Thoughts on the memory of Galicia in connection with the works of Andrzej Stojowski

The Polish writer Andrzej Stojowski (1933–2006) has a special place in contemporary Polish prose. He was not a professional writer in the sense, that literature was not regarded as the main source of livelihood. At the same time, he represents the thematic line, whose au-thors wanted to save a lost world and culture from forgetting. In the Polish prose after 1945 this is the “nurt kresowy”, that preserves the memory about today’s Lithuania, Ukraine and Galicia before 1939. The most prominent representatives of this thematic line are Leopold Buczkowski, Tadeusz Konwicki, Józef Mackiewicz, Czesław Miłosz, Julian Stryjkowski and Józef Wittlin. The memory of Galicia was primarily preserved by Stojowsky's in four works of tetralogy: by Podróż do Nieczajny (1968), by the Romans polski published in 1970, Chłopiec na kucu from 1971, and by the Kareta, who was published one year later. These four novels are linked to the topic of novel Kanonierka. His fabula takes place before the Second World War. The Zamek w Karpatach, as shows his subtitle, – “imaginations” – my-thologizes the historical past. The awakening or destruction of national myths is an important creative concept in Polish literature. These two contradictory concepts have been a decisive element of Polish literature since the Renaissance era. Among the emotional Polish readers, works, who create myths, are very popular. For this reason, excellent Polish authors have remained in the background, such as Jan Józef Szczepański, who is destroying historical myths. In his works Stojowski is primarily based on the myth of creation. The starting point is always the family, the home, the castle in Błędowa or Grudna, and the narrower home, the nobility in near of Lemberg and Cracow. It mainly idealizes the era before I World War and is strongly critical Poland, which was in very confused political period after 1918.