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The Interwar Period That Wasn’t

Alternative Histories of the Twentieth Century in the Prose of Jacek Dukaj

Bibliographic Data

ID21827466
AuthorsAnna Łebkowska (0000-0002-3954-5388, Jagiellonian University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Pages1-15
Publication date2025-02-26
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePostscriptum Polonistyczne (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1898-1593 • E-ISSN: 2353-9844
PublisherUniversity of Silesia in Katowice (PUBLISHER • PL)
DOI10.31261/ps_p.2024.34.14
OpenAlexW4408218071
LanguageEN
References cited3

The article analyzes the creation of alternative histories using the examples of Xavras Wyżryn [Xavras Wyżryn] and Lód [Ice]. The focus of the interpretations will be on the question of why this particular period was subjected to counterfactual processes. In Xavras, the first half of the twentieth century is presented as a sequence of events resulting from the still ongoing war of 1920, that is, as an effect of human actions; in Ice, on the other hand, the events are caused by a meteorite impact, that is, they result from natural factors. In both works, 1918–1939 is not a period marked by war and is not decisive for the development of the Polish state. In this article, I will discuss the methods of constructing fictional worlds and answer the fundamental questions about the relationship between chance and the supreme law built into history, especially the juxtaposition of ideas of modernity and the growing totalitarianism. First, however, I will focus on the new ways of interpreting culturally mythologized spaces, logical and philosophical theories, and interpersonal relations through fictional alternative worlds

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Interwar period · Literature · World War II · Central European Literary Studies · History · Polish Historical and Cultural Studies · Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies

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Highly citedNo

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