This article is a polemic with a postcolonial interpretation of Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' - namely, with the images of black dwellers of Africa as criticised by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. As is made apparent through a careful analysis of the text, while not denying the sense of strangeness against 'the savage', Marlow makes an effort to understand their otherness as well as, and primarily so, his own response to how the Other behaves. The theme of a sarcastic story is therefore not aborigines but rather, the white invaders of Congo territory and their attitude to the local black people. Marlow's fascination with Kurtz, 'the most outstanding amongst the daemons of this country', has led the captain to conceal his cruelties committed against colonial protectors and his fiancée. Marlow is tormented by these lies, his story, being told to fellow-travellers in another trip, is a sort of catharsis to him. Marlow, a noble man, positions himself as a coloniser whilst his irony turns into a self-irony. This obviously does not mean that an idea of colonialism is advocated by Joseph Conrad, the one who has created Marlow - the piece's narrator and lead character.
This text discusses selected interwar reportages, recollections, essayistic-recollective records devoted to the issues of eastern provinces of the 2nd Polish Republic (the East Borderland; in Polish - 'Kresy'). Reading of these texts is done in a postcolonial studies perspective, which enabled to show how the Polish dominating discourse of the period functioned - i.e. one establishing a naturalised form of representation and a scale of values in a non-fictional record on those lands. Analysis has shown that the interwar-period East-Borderland discourse, as may be found in these evoked texts, reveals traits of a coloniser's discourse as well as those of discourse of the former colonised, i.e. a post-dependence discourse (related to a situation of freeing from Partitions-related dependence).
This article analyses colonial and postcolonial aspects of so-called Polish borderland discourse as comprised in a series of literary-scientific and culturological papers as well as memoirs published after 1989. The author argues that the language of several such Polish papers contains unconscious linguistic constructs, image clichés superimposing their image of the world and determining the inclination to have (the) Others precluded, although much is said on dialogue, multiculturality and understanding in terms of scientific and/or ideological or similar intents. This testifies to an extremely strong prevalence of colonialist forms of memory whereas the subject of colonising (i.e. Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Lithuanian lands and cultures) is unattainable in realistic terms, if not intentionally undesirable. The article also discusses the Ukrainian forms of rendering Poles precluded from the territory and culture of the Ukraine, with a memory of former colonisation as their basis, along with the presently strong postcolonial response being associated with the national revival. The author proposes an 'integral comparative studies' project as coupled with a postcolonial theory as the starting point for interdisciplinary studies on the so-called 'borderland' (Polish, kresy) transgressing the invisible and visible borders of scientific awareness connected with the colonial discourse.
Our contemporary research in translation tends to approach translation as one means of intercultural communication. This involves taking into account the relations between cultures and languages entering into contact with one another through translation, as well as investigating into cultural-social effects caused by translation. The article outlines the research grounds for the issues at stake, particularly those being part of the so-called 'postcolonial' current, which has been evolving in recent years also in translatology. Scholars representing this current refer to the fact that translation may form yet another (new) form of colonialism, subordination and preservation of divisions between languages and cultures. The authoresses focus on Polish and French translations of the Lemk poetry, the latter being a peculiar manifestation of ethnic identity.
This article aims at confirming a thesis concerning adequacy between the First World's colonial culture, with regards to its off-European areas of domination, and the imperial policies of Central/Eastern European powers with respect to minor countries or ethnic-cultural communities absorbed by those large state organisms. The discussion specifically concerns the relations between Germany (i.e. German states and, later, the German Empire) and Poland (the Poles), and, eastern borderland of Prussia, in 19th century. The following issues are focal: (1) the relation between national constructions and the colonial project in the German-language public space of 18th to 20th centuries; (2) a post-colonial deconstruction of the 'Polish space' in the German literature of 19th c.; (3) analysis of Polish responses to the colonisation of 'Polishness' in the second half of 19th c.
Addressing opinions of some Polish opponents of postcolonial theory and postcolonial studies regarding the alleged 'primitivism' of such theory and such studies, the article first discusses some of the most vital problems within postcolonial theory, such as: the condition of post(-)coloniality, postcolonialism as the de-centring of discourse(s) in the context of the project of 'provincialization' of Europe, and the relation between postcolonialism and postmodernism. Secondarily, the article sets postcolonialism in the Polish context by posing questions as to the prospects of the application of postcolonial theory to the re-reading of Polish literature. It concludes with the suggestion of three major fields where this application may be advantageous to Polish studies and Polish public discourse at the present time.
The study is dedicated to the work of the Swiss director Milo Rau, which is characterised by an understanding of art as a tool of communication. Several projects are presented in the study, with the author focussing on the phenomenon of reenactment and preenactment, their starting points, points of contact, and composition techniques. Given the nature of Rau’s work, the study includes a definition of these terms in relation to documentary theatre, from which some of the techniques are drawn, but with respect to final form, the future is a distinctive element of reenactment. The centrepiece of the text is an analysis of the preenactment The Congo Tribunal, in which Rau reflects on three cases of human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, concerning the mining of precious minerals, particularly coltan and cassiterite, massacres, and population displacement.
