Między ojczyzną i emigracją. Juliana Tuwima uwikłania (nie tylko) w tożsamość
Streszczenie
Julian Tuwim belongs to the pantheon of the greatest Polish writes of the 20th century.
His Polish-Jewish descent, his attitude towards the Polish language, towards Jews
in Poland, his political activities as an emigrant as well as his controversial involvement
with the communist Poland still fuel many critical discussions. Polish language and culture
were for him much more important than the categories of nation or state. However,
whereas for Polish nationalists and antisemites Tuwim remained “only” a Jew, Jewish
nationalists considered him a traitor. It was in exile that his attitude towards his Jewish
countrymen began to change, especially after he learnt about the horror of the Holocaust
in occupied Poland. Thus, he began writing his famous, dramatic manifesto, We, the Polish
Jews. After World War II , Tuwim came back to Poland, hoping to continue his prewar
career as a celebrated poet. His manifold contributions to the development of the Polish
language and literature, within the country and abroad, cannot be questioned, and the
dilemmas concerning his cultural and ethnic identity only make him a more interesting
writer.