Podróż do źródeł tożsamości. Wschód Andrzeja Stasiuka

The article depicts the issue of the relationship between broadly defined landscape and the identity formation. The subject of the analysis is the book The East published in 2014 by Andrzej Stasiuk. The writer’s journey through the East (from the eastern regions of Poland across Russia to China and Mongolia) becomes a journey back in time into his childhood. It gives him an unique opportunity to analyze the factors that shaped his personality from the perspective of a mature man. It has been Russia that played a crucial role in the formation of his identity. The author of the article brings to readers’ attention the change in writer’s attitude towards Russia that has been taking place over the years – starting from a sense of superiority and contempt ending in fascination and admiration. According to it, Stasiuk’s story about the East can be interpreted as an attempt to regain the narrator’s childhood as well as the childhood of the nation to which he belongs.