Borderlands outlined

The borderlands, peripheries, little motherlands – it is on such concepts that the discourse on multiculturalism – one of the most powerful discourses in Polish literature of the last two decades, is being built. Its inner dynamic shows the tension between opening oneself up to the Other One, and the impossibility of crossing the borderline that separates us from him. As a result of it, multiculturalism becomes transformed into yet another community myth of the Poles – this time, a myth serving to become adjusted to the European cultural standards. A positive intention, visible in sympathetic narrations about the Other One, is confronted with helplessness caused by one’s own limitations. The cultural project becomes confronted with Reality. Our multiculturalism remains a Polish perspective which attempts but vainly to rid itself of its own limitations. Yet in the Polish literature of recent years, one can fi nd authors who go one step further (Stasiuk, Tkaczyszyn-Dycki) and who try to listen to the voice of the genuine Other One, who is to be found outside the borders of the all-appropriating myth of Polish multiculturalism.

 The borderlands, peripheries, little motherlands – it is on such concepts that the discourse on multiculturalism – one of the most powerful discourses in Polish literature of the last two decades, is being built. Its inner dynamic shows the tension between opening oneself up to the Other One, and the impossibility of crossing the borderline that separates us from him. As a result of it, multiculturalism becomes transformed into yet another community myth of the Poles – this time, a myth serving to become adjusted to the European cultural standards. A positive intention, visible in sympathetic narrations about the Other One, is confronted with helplessness caused by one’s own limitations. The cultural project becomes confronted with Reality. Our multiculturalism remains a Polish perspective which attempts but vainly to rid itself of its own limitations. Yet in the Polish literature of recent years, one can fi nd authors who go one step further (Stasiuk, Tkaczyszyn-Dycki) and who try to listen to the voice of the genuine Other One, who is to be found outside the borders of the all-appropriating myth of Polish multiculturalism.