Gonzo, Ironic Nostalgia, Magical Realism, or, How to Re-Narrate Traumatic Transnational Borderland Stories. Examples from the Twenty-First Century Polish(-German) Literature

Abstract

This paper focuses on the former Austrian crown land of Galicia and Lodomeria and its return in literary texts of a new generation that can recall it only from collective and family memory. Spaces like Galicia are situated in shifting political borders and often marked by (fragmented) memories connected to traumas caused by migration, forced resettlements, expulsions, or violence. The rediscovery of these spaces, often from nostalgia for a lost home and bygone times, is the starting point of many narratives of the postmemory generations in contemporary literature. Authors use new rhetorical strategies when dealing with adversarial nationalistic and traumatic topics: ironic nostalgia, gonzo, and magical realism. These narratives do not verify “truths,” instead they play with different myths, possibilities, and “alternative futures.” The analysis includes Tomasz Różycki’s Dwanaście stacji (2004), Sabrina Janesch’s Katzenberge (2010), and Ziemowit Szczerek’s Przyjdzie Mordor i nas zje (2013).