“Riobczik” by Bartosz Połoński as an Emancipatory Novel

Abstract

This article shows Bartosz Połoński’s novel Robczik. A Vilnius Novel as an emancipatory and therapeutic narrative. In a new context, it also restores the Vilnius region to the Polish imagined geography. The coming-of-age story of the main character, Daron, and his friend, the titular Robczik, forms the core of the novel’s plot. It presents the struggle of the two protagonists with feelings of inferiority (that stems from poverty) and a sense of cultural subordination. Written in the sociolect of Vilnius housing estates located beyond the city centre, the novel affirms the local language, highlighting its significance and role in the process of emancipation. The characters’ motivations – financial, erotic, and related to prestige – lead them through a series of trials, including entry into the drug underworld, culminating in a moment of social and religious catharsis, and the discovery of the value of family and community. Psychoanalytic threads, referring to the Oedipus complex and to a subjective economy based on the principles of pleasure and reality, are complemented by reflections on the emancipatory significance of social and cultural capital for the individuals and the group (drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s ideas). Furthermore, Połoński’s novel fits into Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of minor literature, pointing to the political potential of identity-based difference characteristic of Vilnius Poles.