Przetrwanie za ostatnią cenę. Kobiety „ziemi przechodów” w powieściach o wschodnim pograniczu (Judasz Włodzimierza Pawluczuka, Przewóz Andrzeja Stasiuka)

Abstract

This article compares two novels published at two crucial moments in Poland’s recent history: Włodzimierz Pawluczuk’s Judasz appeared in the year of Poland’s joining the EU (2004), Andrzej Stasiuk’s Przewóz was published in the atmosphere of the emerging conflict over the Polish (and EU) eastern border (2021). Both novels, separated by almost two decades, refer to the same socio-cultural phenomenon which can be defined (to use a phrase borrowed from Maurice Mochnacki) as “the land of passages”. The problematic and imaginary complex marked in this way is connected with the recurring experience of the crossing of foreign armies, the disintegration of state and social structures (including the violation of the patriarchal model), and the necessity to fight for survival on a basic level. The challenge posed to the male and female protagonists by “the land of passages” proves devastating especially for the traditionally understood masculinity, which obligates one to defend the family, the nation, national borders, and the world as a meaningful whole in a situation of danger. Women, traditionally assigned to the care of sustaining life in the biological sense, do not suffer a loss of their gender identity, for they do not lose the field of remedial behavior, consistent with the cultural image of femininity in its archetype.