Voluntary Social Marginalization As a Survival Strategy in Polish Postcommunist Accounts of Childhood (Report‪)‬

For the Polish cultural elite the lifting of censorship, decentralization of literary life, and regained pluralism of public discourse were undoubtedly the most significant consequences of the fall of communism. Polish artists and writers found themselves free to explore the complexity of human nature and the historical taboos previously guarded by the communist regime. Many turned to exploring personal and local identity, an unsurprising development after forty years of surveillance and discouragement of individualistic thoughts and aspirations. The search for identity normally begins in the transitional period between childhood and adolescence. Thus most Polish writers have logically adopted the genre of the "initiation novel" [1] to explore the process of identity formation. The growing number of quasi-autobiographical novels whose central theme is the recollection of childhood and/or adolescent experience in Soviet-occupied Poland has come to the attention of literary critics, who now speak of them as the core of a new trend in post-1989 Polish literature. [2] A list of Polish initiation novels pertaining to this trend includes such works as: Antoni Libera's Madame; Ryszard Sadaj's Telefon do Stalina [A Phone Call to Stalin] and Lawka pod kasztanem [The Bench Under the Chestnut Tree]; Andrzej Stasiuk's Jak zostalem pisarzem. Proba autobiografii intelektualnej [How I Became a Writer: An Attempt at an Intellectual Autobiography] and Bialy kruk [A Rarity]; Izabela Filipiak's Absolutna amnezja [Absolute Amnesia]; Wojciech Kuczok's Gnoj [Bastard]; Zbigniew Mentzel's Wszystkie jezyki swiata [All the Languages of the World]; Marek Stokowski's Samo-loty [Airplanes]; Michal Szczepanski's Dzieci sierzanta Pieprza [Sergeant Pepper's Children]; Jolanta Stefko's Mozliwe sny [Possible Dreams]; Lech Majewski's Pielgrzymka do grobu Brigitte Bardot Cudownej [A Pilgrimage to the Tomb of the Miraculous Brigitte Bardot]; and Julian Kornhauser's Dom, sen i gry dzieciece [The House, the Dream and Childish Games].