“Passengeriality”: Vita Sackville-West’s Passenger to Teheran and the May Coup in Poland

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31261/https://doi.org/10.31261/PS_P.2021.27.05

Keywords:

border crossing, Eastern Europe, Grajewo, May Coup, passengeriality, travelogue, Vita Sackville–West

Abstract

Travellers’ discourses thrive on anecdotes. According to Stephen Greenblatt, they interpose between a series of similar, narrow experiences and a wider pattern they may indicate. This analysis deciphers how an anecdote from Passenger to Teheran (1926), the travelogue written by Vita Sackville-West, is not just an isolated flash but can indicate larger representational strategies. In her epic journey Vita Sackville-West travelled from London to Egypt, India, Persia, and then back to England, through Russia, Poland and Prussia; by boat, train and car. In the episode which is subject to a detailed analysis, the travellers were stopped at the Polish–East Prussian border and forced to leave the train. The consequences of what could be just an anecdote about an “unwelcome incident”, reverberate – as it turns out – far beyond the incidental because what is at stake at almost every border incident is a socio–political, geo–political, military and ideological reality. No matter whether such events are presented as adventures or in all seriousness, each border trouble has consequences beyond any “local moment”. To disclose some of the less obvious implications of the Polish–Prussian passage in Vita Sackville-West’s book is the aim of this essay.

Author Biography

Zbigniew Białas, Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach

ZBIGNIEW BIAŁAS – prof., Institute of Literary Studies, University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland.
Zbigniew Białas is Professor of English in the Institute of Literary Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland) and author of five novels. He was Humboldt Research Fellow in Germany, Rockefeller Fellow in Italy and Fulbright Senior Fellow in the USA. His academic books include Post-Tribal Ethos in African Literature (1993), Mapping Wild Gardens (1997) and The Body Wall (2006). His first novel, Korzeniec, was awarded Silesian Literary Laurels, won the title of Best Polish Prose of 2011 and was turned into a successful theatrical play. Białas edited/co-edited twelve academic volumes, wrote over sixty academic essays and translated English, American and Nigerian literature into Polish.

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Published

2021-06-30

How to Cite

Białas, Z. (2021). “Passengeriality”: Vita Sackville-West’s Passenger to Teheran and the May Coup in Poland. Postscriptum Polonistyczne, 27(1), 87–103. https://doi.org/10.31261/https://doi.org/10.31261/PS_P.2021.27.05

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 1 (2021): A Suitcase of Her Own: Women and Travel

Section

Women’s Travel Narratives from the 19th Century until Today

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