Olha Voznyuk

Abstract

The process of creating the phenomenon of Galician identity and also “Galician literatureˮ affects such geopolitical, cultural and historical factors as the desire of local elites to emphasize their uniqueness and the attempts to create government programs for Galician people. The first predictors of “Galician literatureˮ were anthologies, which began to appear in the early of 19^th century, including anthologies of Waclaw Załeski, Żegota Pauli, Rusalka Dnistrowaja and others. The next step were collections, which had an encyclopaedic character, for example, about Boleslaw Limanowski and others. And the final phase can be called Post-Galician based on the works of such writers of the 20^th century as Andrzej Stasiuk, Yuri Andrukhovych, etc., for which Galicia and its history was not only a source of inspiration but the reason for creating a separate school of literature.

Key words: Galicia, literature, anthology, encyclopaedia, identity.

In 1772, the province of Galicia and Lodomer was created as a new cultural land with the idea of a new society, which was formed during the existence of Galicia. It exists even today in spite of the fact that the cultural heritage of the province is divided between the independent countries of Ukraine and Poland.

The uniqueness of the Galician literature resides in the fact that it was constructed step by step, from the early days of the province till present. The importance of the intellectual Galician discourse for the modern humanitarian research area can be shown on the example of the books written on the issue by prof. Alois Woldan¹, Stefan Simonek², Larry Wolff³, Kotyńska Katarzyna⁴, Danuta Sosnowska⁵ etc.

What can be called the first folkloristic phase of Galician specific narration started in the almanac Haliczanin (The Galician)⁶ (1830) in the 19^th century. It represented the belief in the existence of Galician culture as established by the title of the almanac Haliczanin. This title created a new consciousness at least among the intellectuals of the new crown land which has been reflected in culture.

The existence of the Galician literary culture is postulated by Wacław Zaleski in the title of his first and most comprehensive anthology of folklore texts Pieśni Polskie i ruskie ludu galicyjskiego (1833)⁷. W. Zaleski said that faced with a problem of how to write down Ukrainian songs, because, in that time according to the author, Ukrainian people had no own grammar. Zaleski wrote down Ukrainian songs with the Polish alphabet.  The author tried to convey that most phonetic sounds of the Ukrainian language are easy to understand.

Likewise, there is another remark in his introduction that draws attention to the possible objection to incomprehensibility. According to Zaleski, it is just a matter of good will to understand the other and only a small effort is needed (“Każdy Rusin zrozumie pieśni Polskie, jak i Polak zrozumie ruskie, jeżeli tylko zechce, i jakiegokolwiek do tego przyłoży staranieˮ)⁸. Such an assertion is hold true linguistically, and thus those who can speak Polish should be able to understand Ukrainian and vice versa. Quite rightly, the co-existence and the close proximity of the Galician-Ukrainian dialects have promoted understanding among the people. Moreover, it is also thanks to the Zaleski’s appeal to the good will and the desire for harmonisation: in his conception of the "Galician people", they should have as much in common as possible and have as little differences as possible. It remains to be seen whether the representatives of the Ukrainian group in Galicia agree or not.

As the next step of the construction of the Galician literature, Zegota Pauli's anthologies Pieśni ludu polskiego w Galicji (Songs of the Polish people in Galicia (1838))⁹ and Pieśni ludu ruskiego w Galicji¹⁰ (Songs of the Ruthenian people in Galicia (1840)), a second part published two years later, can be mentioned. In it, Pauli complements the collection of texts put together by his predecessor that he had not known or had not found. Furthermore, he separates the Polish and the Ruthenian songs into two separate volumes. Zaleski’s argument of a common settlement space and a common history does not appear to the folklore collector as important as the geographical name in Galicia. The connection between these two parts and can be certainly seen as an argument for a unique folklore tradition establishing in Galicia. At least, his comment that he would have the time to record and publish the "songs of the common people of our country" can be interpreted this way.

At the same time, Pauli introduces a terminological distinction: outside Galicia, he identified songs as Ukrainian. They come from the Great Ukraine, a part of the Tsarist Russia, and stand in contrast to the Ruthenian songs from Galicia. The perception of the Ukrainian side of the Austro-Galician border undoubtedly speaks for a heightened awareness of this national group: now it should be mentioned that the Ruthenian folklore and Ukrainian texts, which are in the same language and discuss the same themes, were expanded and supplemented. The Ruthenian and Ukrainian songs were transcribed in Polish alphabet which shows the dominance of the Polish language as the language of culture in Galicia. Pauli had a polemic with his predecessor with respect to the arrangement of the songs in his band. He also questioned the assertion of the relatively trouble-free mutual understanding between Poles and Ruthenians. He did it indirectly by including with a small “dictionary of less understandable Ruthenian wordsˮ in the volume. The underlying idea was that the Polish reader of the Ruthenian band needs assistance, a dictionary, and that the “good will” alone is not enough to understand these texts fully.

