"Czymże są nasze niepokoje przy ich niepokojach?" : historyczne fale emigracji polskiej do Stanów Zjednoczonych w reportażach Małgorzaty Szejnert

Abstract

The article contains an analysis of reportage books by Małgorzata Szejnert: Wyspa klucz [Key Island] and Borowiki przy ternpajku [Boletuses near the Turnpike]. The first book, illustrating the history of immigrant inspection station on Ellis Island in New York, is a starting point for discussion on Polish emigration to the United States at the turn of the 19th century. Anxieties of the then emigrants are juxtaposed with the portrait of contemporary Polish diaspora. The authoress discusses their current dilemmas and relationship with the past of their ancestors on the basis of the second of the above-mentioned books. What complements the problems discussed in the article are emigrational episodes in the biography of Szejnert herself as well as various American motifs present in the reporter’s other works.