The Fiction of Tadeusz Konwicki: Coming to Terms with Post-War Polish History and Politics by Katarzyna Zechenter (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS W) Zechenter, Katarzyna. The Fictionof Tadeusz Konwicki: Comingto Termswith Post-WarPolishHistory and Politics.Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY, Queenston, ON and Lampeter, 2007.vii+ 297pp. Notes.Bibliography. Index.£74.95:$119.95. A full-length monograph in Englishon a Polishliterary authorofanyperiod is a rareeventand is therefore to be welcomed.Such worksare important fortheperception and recognition of Polishliterature outsidePoland as a literature ofuniversal worthin itsownright, notas an exoticand culturally exclusivezone that cannot be comprehendedby readersnot of Polish ethnicity, and for its integration into European culturalstudies more generally. Moreover,the perspective of the 'outsider'can oftencontribute dimensionsthat Polish criticsmay not necessarilyperceive. Katarzyna Zechenter,originally fromKrakow, does not quite fitthe categoryof 'outsider'but her formative yearsas a literary scholarwere spentin the UnitedStatesand since2000in Britain. Articles haveappearedon Konwicki fromtime to time in North American academic journals (Slavic and non-Slavic), as haveliterary reviews inEnglish-language newspapers following thepublication of translations of his works(mainlyin the 1980sand early 1990s),but thisis the first attempt to providea comprehensive surveyin Englishofhisfiction (inwhichZechenteralso includeshisautobiographical - or semi-autobiographical - works, butnothisfilms and screenplays). Zechenter follows a chronological rather thana thematic schema,tracing thecareerofa writer whosework,she argues,is chiefly concerned withthe development ofPolish'post-war politics and history', emphasizing hismoral grappling withtheconcrete reality aroundhimand explaining hisdramatic change froma Home Armypartisan(whosementality had been shaped by the Polish nineteenth-century Romantic insurrectionary tradition)to uncompromising commitment intheinitial post-1945 yearstotheCommunist experiment (chapter three isdevotedtoan analysis ofhisfourSocialist Realist novels)todisillusionment and an oppositionist stancebytheearly1970s;since the collapse of Communism, Konwicki'svoice as a writerof fictionhas been lessprominent. The reasonsforhisformer support oftheCommunist regimeare also addressedin the finalchapterwhereZechenterdiscusses his'autobiographical' works, seeingthese,however, notonlyas 'confessions' about his former loyalties but as continuations ofvarioustraditional Polish literary styles, suchas thegaweda and silvarerum. Yet thischoiceofa chronological, strongly biographical approachperhaps renders thisbook'smoreinteresting and challenging aspectslessvisiblethan theymight have been had a morethematic and theoretical treatment been adopted:at variousstagesin hernarrative Zechenter discusses, forexample, Konwicki'sroleas inheritor, re-interpreter and criticoftheideologicaland psycho-cultural legacyofPolishRomanticism. Severalother important themes, potentially disruptive to a polonocentric interpretation ofKonwickiorindeed to any monolithic conceptionof Polish culture,are likewisedispersedor submerged: 1. Konwicki'sattitude to womenin hisfiction, whichZechenter demonstrates to be misogynistic and exploitative; 2. the importance of the 'borderlands' (i.e. theeastern landslostbyPolandto theSovietUnion after 54° SEER, 87, 3, JULY 2OO9 WorldWar Two) and morespecifically theWilenkavalley, whereKonwicki was bornand whichplaysa keyrolein all hisfiction sincethelate 1950sof an idyllized sacrum,thefocusof the author'smemoriesand sourceof his moralformation (a topicthatwouldbe interesting to takefurther inthelight ofdebatessincethe1990saboutthe'Polish'borderlands as wellas ofrecent postcolonial theory); 3. Konwicki's conception ofhimself as an eternal 'émigré' within post-war Polandand ofhis'home'beingelsewhere, i.e. inthe'borderlands ' or the 'valley';and 4. hisportrayal ofJews(mostsignificantly in the novelBohin Manor, 1987) - wherethe Jewsthatformerly inhabited thisregion areconceived of'as a necessary partofPolishculture, not"as others'" (p. 169) and,atleastinZechenter's interpretation ofKonwicki, as loyalPolishpatriots in thestyleofMickiewicz's Jankiel(a viewofJewry thatsurely needsto be problematized by further discussion). Will thesethemes,whichhave not onlyan immediate Polishpolitical resonance butalsoa widercultural, human dimension, be theonesthatwilleventually determine Konwicki's importance and popularity? Konwickiis one of the fewPolishwriters (and the onlycontemporary novelist, as opposedto poetslikeHerbert, Szymborska, Rózewiczand Milosz) to have been systematically translated - and notonlyintoEnglish(see the bibliographyin Judith Arlt's TadeuszKonwickis Prosawerk vonRqjstybis Bohin, Bern,1997).Most,butnotall,ofhismajornovelsappearedintranslations by RichardLouriebetween1982and 1991,and histwomost'political'novels, The PolishComplex and A MinorApocalypse, were regarded at the time in the Westas devastating critiques ofthePolishhistorical-political situation and of a physically crumbling and morally bankrupt Sovietizedsociety. In thelight of Zechenter'srepeatedclaim that Konwicki'swork is both shaped by and reflects Polishpost-war history and politics, and thatthishas been the overwhelming focusofhiswork(though herinsistence thathe is 'unique'in thisrespect might be challenged), onemight ponderthisprivileged position in foreign translations: was he translated precisely because he was so political? Yet hispolitics had notalwaysbeen so anti-Soviet. Also,givenhisroleas a literary 'barometer'or 'seismograph' of the changingpoliticalclimatein Polandfrom1945untilthemid-1990s (ifwe acceptthatthisishischiefrole), onewonders whether sucha 'political' writer willsurvive thepassageoftime; orwhether hewillbe remembered as a figure whosegreatest valuewasinfact to monitor therepressive atmosphere oftheCommunist years. Onlytimewilltell,butsuchquestions - liketheseveralbroaderdebates listedabove- areprovoked byZechenter's book,butarenotproblematized in any unifying conclusion.Nor does it engage in speculationsabout Konwicki's place in Polishliterature and hisposition vis-à-vis othercontemporary writers: a political commentator ofhistimesor...