The way in which Galicia is described to the readers in Pauli’s anthology is different to the way Zaleski does is, especially in relation to how certain songs are sung. Therefore, it is a first step towards to an encyclopaedic description of Galician ethnography. The comparison with other Slavic nations, for example, with the Czechs and Serbs, in that context is typical of the Slavic Romanticism. The song anthologies of Żegota Pauli describe the rite in which certain songs were performed and give examples of comparisons of these songs and ceremonies among other Slavic peoples, such as the Czechs, Serbs, and others.

The new step of the the Galician literature creation was the Ruthenian (Ukrainian) language anthology Rusalka Dnistrovaja¹¹ (Rusalka/river nymph from the Dniester) 1837, which is now written in the Cyrillic alphabet. It was produced by three students of theology and later poets, Markiyan Saskevyc, Jakiv Holovac'kyj and Ivan Vahylevyc, and could appear only with great difficulty in Buda. The copies smuggled to Galicia were confiscated and destroyed, and only some of them reached the readers. In the modern history of Ukrainian literature, this almanac plays an important role of establishing of the new Ukrainian literature. In Galician context, it can be seen as an antithesis to the existing Polish anthological projects based on a completely different conception. In other words, there is no longer a common Polish-Ruthenian folklore (see the Rusalka metaphor). The independent Ruthenian folklore, dedicated to her sisters, can be measured in Slavic radius, even if quasi has awakened as a last resort for an independent life: “Не журися, Русалочка, з-над Дністра, що-сь не прибрана, в наряді, який від природи і добродушного і добросердного народу твойого приймила-сь, стаєш перед твоїми сестрицями. Они добрі, вибачат ти, приймут тя і прикрасят”.¹² Here, authors demonstrated independence from the Polish patronage in terms of cultural development.

Conversely, these folk is local, Galician, as is evident from the spatial location of the allegory: it is a Rusalka from the Dniestr, the Galician river par excellence!

Besides collected folk songs, there are also translations of the Slavic folklore literature, especially from Czech and Serbian, in this anthology. The Czech literature in particular is considered an elder sister who has already woken up from and has established its name worldwide, not in the least with the infamous manuscript forgeries still thought of then as high medieval originals (fragments of it are found in Ukrainian translation in the Rusalka). The Serbian folklore, to turn to the famous work of Karadzic, is a prime example of the recording of folklore texts in the principle of the vernacular: “пиши як чуєш, а читай як видиш” (“Write as you hear and read and as you see!”). Compared to its sisters, the Galician folklore is doing well and can be seen as an effective antidote to the excesses on the part of the patronising Polish folklore.

The Rusalka Dnistrovaja offers a new perspective. A great diversity of voices that have appeared in the Russian Empire emphasized the Galician narrative, namely the importance of publishing the Ukrainian folklore. In addition to the Ukrainian and Galician folklore, there were also examples of the folklore of other Slavic nations – Czechs and Serbs – in Ukrainian translation incorporated in the anthology. Unlike previous anthologies, which have focused on the limited Galician context (W. Zaleski and Ż. Pauli), Rusalka Dnistrovaja is oriented towards a Pan-Slavic narration and builds a bridge to the Ukrainian project.

The next step of the incipience of the Galician narration and Galician literature was the period of inventing Galicia in different sources that introduced Galicia as a new land in the Habsburg’s monarchy. The first texts that listed Galicia as a terra incognita and were mostly of encyclopaedic character were published at the end of 19^th century in Lviv. In 1868, 2 volumes of the Antoni Schneider’s encyclopaedia Encyklopedia krajoznawstwa Galicyi¹³ were published in Lviv. In them, the author tried to give as much information about Galicia as he could found. Unfortunately, only 2 volumes of the larger project were published (letter A and even not a full letter B). As A. Scheider stated in his preface to the Encyclopaedia, the main idea of the project was to describe the Galician province as it is for the future generations because, without the historical and ethnical background, the past can be forgotten and the future will not be known¹⁴. According to the author, the encyclopaedic style was the best way to bring the information about Galicia to the readers and to the future generations. Schneider concentrated his attention on the cultural and historical perspectives on Galicia; he included detailed information about ethnical and religious groups, ethnographical names, etc. This was the first encyclopaedia about Galicia that later came to considered as classic where the author followed the encyclopaedic norms and principles in describing the province for the current and future generations. Of course, it should be mentioned that the language of the encyclopaedia was Polish, as it was one of the main languages in Galicia at that time.

A few years later in Vienna, Julius Jandaurek published a book about Galicia, in German of course, „Das Königreich Galizien und Lodomerien und das Herzogthum Bukowina” (1884)¹⁵. Jandaurek described the province starting with the historical background, from the first Polish kings to the Austrian Galician time. The author gave a lot of information about the lifestyle in different cities of Galicia and Bukovyna. The text is supported by small black-white, and sometimes colourful, illustrations. Jandaurek even supplied some texts of local songs with illustrations of the local folklore in Galicia; however, they were in German¹⁶. This book is a good source for those who are looking for the information about Galicia with a historical background and want to know about the origins of the province, the past, the lifestyle, multicultural relations in the province, geographical features etc. It is a kind of an exploration of Galicia for the readers who have never heard about it and wanted to discover something new at the end of the 19^th century or for those who just wanted to get more information about the province as it is.

