Captured in the Focus of History. Sylwia Siedlecka’s Reportages on Bulgaria

Abstract

The article analyses Polish writer Sylwia Siedlecka’s collection of reportages entitled Złote piachy (Golden Dusts) against the background of other modes of writing about Bulgaria, developed within the last decade. The comparison outlines the particular positioning of Siedlecka’s reportages as texts in which the cultural dichotomy East – West loses its importance. The weakening of those categories is achieved not only on the conceptual level of the book, but also by author’s affective writing style. The demythologization of Bulgaria’s imaginary geography leads to a more stable embedding of the presented facts and events on the timeline of the country’s history. Siedlecka’s reportages, based on the biographies of the characters depicted in them, may be perceived as elements of a greater story about the problematic existence of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria.