The Construction of the Guatemalan Other in Andrzej Bobkowski's Letters

Abstract

Abstract This article concerns the epistolary work of Andrzej Bobkowski (1913–1961), a Polish émigré writer. After leaving Poland in 1938 and staying in France during World War II, the author left Europe and lived in Guatemala from 1948 to 1961. From there, it was by means of written correspondence that he maintained contact with editors of Polish journals in exile, writers, friends, and relatives. The letters analyzed here were published in nine collections. This text focuses on a subjective image of Guatemala, an important topic in Bobkowski's correspondence, both personal and semi-official, as with Jerzy Giedroyc, the editor of the Paris-based monthly Kultura. He would describe Guatemala from the perspective of an educated white European male, brought up in the elite environment of the Second Polish Republic (1918–1939). Here Bobkowski's letters are characterized through four filters related to the identity of the author, that is, Eurocentrism, ethnocentrism, race, and favorite literature. Additionally, the article contains reflections on the change of the writer's status in Polish literature. From a peripheral author who was banned during the communist era, Bobkowski moved to the center of integrated Polish literature after 1989, gradually achieving the status of a canonical writer.