Litwak: uchodźca czy wróg? Wokół medialnej figury innego na początku XX wieku

Abstract

The author of the study analyzes the press image (stereotype) of the Litvak, that is, a Jew who came to the Polish lands, and who was perceived to be hostile both by Poles and by Jews from the Kingdom of Poland. The largest wave of their inflow occurred after 1882. The researcher analyzes Polish and Jewish press, as well as Roman Dmowski's journalistic writings. In the conclusion of the dissertation, he states: "The shallow media discourse, which introduced simple, unified figures of imagination, based on the figure of the Litvak – the Jew – the socialist, is similar in its structure to the deadly rhetoric of the Jacobins, a revolutionary imagination in which the stranger – the emigrant, becomes an emblematic figure of counterrevolution and betrayal of the homeland. Roman Dmowski's recalled discourse, referring to the problem of Litvaks, is an example of hate speech and as such it should be a warning against preferring the language of exclusion in social life."