Is this Poland? Three Prose Images of Community

Abstract

The problem addressed in this article concerns the depiction of community in prose written in the first decades of the 21st century. The author analyzes selected works by Jerzy Pilch, Remigiusz Mróz, and Dorota Masłowska, depicting Poland after the political transformation. She searches for traces of the tradition of 20th-century realism and considers the genre-specific determinants contributing to the erosion of this poetics. She interprets the diverse ways of representing reality and the selectivity in characterizing collectivity. Finally, she concludes by signaling a return to realism in literary criticism.