THE FUNCTIONING OF THE CONCEPT OF “OTHERNESS” AND “SELFNESS” IN MODERN POLISH EMIGRATION LITERATURE

Abstract

In recent decades, the issue of cultural functioning of the emigrant abroad is considered important and relevant. In our opinion, the identity of a person, and especially the identity of an emigrant, can be most fully explored and presented on the example of the concept of “otherness” and “selfness”. Therefore, in the article we aim to present the image of an emigrant as a newcomer, outsider, non-native on the example of the reports of Ewa Winnicka “Angole”. Methods. In our work we use general scientific and linguistic methods. Using structural and descriptive methods, we collected, systematized and characterized the theoretical provisions related to the researched concept, comparative method was used in the analysis of this concept in the works of not only Polish but also other foreign researchers. Elements of the etymological method and the method of dictionary definitions were important in order to clarify the etymology of some Polish language phrases. Thanks to interpretive-textual and contextual methods, it was possible to study the functioning of the concept in the works of Polish emigration literature. In our study we also focus on the ethnocultural aspect of the concept, so we describe the concept as a model based on awareness of the importance of a particular national culture in the life of society and emigrants. Scientific novelty. For the first time in Polish and Ukrainian literary criticism, the functioning of this concept is analyzed. The functioning of the concept of “otherness” and “selfness”in the Polish emigration literature is analyzed on the example of Ewa Winnicka’s collection of reports „Angole”; the image of the emigrant as a stranger and / or another is presented through the prism of literature. In addition, we tried to determine the uniqueness of the „otherness” of the emigrant. The reasons for the exclusion of emigrants from public life due to their otherness have been studied. Conclusions. Emigrants’ misunderstanding of their (especially national) identity gives emigrants the belief that they are no longer members of the «normal world», that they will always be strangers, others, unaccepted, and therefore hostile to the society in which they live.