The Male Hero of Peripheral Europe. Men in Andrzej Stasiuk's Travel Prose

Abstract

This analysis focuses on male figures in Andrzej Stasiuk's travel prose, including both Dukla and Going to Babadag, as well as references to Galician Tales. These are not fully-formed literary characters, but men encountered by Stasiuk during his numerous travels across Central-Eastern Europe. By describing these encounters, the writer creates a collective portrait of people that are linked to a specific time and place. The men in these texts are inhabitants of the deep provinces of Central-Eastern Europe in the 1990s and at the turn of the 21st century. The descriptions in regard to appearance, manners, occupation, and the like, allow us to
talk about the condition of men in Eastern Europe along with their dependence on the peripheral location.