Whither from the Motherland? Some Comments on Female Characters in Marian Pankowskiʼs Writings

Since 1989, Marian Pankowski has been read by critics as a representative of the emancipatory discourses on identity. Enquiry into the origin of his writings, both aesthetic and ideological, has remained in the shadow of such interpretations. A feminist reading looking into the role of women helps to understand his writings in their literary and historical context. This paper examines three areas: the motherland of Pankowskiʼs early texts, the bunker, which symbolizes hidden, preserved histories, and liberal discourse. All these areas speak in unison and reveal the dynamics of a writing that is both revolutionary towards the existing norms and immersed in the late Modernist patriarchal idiom.