(DOWNLOAD) "Literary Images of Galicia in 1846: Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and the Polish Nation." by Germano-Slavica # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details

Title: Literary Images of Galicia in 1846: Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and the Polish Nation.
Author : Germano-Slavica
Release Date : January 01, 2003
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
Pages : * pages
Size : 219 KB

Description

In the history of Galicia, Polish territory ceded to Austria after the Partitions of Poland, (1) the year 1846 became a caesura that influenced Polish views on how to regain the cultural capital to preserve a distinctive Western identity for Polish culture despite the loss of the nation. Traditionally, Galicia, as the largest Austrian province, (2) played a special role in constructing Polish identity and culture in the nineteenth century. Its citizens created their own kind of Polishness and became the dominant "imagined community" (3) for Polish culture well into the twentieth century. Compared to the Polish regions ceded to Prussia and Russia, Galicia became for many Poles a mythical land of relative independence, where "old" Polish social structures were maintained along with Polish habits, and where progressive and revolutionary thoughts were born and ripened. This relatively autonomous province became the hope and center of Polish cultural and political life, defined as a western nation without a country--a state of mind within Austro-Hungary rather than a political entity. Historically and traditionally, this was a Polish center of conspiracy, revolution, stubbornness, political debacles, and memories of the glorious past of Poland. Significantly, Galicia existed not only in the minds of Poles and political discussions of the time, but also in various literary representations reflecting the existence of the Polish nation-without-a-state. This essay will treat two texts by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) acknowledging this Galician Poland, "Jakob Szela" (4) and "Der Kreisphysikus" (1883). (5) The goal of this analysis will be to argue that Ebner-Eschenbach, although a Germanophone author living in Austria, clearly presents a picture of Galicia's strengths and weaknesses as they appear in Polish literary tradition, despite her opposite ethnic identity and varying politics.