Dyskurs postkolonialny wobec historii Polski
Authors: Nakoneczny Tomasz 
Published: December 2022

Postcolonial discourse with regard to Poland’s history

In the article the author explores the question of the validity of the concepts and category of postcolonial discourse with regard to the history of Poland. He points to the possible existence of various socio-cultural barriers hindering the adaptation of the postcolonial vocabulary to the Polish discourse and at the same time possibly signalling deeper, postcolonial perceptual residues. Of significance in this respect is also the fact that interest in postcolonial studies appeared in Poland quite late because of the existence of the Iron Curtain, i.e. at a time when there had already emerged in those studies a specific textual-imagological canon which determined the main directions of research, ethical hierarchies of importance, geographical-cultural areas of interest etc. Above all, however, the author of the article distinguishes conceptual difficulties — of key importance in his view — which emerge during attempts to use postcolonial studies to interpret the history of Poland. One of such difficulties stems from a lack of consensus among Polish scholars over the adaptability of the fundamental concept of colonialism, rooted in the practices of Western European colonialism, to selected areas of Poland’s history. These difficulties are further compounded by the fact that, as Dorota Kołodziejczyk notes, the postcolonial discourse stems from a broadly defined poststructuralist tradition, in principle contrary to the axiological focus of local postcolonial identities sensitive to the categories of truth and justice. The author also points to the characteristic paradox of the Polish metahistorical discourse: despite a fundamental lack of agreement on subjective or objective entanglement of Poland and Poles in the system of colonial relations, we are dealing with — especially in literature studies — an intense exploration of the various aspects of relations identified as (post)colonial. The author of the article recognises the need for an individual and at the same time rather careful approach to domination-based relations occurring in Poland over the last three centuries (that is, in a period of interest to most influential postcolonial scholars). Such an approach is dictated by the diversity and multifaceted nature of such relations, within which the Polish factor is to be found in various situations and interactions (lord, subject, representative of the centre, collaborator, representative of an ethnic minority or majority etc.), a model example of which can be the case of Galicia. A separate part of the article is devoted to the phenomenon of the Polish Eastern Borderlands, which makes us realise that the fundamental problem of the applicability of the category of colonialism to the Polish historical reality coexists with other important issues associated with the interpretation of the Polish entanglement in dependence-based relations. One of such issues is the nature of the presence of the Polish element — a rival to competing hegemonic entities (Russia, Turkey etc.) — in Poland’s former Eastern Borderlands. Leaving out this particular dimension of the Borderlands “epic” and concentrating excessively on ethical aspects of socio-economic hegemony or Orientalising of the Other may lead to paradoxical interpretative implications like the mythologising of the “missionary” or — on the contrary — “imperialist” nature of the Polish presence in the Borderlands etc. Another issue discussed separately by the author is the nature of the PolishRussian relations in the part of Poland annexed by Russia. Here, too, the situation turns out to be complex, which suggests interpretative restraint and circumspection. This is evidenced by the coexistence of naked force — which sometimes made Russian rule look like military occupation — and more subtle forms of dependence, recorded especially in literature and as such more durable, with concomitant general deprecation of the cultural or civilisational status of the Russians. In the conclusion of the article the author argues in favour of the invalidity of a comprehensive approach to Polish post(colonialism), as the matter breaks up naturally, as it were, into various thematic segments (e.g. Borderlands, Romanticism, various parts of partitioned Poland, communist Poland etc.).