Belonging after 1948: Women’s Writing and the Changing Boundaries of Polish-Jewish Literature

Abstract

This article examines the problem of redefining Polish-Jewish literature after 1948, with particular attention to women’s writing as a privileged site for negotiating inherited identity, memory, and belonging. Building on earlier theoretical frameworks proposed by Władysław Panas and Eugenia Prokop-Janiec, as well as the concept of “minor literature” developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the study argues that the traditional criteria of language and ethnic origin are no longer sufficient to describe postwar Polish-Jewish literary production. Instead, it proposes a dynamic, threefold model that combines language, cultural self-identification, and biographical ties to territory. The year 1948 — marked by the establishment of the State of Israel, mass migration, and the aftermath of the Holocaust -functions as a crucial historical and conceptual turning point, necessitating new classificatory distinctions, including the differentiation between Polish-Jewish and Polish-Israeli variants of literature written in Polish. These theoretical considerations are illustrated through close readings of prose by Bożena Keff and Viola Wein, whose works represent contrasting yet complementary post-Holocaust, second-generation perspectives. While Keff explores identity through spatial confinement, language, and post-memory rooted in Poland, Wein foregrounds emigration, displacement, and the temporal “freezing” of memory in Israel. Their texts reveal how women’s narratives articulate inherited trauma, negotiate minority subjectivity within the Polish language, and reconfigure the boundaries of national literature. Ultimately, the article demonstrates that contemporary women’s writing plays a central role in reshaping the definition and scope of Polish — Jewish literature in the postwar period.