Artistic and National Identification of Bruno Schulz

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the artistic and national identification of Bruno Schulz, who, living in what is now Ukrainian Drohobych for nearly his entire life, was of Jewish origin and wrote in Polish and German, achieving considerable international renown. The research is dedicated to defining Schulz’s national and cultural identity through ontologizing, systematizing, and theoretically generalizing information from scientific studies on Schulz. It summarizes various perspectives from established and emerging scholars, researchers from different fields, and admirers of Schulz’s work, ranging from those questioning the possibility of defining Schulz’s identity to those asserting his role as a universally celebrated artist with multiple national affiliations. The article provides a brief biographical overview emphasizing aspects related to the investigation’s themes, discusses different approaches to the debated problem of Schulz’s identity, and states the author’s viewpoint. Schulz’s identity is multifaceted: Ukrainian by birth and residence, Jewish by ethnicity, Polish and partly German by linguistic expression, and a worldclass European artist by his contribution to and place within global and European culture and arts.