Na wybranych przykładach hybrydycznej gatunkowo prozy Andrzeja Stasiuka, traktowanej w kategoriach exemplum, autorka rozważa rzadziej podejmowane w przekazach aspekty okupacyjnych doświadczeń polskiej wsi i powojennego awansu społecznego chłopów. Prezentuje punkty wyjścia i dojścia tego procesu, decydujące o dzisiejszej kondycji świadomościowej potomków ludzi, którzy albo ze wsi migrowali do miast, albo w rodzinnych wsiach pozostali, żyjąc w Polsce Ludowej, a potem mierząc się z transformacją ustrojową 1989 roku. Wywód koncentruje się na trzech zasadniczych problemach: okupacyjnym zderzeniu mazowiecko-podlaskiego chłopstwa z nowoczesnością; na jego powojennym stosunku do rewolucji umożliwiającej migrację do miasta oraz na grze wyższości i niższości (pogardy i wstydu) w tożsamościowych konstrukcjach współczesnych Polaków o wiejskich korzeniach.

The “Locals.” What Does Andrzej Stasiuk Tell Us About, Presenting the WWII Occupation and Postwar Images of Peasants from the Bug Villages of Mazowsze and Podlasie and Their Descendants?

The article examines the aspects of the WWII experience of the Polish village and the postwar social advancement of peasants – that are rarely considered in witness narratives – on the examples from Andrzej Stasiuk’s generically hybrid prose writing, treated here as an exemplum. It presents the departure and arrival points of that process, determining today’s condition of the social and cultural consciousness of the descendants of those people who either migrated from the countryside to the cities, or remained in their native villages, living in the Polish People’s Republic, and – later on – facing the system transformation after 1989. The discussion concentrates on three essential problems: the WWII clash of the peasantry from Mazowsze and Podlasie with modernity; their postwar attitude to the revolution which made the migration to the city possible, and the interplay between superiority and inferiority (contempt and shame) in identity constructs of the contemporary Poles with peasant roots.

The article examines the aspects of the WWII experience of the Polish village and the postwar social advancement of peasants – that are rarely considered in witness narratives – on the examples from Andrzej Stasiuk’s generically hybrid prose writing, treated here as an exemplum. It presents the departure and arrival points of that process, determining today’s condition of the social and cultural consciousness of the descendants of those people who either migrated from the countryside to the cities, or remained in their native villages, living in the Polish People’s Republic, and – later on – facing the system transformation after 1989. The discussion concentrates on three essential problems: the WWII clash of the peasantry from Mazowsze and Podlasie with modernity; their postwar attitude to the revolution which made the migration to the city possible, and the interplay between superiority and inferiority (contempt and shame) in identity constructs of the contemporary Poles with peasant roots.