mrożek on His Attitude to the Communist Poland, as seen in His Autobiographical Texts

Author(s): Barbara Gutkowska
Subject(s): Political history, Government/Political systems, History of Communism
Published by: Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II - Instytut Jana Pawła II, Wydział Filozofii
Keywords: Sławomir Mrożek; autobiography; government; communist Poland;

Summary/Abstract: The article comprises an analysis of Sławomir Mrożek’s autobiographical texts in which he describes his attitude to the Polish government of the communist era. Mrożek initially approved of the official ideology of the Polish State, but in time began to ‘play a game’ with the censors, exposing the ubiquitous propaganda by means of stylistic and rhetorical devices, such as parables, symbols, allusions, and parodies. Having begun to live abroad in 1963, he initially employed a cautious strategy of not breaking the bonds with Poland despite his status of an émigré, but after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, a military operation with an active involvement of the Polish army, declared his dissent and publicly denounced the Polish government. The article describes also Mrożek’s response to the declaration of martial law in Poland in 1981, as well as his misgivings about the political transformation of 1989.

  • Issue Year: 33/2020
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 159-175
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Polish