EN
In this article I have shown various aspects of dystopic discourse, which refer not only to the ways of constructing space and depicted world, but also to the identity of the characters. In the initial parts of the text, I have defined the concept of dystopia and I refer it to the experience of modernity, noting its various components (positive and negative, its utopian and dystopian potential) and specificity in Central and Eastern Europe. Then, I have analysed selected novels by Stefan Żeromski and Joseph Conrad for the presence of these elements of dystopic discourse. Within the framework of the presented analysis and interpretation of the Beauty of Life and Under Western Eyes I have put special emphasis on the relationship between the specificity of modern reality in its dystopic variant and the dynamic, decaying identity of the characters.