Post-German – The Imagined Geography of the Recovered Territories 3302-PGWZO-OG

The theme of the so-called Recovered Territories in Polish literature is not only a literary narrative. The “post-German” is a Polish cultural phenomenon linked to the East–West migration in postwar Europe. This phenomenon encompasses processes of identity formation, negotiation of heritage, transformation of cultural contact, domestication, and repression of the foreign.
The “Wild West,” “Odrzania,” “Post-Germania,” and “Under-Poland” – though these lands do not exist on physical maps – form an imagined geography with its own emotional, mnemonic, and symbolic landscape.

What will we read?
Excerpts from socialist realist literature (Paukszta), poetry (Muszer), gonzo reportage (Szczerek), para-documentary prose (Rokita), adventure literature for young readers (Nienacki), non-fiction (Kuszyk), and literary fiction (Szatrawska).

And then?
In the summer semester, you can continue your journey through the cultural borderlands in the second seminar *Expulsions – Topography of Lost Lands*, which presents the German perspective and reveals the other side of the history of the Recovered Territories.

Course coordinators

Anna Damięcka-Wójcik

Type of course

general courses

Mode

Classroom

Learning outcomes

Why is it worth it?
You will explore various research perspectives: postcolonial studies, memory studies, borderland theory, childhood studies, sentimental studies, as well as the concepts of the palimpsest and haunting.
You will gain an understanding of the historical and social context of postwar Europe and of Polish “Western thought.”
You will combine theory and practice by discovering how memory culture shapes contemporary realities in different countries.
For the final assessment, you will prepare your own project, which may serve as a basis for a scholarly article or a bachelor’s thesis.

Assessment criteria

Class participation – 50% (two absences allowed; otherwise, an oral exam is required)
Final presentation – 30%
Completion of homework assignments related to reading excerpts – 20%

Bibliography

Primary Literature (excerpts):
Kuszyk K., Poniemieckie. Wołowiec 2019.
Muszer D., Post-German Poems. Szczecin, 2019.
Nienacki Z., Pan Samochodzik series, Warsaw 1966-1973.
Paukszta, E., Wrastanie [1964], Poznań 1988.
Rokita Z., Odrzania, Kraków 2023.
Sochaj, S., Niedopolska. A New Perspective on the Recovered Territories, Warsaw 2024.
Szatrawska I., Toń, Warsaw 2023.
Szczerek Z., Przyjdzie Mordor i nas zje, czyli tajna historia Słowian, Kraków: Korporacja Ha!art, 2013.
Szczerek Z., Jezus Świebodzińczyk, son of the Panther, in the Post-German Step, Archwium Korporacja Ha!art, 2014.

Secondary Literature:
Ćwiek-Rogalska K., Ziemie. Historie odzyskiwania i utraty, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo RN, 2024.
Gosk, H. (ed.), Migration Narratives in 20th and 21st Century Polish Literature, Kraków, 2012.
Halicka, B., The Polish Wild West. Forced Migrations and the Cultural Domestication of the Oder Region 1945–1948, Kraków 2015.
Kledzik E., Michalski M., Praczyk M. (eds.), The Recovered Territories: In Search of New Narratives, Poznań 2018.
Lipski J. J., Two Homelands, Two Patriotisms, Warsaw 1992.
Saryusz-Wolska M., Traba R., Modi memorandi. Lexicon of Memory Culture, Warsaw: Scholar, 2014.
Traba R., Żytyniec R., Recovered/Lost Heimat, in M. Górny et al. (eds.), Polish-German Places of Memory, vol. 1: Common – Separate, Warsaw 2015.
Zborowska A., The Life of Things in Postwar Poland (1944–1949) – Origins, Practices, and Meanings in a Cultural Perspective, Warsaw: WUW, 2019.

Filmography:
Nikt nie woła (1960), dir. K. Kutz (fragments)
Skarb (1948), dir. Leonard Buczkowski (fragments)
Sami swoi (1967), dir. Sylwester Chęciński

Notes

Term 2025L:

The seminar is conducted in Polish, in an on-site format or in accordance with the current guidelines of the Rector of the University of Warsaw.

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes: