There is a long tradition of Polish-language literature in Kresy Wschodnie (Eastern Borderlands), the outskirts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Second Polish Republic—an affiliation facilitated by the fact that many of these authors were culturally and politically oriented towards Poland. This is particularly true of Polish-speaking writers born in Eastern Belarus at the turn of the 20th century, when this multilingual, multi-ethnic, and multi-confessional region was a part of the Russian Empire. Many of these writers left the region between 1917 and 1921 and never returned.
In this presentation, Hanna Yankuta will attempt to reinterpret the works of émigré writers from Eastern Belarus—such as Florian Czarnyszewicz, Melchior Wańkowicz, Maria Czapska, etc.—in relation to the region’s multilingual legacy. Their works not only show the vision of the region and its political development through the eyes of its Polish-speaking inhabitants, but also their sometimes contradictory influence on Eastern Belarus and its communities. Here, the notion of literature from the Kresy Wschodnie is challenged by the idea of literature without borders. The periphery becomes the center, and texts in different languages are closely interconnected, creating space for understanding between different nations, that allows us to talk about a past to share, rather than a past to divide.
Hanna Yankuta is a Belarusian writer, translator, literary theorist, and independent researcher with a PhD in literary studies. She is the author of Barren Time (Yanushkevich Publishing House, 2023), a book about emigration that received the Jerzy Giedroyć Prize and the Aleś Adamovič Prize in 2024. Yankuta has also published two poetry collections and numerous essays. Her current literary and scholarly work explores the complex multilingual and multi-component identities within Belarus. She has been living in exile since 2021.
IWM Permanent Fellow Ludger Hagedorn will moderate the discussion.
