Authors

Discussion

In the first half of the 20^th century, Argentina becomes an important destination for Polish emigrants – both Jewish and non-Jewish. Among them are a number of writers who reflect on their experiences as migrants in a variety of genres such as prose fiction, poetry, autobiography, diary, or essay. Some of them write in Polish, others in Yiddish, and still others switch to Spanish after some time in Argentina or have their works translated to Spanish in order to publish them more easily. Despite the authors’ different individual backgrounds and choices of language and genre, many of these texts show parallels regarding their central motive: a feeling of in-betweenness between two worlds – Poland and Argentina. The presentation seeks to explore strategies of positioning oneself, of negotiating overlapping and conflicting identities, and of mitigating feelings of isolation and despair, that both the texts’ authors and their (ficitional) characters or narrators employ.