The "Own", the "Alien" and the "Other" in Ukrainian and Polish

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Date
2013-02-27T14:28:43Z
Authors
Semenova, Daria
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Abstract
This research dwells on the idea that entertaining genres, even those often relegated to youngsters’ reading as unserious, such as the adventure novel, convey ideological matters, including ideas about what the identity and values of the "in-group" are and how it relates to various Others, whether or not it was the author’s intention to fulfill didactic functions. A body of Ukrainian and Polish "wanderer’s adventure" novels throughout the 20th century is considered, which allows analyzing mechanisms pertinent to the genre in two national literatures and in different socio-cultural contexts, under national state and socialist regime, in ‘mainland’ and in diaspora. A salient national identity is conveyed by Polish novels in early 20th century, strongly allying with "Europeanness" and juxtaposing to all non-Western cultures; the latter is reconsidered throughout the century as well as the structure of "Polishness". Ukrainian Soviet literature does not witness salient national identity with other social identities being dominant, and it regains importance in the post-war emigrants’ literature. Two main motives of meeting the Other in both literatures are related to the experience of "colonizer" or "colonized", in either case the very generic structure contributing to ideological upbringing through raising the self-esteem or rethinking the national martyrology.
Пригодницькі романи про екзотичні подорожі, розважаючи своїх юних читачів, водночас відіграють дидактичну роль, поміж іншим, передаючи певну картину світу з притаманними уявленнями про "Своє", "Чуже" та "Інше".
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Polish literature, Ukrainian literature, literature for youngsters, adventure novels, identity, didacticism, польська література, українська література, література для підлітків, пригодницькі романи, дидактизм
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