Drohobych text as multicultural fictional polylogue (based on literary dilogy by Bruno Schulz)

Abstract

Extraordinary and very interesting for research in the field of Ukrainian Polonistics is the creative work of an extraordinary Galician Pole of Jewish origin, who lived almost all his life (and died tragically) in Ukraine – Bruno Schulz. Currently, the problem of Schulz’s Drohobych text is being actively studied, in particular through the prism of the diversity of different cultures presented by it, Polish, Jewish, Ukrainian, German, etc. The issues related to the analysis of Bruno Schulz’s Drohobych text from the point of view of the cultural dialogue are the most debated and, in a certain way, the least researched. And Drohobych itself, with its diverse integration, in particular in the cultural realm, and the Galician literary borderlands left their mark on Bruno Schulz. The purpose of the article is to determine the degree and features of the presence/absence of different cultures in Bruno Schulz’s Drohobych text. The investigation has analyzed the historiographical aspect of the problem; the views of scientists regarding the presence of polyphonic cultures in Bruno Schulz’s Drohobych text are summarized; the markers of the author’s position regarding the presence and interaction of Ukrainian, Jewish, Polish, etc. contexts within Schulz’s Drohobych text have been revealed. The author concludes: Bruno Schulz’s unique Drohobych text is a world of sometimes obvious, sometimes veiled, but definitely existing connections of different cultural identities; it is a reflection of the space formed by centuries of the neighborhood of different peoples, religions, and cultures, the space that has become an original, unique, unusual place for their meeting, touch, relationships and mutual influences. The study of the Drohobych text can be continued both within the translation discourse, using the numerous Ukrainian translations of Bruno Schulz’s prose works, and in the pictorial, essayistic, or epistolary realm of his heritage.