Between Torun and Boryslav

Auto/bio/geo/graphical Motifs in the Prose of Zdzisław Wróbel

Abstract

Using the methodology of geopoetics, comparativism and cultural anthropology, the author analyzes the prose of Z. Wróbel (1925–2007). The concept of auto/bio/geo/graphy (E. Rybicka) provides an opportunity to situate Z. Wróbel’s prose in new (re)interpretative contexts. The focus is on novels and short stories in which certain autobiogeographic schemes clearly function, the semiotic axis of which is the rite of passage and its existential, spatial and axiological dimensions. The author shows that Wróbel experiments with various genre tendencies of the migrant novel. Using the typology of Bogusław Bakuła, we can talk about the use of veteran-repatriation (Why?), romantic-missionary (Why?), socio-historical (Levels, Inauguration) and specifically framed western-adventure (Eldorado) schemes. The author also notes that the protagonists of Wróbel’s prose struggle with the traumatic experience of post-war reality (taming the post-German) as well as the traumatic experience of the past (witnesses and victims of the Holocaust). They feel immense relief when they can “confess” this testimony.