This book presents dominant and unrevealed topics of Polish postcolonialism to the English-speaking world. Intellectually, it is a treatise offering a comprehensive approach to Polish postcolonial studies that discovers new meanings in the classical arguments in postcolonial theory contained in such works as Edward Said's Orientalism, Culture and Imperialism, Ewa Thompson's Imperial Knowledge: Russian Literature and Colonialism, and other publications. The tome also provides an extensive examination of Polish identity.
The author keenly analyzes intricate landscapes of Polish postcolonialism using a well-rounded form of conceptual discourse and diverse methodologies of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychology, literary studies, and postcolonial studies. Agnieszka Polakowska's translation from Polish into English makes this book, originally published in Polish in 2013, a rich and transparent debate easily available to English-speaking audiences.
The volume consists of three parts that relate to each other by constructing semantic synergy between the part and the whole. The first part builds a theoretical background to the idea of postcolonialism in Poland. It accentuates philosophical and ethical aspects of Polish postcolonialism and investigates expressions of national identity in a postcolonial framework (38–70). The second part provides varied representations of identity using literary as well as cultural examples, including Adam Mickiewicz's Crimean Sonnets, Pawel Huelle's Castorp, and Andrzej Stasiuk's On the Road to Babadag and Fado. Also, Skórczewski analyzes Maria Janion's Uncanny Slavdom as the example of the “Slavic issues with identity” (193–207). The above examples function as evolving interpretative paradigms that depict, elaborate, and enlarge, through the centuries, the concept of Polish identity to grasp its essence. The book's third part looks for answers linked to the function of contemporary humanities and postcolonial theory. It probes the relationship between Poland and the “Other Europe” and sketches a dichotomy between “Colonized Poland” and “Orientalized Poland” (176–92) by questioning how much the realm of colonial discourse, applied to Polish issues, orientalizes Poland. Orientalism plays a special role in the search for national identity. The third part also outlines the “borderlands discourse” in Polish postcolonialism.
For Skórczewski, Mickiewicz's Crimea symbolizes the Orient identified by its natural and beautiful scenery. The lyrical subject of Mickiewicz's Crimean Sonnets approaches it as otherness. The Orient's exotic otherness stimulates the subject's process of self-definition and enhances the mechanism of redefinition applied to the lyrical subject's past and the present. The author argues that Mickiewicz's portrait of Crimea is ambiguous as it neither possesses the human element in its construction, nor represents a typical orientalist discourse. Nevertheless, The Crimean Sonnets formulate brand new questions about the relationship between the lyrical subject (a human being) and the world perceived as otherness (135). In Mickiewicz's masterpiece, there is a hidden definition of Polish identity viewed as the “ongoing reconstruction” (6). This stress on a dynamic and evolving character of Polish identity is not only captivating, but defining. Skórczewski keeps the balance between synthetic and analytical approaches to postcolonial theory that makes his speculative discourse enjoyable.
In the tome, the issue of identity plays a pivotal role. It is initially defined as a thematic category, but finally emerges as an analytical classification allowing for a deeper examination of Polish postcolonial theory. Postcolonial encounters and contexts are approached from the angle of “Heideggerian clearing” in which consciousness, human subjects, and identity play an important function. This “illuminating light” of awareness allows for projecting an expansive definition of a human being on both sides of the colonial divide (as the oppressed and the oppressor) and enables postcolonial theory to save universal human values such as identity, integrity, and the dignity of personhood (239).
The volume is addressed not only to academic audiences, but also to a broad community of readers who are interested in Polish studies and postcolonial theory. It provides a speculative interpretation of the notion of identity, through a prism of “otherness” and Polish literary themes, which should be recognized as original. For Skórczewski, the significance of difference and “otherness” must be stressed in postcolonial studies as it is an essential epistemic principle that departs from the idea of “sameness, identicality, and unity” (238) to show the unknown landscape and discourse of the Other. Also, postcolonial studies should be enlarged by reflections about evil and human susceptibility to it. Various expressions of colonial violence should be understood, rejected, and changed into positive values. Postcolonial theory thus must learn how to focus on universal human experience, stress human consciousness, and reject but forgive colonial oppressors to save the “mystery of humanity,” according to the author.
In conclusion, Skórczewski's tome should be widely promoted. The author innovatively applies personalistic thought to the methodology of postcolonial studies and retreats from Said's initial phase of postcolonialism to stress the value of human experience as well as the spirit of humanity that go beyond the existing postcolonial methodology. He writes, “Human experience…cannot be enclosed in postcolonial conceptualizations” (240). Promoting personalistic thought in postcolonial theory leads Skórczewski to a highly creative and original solution.
