On the Autobiographic Style of the Educated Soldier (the Example of Jan Fudakowski)

Abstract

The article is the result of research into non-fiction, memoir writing from the period of the 1920 war. On the basis of Uhlan Memoirs from 1920, an autobio­graphical book by Jan Fudakowski, the author considers the problem of speci­ficity and individuality of the war autobiography style. The studied example is an autobiography of a soldier and an educated man. Fudakowski consist­ently assumes a double role of a soldier and an intelligentsia member, both important for his perception and manne of describing the war reality. In the light of his narration, the writer reveals himself as a lover of the prose by Hen­ryk Sienkiewicz, a careful observer and a participant of key battles in the war campaign, and also as a citizen involved in the affairs of the independent Pol­ish Commonwealth. While presenting the autobiographic style of Fudakowski as realized in his memoirs, the author discusses the following thematic orders (systems): (1) the style of intelligentsia identity; (2) the style of presenting bat­tlefields; and (3) the style of thinking about a post-war future. As far as literary theory is concerned, the considerations were based on the works by Philippe Lejeune and Jean Starobinski.