The other perspective on Galicia exploration was presented by Boleslaw Limanowski, a Polish author who published Galicya przedstawiona słowem i ołówkiem w opracowaniu Bolesława Limanowskiego z rysunkami Włodzimierza Tetmajera in 1892 in Warsaw¹⁷. Limanowski showed Galicia as a prominent land in Europe: “Jest to kraj większy od Grecyi, Belgii, Niderlandów, Szwajcaryi, Serbii, Bulgaryi itd”¹⁸. He included a lot of information about the social life of Galicia, the educational system, geography, ethnography, access to the multicultural heritage, nature, political situation and so on. This book presented the Galicia as a territory full of life, which was news for the readers outside of Galicia. The territory was presented as a land rich with such mineral sources as oil and salt, and, although at a low level of technological development at the moment, with promising possibilities of technological development and business progress in the future.

The Galician life in that period was not easy, but interesting, according to the authors of the exploratory books because the province started to live its own life as an independent land with its own history, multicultural traditions and attempts to build its own Galician cultural history, which can be observed in the literature of the time.

In the late 19^th century, several works about Galicia in Polish and as well as a few German ones of a more encyclopaedic character that can be found. Soon after a voluminous collective work appeared: the Galician band in the “Kronprinzenwerkˮ (The Austro-Hungarian monarchy in Word and Picture. Galicia, Vienna, 1898). The main aim of this work was to give a comprehensive insight into all the areas of the Galician life and to present the multicultural contribution to the province: Poles, Ukrainians, Jews and Armenians. The language of the work was German. Here, the importance of the linguistic code is clear: German is selected not only for the practical reasons, but also so that the book can reach as many potential readers as possible. It is also an indication of the high-level of the German-Austrian unity that can bridge national differences.

After the Galician province disappeared in 1918, the Galician tradition has not ended, and it still continues at the modern Ukrainian and Polish literature. The image of Galicia in the contemporary Post-Galician phase of the discourse still fulfils the function of remembering the cultural heritage and the territorial historical development. The most discussed Galician topic is represented in the Ukrainian literature discourse by such writers as Juriy Andruhovych¹⁹, Jirij Vinnychuk²⁰, Taras Prohasko, Natalka Sniadanko etc. Those Ukrainian writers have a different vision of the Galician past: it is the re-vision of the Galician past for the future. The Galician identity for them is not something fantastic or unbelievable. They are trying to reconstruct the vision of the Galician multicultural symbioses as it is thought to have existed in the province, according to the oral history materials from the family archives as well as local oral history. The historical past is not only the myth or nostalgia, it is the live oral history of almost every Galician family in which the grandparents still remember the relatives’ stories from the Galician times and emotionally convey them the rest of the family. This is the other vision of the past from inside of the Galician discourse that already has a personal touch.

The Polish Galician voice is represented mostly by Stanislaw Vincenz, Stanislaw Lem and Andrzej Stasiuk²¹; however, from the Polish perspective this topic is not as sensitive as from the Ukrainian one. Polish researchers asked themselves as well whether they should continue the Galician discourse and how they should talk about Galicia with the future generations especially when using other media as a resource to transfer the information²². The Polish discourse is not so emotionally strongly presented in modern Polish literature compared to the Ukrainian voice on the issue, but it also shows the other view on the Galician East-West dialog where the Polish voice is not so dominant as it used to be. The Polish view of the Galician problem shows the way for re-thinking the past and trying to make the best of it because, at the time, the Polish Kingdom lost its territory and was occupied by the Habsburg Monarchy (which is why the reception of the Galician heritage is not so positive in some aspects). The Polish-Ukrainian Galician dialog helps to construct a productive future vision of the Galician heritage for the future generations.

Thus, the Galicia as a province has established not only its own cultural heritage but also its own literature sphere. The first phase took place at the beginning of 19^th century with the publishing of the almanac Haliczanin and anthologies by Waclaw Zaleski, Zegota Pauli, etc. The next step, which showed a specific interest of Galicia, was publishing books of encyclopaedic character, for example, the books by Boleslaw Limanowski, Julius Jandaurek, etc. Galicia was always of interest to writers, travellers and researchers and still is the subject of intellectual investigations and discussions. The existence of the concept of Galician literature has is justified and has a logical explanation because, as is shown above, the phenomenon exists till today in spite of the Galicia having disappeared as political entity.

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Olha Voznyuk
University of Vienna
Doktoratskolleg Galizien
Dissertation topic: "Galicia as an Anthology Project in Text and Images"

Contact: voznyuk.olha@gmail.com