(Post-)bordering Galicia in Ukrainian and Polish post-colonial discourse: The cases of Yurii Andrukhovych and Andrzej Stasiuk

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of literary representations of Galicia in two discourses of the region: Ukrainian and Polish. They are discussed on the basis of essays by Yurii Andrukhovych and Andrzej Stasiuk. For both writers, the narrative of Galicia, understood concurrently as a bordering and post-bordering space, is the starting point for reflection on the epistemology and ontology of Polish–Ukrainian borderlands and Central Europe. A disparity emerges from the perspectives of the two writers which can be described by way of the opposition city/province. Andrukhovych explores the palimpsestic and heterotopic character of the Galician urban sphere, while Stasiuk focuses on the most peripheral regions. The meaning generated by that difference evokes disparate ideological concepts regarding both former Galicia and Central Europe.

Keywords

border borderland Central Europe Galicia post-bordering space

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