EXPLORING PAST IN LOOKING FOR IDENTITY. (META)HISTORY, FANTASY AND POLITICS IN CONTEMPORARY POLISH NARRATIVES OF DOROTA TERAKOWSKA

Abstract

The encounters with the past, in which the children and teenage protagonists of Dorota Terakowska’s novels are ’entangled’, are present in the structure of her works mainly at the level of the figurative language of metahistory in which the poetics of imagination and fantasy used by the writer as a literary convention play an important role and are deeply rooted in social and politic context of Poland (here: totalitarian system, dictatorship and social changes). Such a narrative strategy is evident mainly in three works of the writer: The Witches’ Daughter (1991), Loneliness of the Gods (1998) and Lord of the Lewaw (1989). Terakowska’s work, which is clearly a part of the convention of fantasy, represents a universal message of an existential and ethical nature, but above all, which is worth emphasizing, is also firmly rooted in Polish tradition and history. Strongly exposed in Terakowska’s works is the element of poetics of space (including, for example, the ruins of palaces, as places of memory of the Polish romantic past, landscapes of romantic — wild and mysterious nature, or the motif of the Only Song — a symbol of national identity, also present in Polish romantic literature). The convention of space-time and the memory of the tragic past allows associations with important moments in the history of enslaved Poland (e.g. the romantic tradition of the 19th century), images of the enemy — the invader, the totalitarian system of communism, and models of figures of Polish national heroes fighting for freedom.

Keywords: fantasy, historical discourse, social and cultural memory, growing up, narratology, Dorota Terakowska