Kresy - pojęcie, znaczenia, wartości
ENThe article discusses a very important issue of the definition of Borderlands and borderlandness in Polish literature and culture. When we talk and write about Borderlands, we can limit the deliberations to presenting only the works that are commonly associated with the notion of borderlandness. This, however valuable from the cognitive point of view, does not broaden our knowledge of what Borderlands are. Therefore, we need to create and use a new methodology. This article does not present concrete methodological solutions, concentrating instead on presenting the development of the notions of Borderlands and borderlandness in Polish literature; starting with the works of Wincenty Pol - the first person to use this term - who contaminated the term into borderlands as a term signifying the patrol service and borderlands as a notion signifying border. Bohdan Zaleski, another nineteenth-century poet, gave the new meaning to the term emphasizing the axiological essence of the borderlandness.At the beginning of course, the term was used in reference to the eastern areas of the former Rzeczypospolita, however, near the end of the 19th century the term western borderlands appeared. In consequence, the meaning of Borderlands changed to signify all the frontier areas of Rzeczypospolita. Such a broad understanding of Borderlands, however, never took root in the common consciousness of the Polish speakers. Evolution of the term Borderlands shows how it picked up new meanings, unknown by the original users. What is also important, Borderlands became a term signifying not only the geographical area, but also the vehicle of important national values.
