"... Jak kamienie przez Boga rzucane na szaniec!" Motywy emigracyjne i demaskacja mitów narodowych w "Wariacjach pocztowych" Kazimierza Brandysa

Abstract

The article discusses the problem of national myths related to military actions waged in order to defend the country against an invader. The myths had been called into being by Old-Polish literature as well as the culture of the Age of Enlightenment and Romanticism. Since the times of Jan Kochanowski, participation in battles had been treated as not only a way to raise exemplary citizens, but also as a proper path of development of every human being. Kazimierz Brandys faces these beliefs – in his opinion any war, even waged for righteous and justified reasons, downgrades the morality of soldiers. The writer describes the process of bestiality of heroes that takes place during their struggle for lost human dignity and self-respect. Thus, the question of therapy applied to ethically and morally mutilated and downgraded personality is raised. Brandys searches for a possibility of such therapy among not only cultural traditions of his homeland, but also beyond them, in oriental spirituality. He introduces emigrant threads and motifs useful in the discussion over possible alternatives for Catholic modes of taming evil. However, neither in Western nor in Oriental cultures the appropriate explanations for, on the one hand, the questions of human obligations and, on the other, of civic duties, had not been found. The novel does not propose any final solution to worldview or moral dilemmas, but instead it actualizes the question of maintaining humanness in unfavorable conditions – when performing patriotic duties on a battlefield.