Otherness as an Analytical Category in Studying Polish Emigré Artists

Biographical interviews conducted among Polish émigré artists have revealed several key categories. One of them is the feeling of otherness, which turns out to be a complex and multifaceted category. In the artists’ ‘mythologies’ their sense of foreignness, otherness, and even awareness of the hostility of the outside world appears very often and becomes part of their biographies and artistic ethos. Emigration generally exacerbates this condition. In the emigrant experience, the foreignness of the new place of residence and prolonged absence from the home country has its consequences. Very often emigré artists experience a dual sense of otherness: in the home country that they have left and in the new place of residence. However, this does not mean that the feeling is connected solely with suffering. Many artists are able to use this feeling to find subject matter and stimulation for creative work. These artists continually derive inspiration from being an outsider. The author uses biographical material to show the different trajectories of foreignness and the various creative strategies used by emigré artists. Otherness is shown to be a key category of their experience but not an entirely unambiguous one