Preserving oneself in history. On three literary testimonies of the Poles, the soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian army (Karol Omyła, Bogumił Nowotny, Wiktor Willmann)

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to the analysis of three volumes of soldiers’ memoire prose: Krótki życiorys pewnego żołnierza z wojny europejskiej Zapiski domowe by Karol Omyła, Kraków 2019, Wspomnienia by Bogumił Nowotny, Gdańsk 2006, and Wspomnienia wojenne lotnika. Ze wspomnień polskiego lotnika w armii austro-węgierskiej na podniebnych frontach I wojny światowej by Wiktor Willmann, Warszawa - Kraków 2014. These works make it possible to learn about three types of military service, according to the weapon used: infantry, navy and aviation. An asset of Krótki życiorys… is also the language, which represents a dialect typical of Żywiec region with some elements of soldiers’ jargon, which was used in c. and k. regiments, with a majority of Polish soldiers. While reading, the author used the research methodology developed by Paweł Rodak, which includes performativity of a diary, whose features are shared by all the other volumes, except for Wspomnienia… by Willmann. Also, examples of soldiers’ personal document prose were read as literary testimony (following Maria Delaperrière). Hence, considerations into subjectivity, historical truth and the levels of ‘literariness’ of the story about Polish participation in the Great War, parallel to the politically designed legion perspective.