The presentation will focus on an intriguing yet largely forgotten part of writings of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, one of the most important Polish intellectuals of the 20th century. “A Journey to Burma” remains one of Herling-Grudziński’s least known works, with only (some) Polish specialists in the field of literature studies having any knowledge of it. That is unfortunate: as one of top Polish literature specialists remarked “if Herling had written a Journey toBurma in English, it would have become a classic of postcolonial literature”. Instead of being a classic, the diary is almost unknown. This is unfortunate, given the fact that Herling-Grudziński, a Polish writer of Jewish origins from Eastern Europe writing about a decolonizing Asian country, provides a particularly interesting case study of postcolonial ambiguity and complexity.
"A Journey to Burma" paints a vivid, fascinating, disturbing and complicated picture. Herling-Grudziński came to Burma with his (Eastern) European emotional baggage which was both an asset and a burden. Despite some simplifications he was able to summarize Burmese reality surprisingly well. Out of numerous aspects of this diary, one is particularly interesting: a tension between anticolonialism and anticommunism.
