Between Homeland and Emigration. Tuwim’s Struggle for Identity

Autor

  • Hans-Christian Trepte Leipzig University, Institute of Slavonic Studies

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9057.36.04

Słowa kluczowe:

Julian Tuwim, Jewish-Polish identity, Polonität, exile, language

Abstrakt

Julian Tuwim belongs to the pantheon of the greatest Polish writes of the 20th century. His Polish-Jewish descent, his attitude towards the Polish language, towards Jews in Poland, his political activities as an emigrant as well as his controversial involvement with the communist Poland still fuel many critical discussions. Polish language and culture were for him much more important than the categories of nation or state. However, whereas for Polish nationalists and antisemites Tuwim remained “only” a Jew, Jewish nationalists considered him a traitor. It was in exile that his attitude towards his Jewish countrymen began to change, especially after he learnt about the horror of the Holocaust in occupied Poland. Thus, he began writing his famous, dramatic manifesto, We, the Polish Jews. After World War II, Tuwim came back to Poland, hoping to continue his prewar career as a celebrated poet. His manifold contributions to the development of the Polish language and literature, within the country and abroad, cannot be questioned, and the dilemmas concerning his cultural and ethnic identity only make him a more interesting writer. Julian Tuwim belongs to the pantheon of the greatest Polish writes of the 20th century. His Polish-Jewish descent, his attitude towards the Polish language, towards Jews in Poland, his political activities as an emigrant as well as his controversial involvement with the communist Poland still fuel many critical discussions. Polish language and culture were for him much more important than the categories of nation or state. However, whereas for Polish nationalists and antisemites Tuwim remained “only” a Jew, Jewish nationalists considered him a traitor. It was in exile that his attitude towards his Jewish countrymen began to change, especially after he learnt about the horror of the Holocaust in occupied Poland. Thus, he began writing his famous, dramatic manifesto, We, the Polish Jews. After World War II, Tuwim came back to Poland, hoping to continue his prewar career as a celebrated poet. His manifold contributions to the development of the Polish language and literature, within the country and abroad, cannot be questioned, and the dilemmas concerning his cultural and ethnic identity only make him a more interesting writer.

Pobrania

Brak dostępnych danych do wyświetlenia.

Bibliografia

Brodzka Alina, Burska Lidia, Sporne postacie polskiej literatury współczesnej. Kontynuacje, IBL, Warsaw 1996.
Google Scholar

Danilewicz-Zielińska Maria, Szkice o literaturze emigracyjnej, Ossolineum, Wroclaw–Warsaw–Cracow 1992.
Google Scholar

Dialog polsko-żydowski. Przemówienia wygłoszone w Nowym Jorku 26 września 1958 w Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences, Polski Instytut Naukowy w Ameryce, New York 1958.
Google Scholar

Gorschenek Margareta, Hilzheimer Hannelore, Almanach zur Polnischen Kinderkultur / Almanach polskiej kultury dziecięcej, Katholische Akademie, Hamburg 1996.
Google Scholar

Fischer Christine, “Dunkle Nacht”. Julian Tuwim in deutscher Übersetzung, in: Poezja polska i niemiecka w przekładach współczesnych. Polnische und deutsche Poesie in modernen Übersetzungen, U. Jekutsch, A. Sulikowski (eds.), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego, Szczecin 2002.
Google Scholar

Jeleński Konstanty A., Powrót Tuwima, “Kultura” 1954, issue 77.
Google Scholar

Polacy–Żydzi / Polen–Juden / Poles–Jews 1939–1945. Wybór źródeł, compilation A.K. Kunert, Oficyna Wydawnicza RYTM, Warsaw 2001.
Google Scholar

Quercioli Mincer Laura, Literatura jidysz i żydowsko-polska, in: Historia literatury polskiej, L. Marinelli (ed.), translated by M. Woźniak, Ossolineum, Wroclaw 2009.
Google Scholar

Segałowicz Zusmann, Julian Tuwim, Heichan haita kodem [Julianie Tuwimie, gdzie byłeś przedtem], “Hed Jeruszalim” from 27.11.1944.
Google Scholar

Steffen Karin, Jüdische Polonität. Ethnizität und Nation im Spiegel der polnischsprachigen Presse 1918–1939, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004.
Google Scholar

Stępniak Michał, Tuwima problem narodowościowy. Po tej i po tamtej stronie, “Kronika Miasta Łodzi” 2013, issue 3, pp. 95–100.
Google Scholar

Tuwim Julian, Dyskusja z udziałem Aliny Molisak, Belli Szwarcman-Czarnoty, Michała Głowińskiego i Piotra Matywieckiego, “Midrasz” 2013, issue 5, pp. 12–20.
Google Scholar

Tuwim Julian, Lokomotywa. The Locomotive. Die Lokomotive, translated by W. von Polentz, M. Weyland, Universitas, Cracow 2013.
Google Scholar

Tuwim Julian, My, Żydzi polscy… (We Polish Jews…), compilation and introduction by Ch. Szmeruk, Fundacja Shalom, Warsaw 1993.
Google Scholar

Tuwim Julian, Dedecius Karl, Nasz 20. Wiek / Unser 20. Jahrhundert, Muzeum Miasta Łodzi, Lodz–Stuttgart–Frankfurt 2013.
Google Scholar

Urbanek Mariusz (interview), Mariusz Urbanek o Tuwimie, http://culture.pl/pl/artykul/mariusz-urbanek-o-tuwimie [accessed on: 26.11.2013].
Google Scholar

Urbanek Mariusz (interview), Julian Tuwim miał poczucie, że jest niczyj, http://wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1342,title,Mariusz-Urbanek-Julian-Tuwim-mial-poczucie-ze-jestniczyj,wid,16093950,wiadomosc.html,22.10.2013 [accessed on: 26.11.2013].
Google Scholar

Urbanek Mariusz, Tuwim. Wylękniony bluźnierca, Wydawnictwo Iskry, Warsaw 2013.
Google Scholar

Winczakiewicz Jan, Izrael w poezji polskiej. Antologia, Instytut Literacki, Paris 1958.
Google Scholar

Wittlin Józef, Blaski i nędze emigracji, “Kultura” 1959, issue 9.
Google Scholar

Wittlin Józef, Orfeusz w piekle XX wieku, Instytut Literacki, Paris 1963.
Google Scholar

Opublikowane

2017-05-30

Jak cytować

Trepte, H.-C. (2017). Between Homeland and Emigration. Tuwim’s Struggle for Identity. Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica, 36(6), 35–47. https://doi.org/10.18778/1505-9057.36.04