At the Border of History and AutoBiography — Portraying Lech Wałęsa through Text and Experience

Abstract

The article ana­lyzes selected works by Janusz Głowacki which were created in various moments of his life, and thus in different historical conditions. A narrative on the Polish August written in the 1980s, the later autobio­graphical writings about his émigré experience and the account of the work on the script for the film on Lech Wałęsa all have features of an autobiographical confession, being at the same time the testimony of changes in the Polish identity at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. But most of all they remain a challenge — an ironical critique of national stereotypes and community myths. The article attempts to trace conditions which determined the changes in perceiving recent Polish history and its role in shaping individual and collective identities.