Abstract
The present study aims to bring to light the problem of the ethnic identification of Aleksander Wat, an outstanding Polish-Jewish poet. Debating common view of Jew and Pole being synonymous in Wat’s ethnicity, the author attempts to trace the development and the transformation of this ethnicity. The author shows the dynamics of its evolution in a theoretical framework in the form of a fluid and dynamic model of ethnic identity. Focusing on the historical context is imperative in asserting that in the case of Wat his comprehension of the Holocaust initiated a process of rebuilding and consolidation of his Jewish identity (the poet’s version of spiritual Aliyah). The final phase of the process can also be contributive to othering of his Polish “habitus”.
Highlights
It would not be quite accurate to say that the current study extends previous research examining the question of ethnic identity of outstanding Polish poet Aleksander Wat
I hope that this much-used tag will evoke in your minds, some associations with the problems usually discussed when the topic of literary and artistic activity within the Jewish Diaspora is being introduced – even if the particular artist is much more widely known Aleksander Wat himself
Jewish identity seems best captured by the dialectics call for a fluid and dynamic model of identity, one capable of recognizing the different “journeys” over the life course and different socio-economic settings for its many expressions. [Hartman, & Kaufman, p. 385]. It is so: due to a merging of ethnic, religious and cultural aspects within Jewish identity, the best model to describe it is a dynamic one, which represents the Aleksander Wat and His Polish-Jewish Identity: The Dilemmas of Identity of the 20th Century Polish Writers of Jewish Background free-flowing and individual phenomenon, that changes over time [See: Hartman, & Kaufman, p. 372]
Summary
Twentieth-century Polish Literature, Ethnic Identity, Jewishness, Holocaust I am going to critically discuss the stereotype, according to which the poet’s Polish-Jewish identity was something monolithic and stable, independent from the course of History and the changes of Wat’s personal life.
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