World War I and “the good old Austrian times” in a novel by Roman Turek W służbie najjaśniejszego pana [In His Majesty’s service

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the writings of Roman Turek, an author almost forgotten in the present times. In his autobiographical writing he recalls his childhood and youth, spent in his home village Wola Dalsza, situated in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his army experience from First World War. The article deals with Galician motifs in Turek’s W służbie najjaśniejszego pana [In His Majesty’s service], especially the image of the Great War from a perspective of a resident of Wola Dalsza, a village near Łańcut, as well as a private in the Austro-Hungarian army. Special attention was given to special features of Roman Turek’s writing, creation of his characters, presence of humour and irony, which made the critics draw analogies with the books by Jaroslav Hašek and the literary character he created, i.e. Josef Švejk.