The aim of the study is to identify the areas of scholarship where Professor Edward Said's work 'Orientalism' (1978) has laid foundations for new forms of enquiry or where new approaches are being formulated replacing those seriously undermined by the book. The first category covers the production of what is referred to as 'postcolonial studies', the second deals with the attempts to find an alternative to orientalism.
The text monitors the reception of Edward Said's 'Orientalism' paying special attention to interpretative shifts which, according to the author, falsify the initial sense and obscure the original context of the work's creation. On the basis of other texts of Said, especially 'The World, the Text and the Critic', the author calls into question the relation of Orientalism with postcolonial studies and, in a wider context, with poststructuralism. He perceives the popularity of Western European poststructural thought at American universities in the late 80s and early 90s as a symptom of a rebirth of an oppressive theoretical empire of the American academic thought. The ideas of postcolonialism combined with superficial American pluralism hackneys the issue of discrimination and intolerance by means of racial and phenomenological confluence of the Other. Said, as a politically engaged researcher, has criticized poststructuralists on a number of occasions, especially Foucault, for diverging from a real interest in imperial discourse to an analysis of the speaking I. The origins of Orientalism are rooted in Vico and Auerbach's thought who, like Said, create models of philological humanism. Its topic is not the discourse but the institution which gathers information. This institution is a university in the service of the empire which plays its role both in the colonial times as well as in the second half of the 20th century.
The goal of this article is to describe and explain the ways how Balkan is constructed and perceived as a meta-geographical and metaphorical concept. The author discusses the flexibility of demarcation of the Balkan borders in the mental maps and the flexibility of the category of the Balkan as well. In this article it is assumed that the relation between “Europe” and “Balkan” is in fact the relation between the power centre and the periphery. Thus Balkan is orientalised and quasi-colonialized by the “Europe” through the mechanisms related to the power discourses, ways of reporting, thinking and perceiving the Balkan. Moreover, the author suggests that the final consequence of such discourses is manifested in the policy of the European institutions towards some Balkan countries. The author ́s argumentation is based on the comparison of orientalist and balkanist discourses and on the reactions to postcolonial studies that come from the Balkan researchers themselves.
The article is devoted to the interweaving of Polish and Belarussian memory in post-war literature of the Podlasie region and the witness accounts of hybrid identities (ex. "localness", Esperanto). The author briefly outlines the conditions in which the Polish language discourse has functioned within regional memory since the 18th century till the present time. Against this background he analyses the work of bilingual writers: Sokrat Janowicz (b. 1936) and Michał Androsiuk (b. 1959), following the changes of metaphor and form in Belarussian memory in its relation to Polish memory. Polish Belarussians' literary identity discourse assigns highest importance to an archeological language, the sense of being colonised, and the need to find one's own memory; only later does it voice praise of memory as created and of a "nomadic" type of subject identity.
The case study of Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York is an attempt to discuss the issue of multiculturalism in art museums traditionally based on universalistic (Western) aesthetics. The story of Western art which once was central for the museum is now more complicated by the addition of non-Western art/objects. However, one of the biggest American museums - Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York goes beyond the polarities 'high art' vs. 'ethnographic object' showing the hybrid culture as the result of colonialism, migration, slavery, diaspora, conflicts or oppression. The authoress summarizes some important views at relations between art and ethnicity what is one of the main concerns in the museums in multicultural society, presented by Svetlana Alpers, James Clifford or Susan Vogel. Dismantling 'true representations' in the museum opened new issues: the issue of parallelisms and horizontal surveys, both promoted by Homi Bhabha as cultural paradigm during the exhibition 'Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration'. Hybridity, the term used by Annie E. Coombes is articulated as a symptom of what is identified as postcolonial in a sense of the postmodern strategy of bricolage superficially reproducing and celebratory affirming that all are equal. Still, under the cover of celebration (and fast-food like consumption) of differences there is the inequality of access to economic and political power. And only the dominant groups articulate the ways in which such differences are constituted.
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate historically conditioned context of Weber's analysis of “religion of India”. Weber and his work is part of orientalistic discourse – Weber assumes then Western image of India, and reproduces and incorporates this image into sociological thinking. This text focuses on some elements of this image: caste system as the most important element of Hinduism, confidence to sacred texts and secret sexualism as opposite of noble official religion of intellectual elite. These stereotypes have helped the defence of notion of European exceptionalism, by which other cultures may not develop modern capitalism as the base of modernity.
