Rejecting ‘Ehrenburgness’: Sławomir Mrożek on His Attitude to the Communist Poland, as seen in His Autobiographical Texts

Barbara GUTKOWSKA

Quarterly Ethos, John Paul II Institute, Faculty of Philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20-612 Lublin, Poland , Poland

Abstract

The article comprises an analysis of Sławomir Mrożek’s autobiographical texts in which he describes his attitude to the Polish government of the communist era. Mrożek initially approved of the official ideology of the Polish State, but in time began to ‘play a game’ with the censors, exposing the ubiquitous propaganda by means of stylistic and rhetorical devices, such as parables, symbols, allusions, and parodies. Having began to live abroad in 1963, he initially employed a cautious strategy of not breaking the bonds with Poland despite his status of an émigré, but after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, a military operation with an active involvement of the Polish army, declared his dissent and publicly denounced the Polish government. The article describes also Mrożek’s response to the declaration of martial law in Poland in 1981, as well as his misgivings about the political transformation of 1989.

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska

Keywords:

Sławomir Mrożek, autobiography, government, communist Poland