It has already been indicated that Bruno Schulz's work has its root in the cultural borderland and that it undertakes the subject of the relation between the centre and the periphery. However, it has never been compared with the Polish myth of 'Kresy', in which these issues are equally important. Schulz's prose has been read as a literature lacking any distinct references to ethnic or national issues, since the mimesis of realistic representation is not found here. What occurs is the mimesis of process - imitating general cultural mechanisms, like the functioning of the centre/periphery opposition. According to the article's thesis, in Schulz's writing occurs a deconstruction of the indicated opposition: it is imitated, negated, and finally, ironically problematized. This deconstruction has been described using postcolonial categories of hybridization, mimicry and palimpsesticism.
The article proposes reading borderland literature with the use of postcolonial criticism. Poland is often called the coloniser who has been colonized. The author should add, that there are two meanings of this statement. Firstly, Poland acted like a coloniser in Eastern Territory (the time of the so-called 1st Republic of Poland and that can be classified as 'normal' behaviour). Secondly, Poland acted this way in the time of Partition, when it was colonized by neighbouring superpowers. This causes a special kind of complications and experiences which are written in literature, personal and historical documents. Applying postcolonial criticism to read borderline literature means: 1. Taking into consideration borderland, local (not only metropolitan) discourses, or in other words, taking into consideration historical and political threads 2. Understanding stereotypes of the Other/the Stranger in a different way. 3. Exposing rhetorical rules and the aims of 'unilanguage'. 4. Taking into consideration (and to understand in a special way) the phenomenon of space, 5. The fantasmatic type of characters and situations in texts, and also: 6. Literary escalation of borderland experience. These theses are shown by means of a short analysis.
Former satellite countries of the Soviet Union are perceived as postcolonial cultures, which means that their capitals should also possess postcolonial characteristics. Postcolonial identities of Central European cities remain almost unnoticed. The article aims at filling this gap by showing the particular postcolonial structure of cities such as Berlin, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. The author defines the (post)colonial city by means of postcolonial and colonial analysis of the features of Central European cities. The presentation of this concept in a historical, cultural and political context allows for a deeper understanding of changes that the identities of Central European cities have been experiencing since 1989.
The text constitutes a recapitulation of the filmographic reflection in the Czech Republic and Slovakia of the so called 'zenska otázka' (women's issue). The feminist and gender thought appeared in public and scientific reflection only after the Velvet Revolution encountering a moderate and uninvolved reaction from the scientific and artistic societies. The women's issue in the Czech and Slovak cinema, which had been till that moment fairly undescribed, represents an early stage of academic feminism. Czech and Slovak women's studies focus on gathering knowledge about history, culture and social and political life of women. The discourse includes the analysis of the picture of women mostly in early cinema, reflection on the category of womanhood, its specificity and changes it has undergone in the historical process. In the mean time, female film directors are playing a greater role in the achievements of the Czech Republic and Slovakia's cinematography. The contemporary women's cinema is a work of art that is visibly distinguishable quantitatively and qualitatively. It is an underexplored field in Czech and Slovak film thought that is characterized by its feministic and gender approach.
This article draws from recent research that makes an argument for studying literature from what David Chioni Moore calls 'the post-Soviet sphere' under the rubric of postcolonial theory. It contends that conceiving of countries formerly under Soviet rule as having some characteristics in common with countries once under French colonial rule can yield productive results. It is quite possible that the concentration in literary studies on relations between the First and Third Worlds has left a void with respect to the Second World, at least with respect to francophone writers. We can begin to fill this void by studying texts in French by writers from places formerly under Soviet domination, and this article examines the fictional and theoretical works of Julia Kristeva, Agota Kristof, Milan Kundera, Andrei Makine and Brina Svit. Their insights are used here to explore the extent to which intellectuals from small Central and Eastern European countries find themselves in a 'postcolonial' position - politically and linguistically - similar to that of francophone scholars and writers from the Maghreb, sub-Saharan Africa or the Antilles.
The article presents an analysis of the topos of the province in Polish and German literature after 1989. In spite of different historical and literary sources, the turning point of the fall of the Berlin wall marks the beginning of the surprising career of this literary figure which, according to the authoress, is connected to the postcolonial profile of the literatures after the breakthrough. The topos of province in literature studies and literary criticism has different functions: as an affirmation and source of national identity (the Polish 'borderland' and German West Prussia) and a test of its anti-community, postmodern character (in Stasiuk and Tokarczuk's works) and a tint of Western German quasi-identity. The proposed model for the understanding of the texts of the region is focused around the person of the narrator and the categories of the (anthropological) point of view.
The authoress ascertains the existence of certain translation problems in reciprocal translation from both literatures. She attempts to situate them in the context of the developing postcolonial research. Although both ethnoses and their literatures have never had any colonial relationships, the consequences of their past paracolonial or colonial addictions have been reflected in both cultures and discourses constituting a source of problems for translators.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.