A Transnational Perspective in Biographical Research: The Case of Stanisław Lem

Abstract

In this essay, the author presents biography as a genre of historical writing and argues that it is entangled in the methodological challenges of contemporary historiographical discourses, including methodological nationalism. Placing Stanisław Lem’s biography at the center of her interest, the author analyzes national, ethnic, and class relations in Lviv since the late nineteenth century, and considers the turning points in the history of this city, presenting them from a transnational perspective. In this context, she shows how Lviv’s Center for Urban History of East Central Europe has been transformed and the role it is currently playing in documenting Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

Keywords:

• methodological nationalism
• biography
• Lviv’s history
• archive

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Dziurdzińska, “Dyrektor Instytutu Polskiego.”

2 Janiga, “Lwów”; Świat na krawędzi, 108.

3 Aly, Europe, 123–124.

4 Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, 2010.

5 Aly, Europe, 102–103.

6 Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, 2010.

7 Włoch, “Socjologia wobec zjawisk,” 294–295.

8 Ibid.

9 Beck, Power, 42.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid., 41–43. Beck makes reference to the book by Daniel Levy and Natan Sznaider, Erinnerung im globalen Zeitalter: Der Holocaust, published in 2001.

13 Ibid., 35.

14 Döblin, Journey to Poland, 150–151.

15 Such cut-off dates are assumed by Aly in his monograph Europe against the Jews 1880–1945.

16 Hryciuk, Przemiany, 59–102.

17 Ibid., 7.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid., 5.

21 Kotyńska, Lwów, 68.

22 Sofia Dyak (Софія Дяк), letter to the author, January 8, 2023. I would like to thank Sofia for her critical comments on this essay and helpful suggestions.

23 Central State Historical Archive.

24 Rudnicki, Żydzi, 363–381.

25 Ibid., 395.

26 Oleksandr Makhanets (Олександр Маханець), letter to the author, August 17, 2021.

27 Sands, East West Street.

28 This project has an online version: “Lwów/לעמבערג/Львів: A Story of Returns,” https://returns.lvivcenter.org/en/

29 Zolotar, “City of Lem.”

30 The work being prepared by the Center includes a project commemorating the 1941 pogroms. See Usach, “The Lviv Pogrom (1941).”

31 Zolotar, “City of Lem.”

32 Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, “Documenting Experiences of War.”

33 Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, “Visual Documentation.”

34 Nazaruk, “Subscribe and Follow,” 218.

35 Ibid., 219–220.

36 Ibid., 222.

37 Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, “Diaries.”

38 Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, “Telegram Archive.”

39 For instance, IFiS PAN, the Oral History Archive, the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, and St Andrews University—and the network is growing.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Agnieszka Gajewska

Agnieszka Gajewska is Professor of Literary Studies at the Institute of Polish Philology and the Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Cultural Gender and Identity at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. She is the author of a biography of Lem, Stanisław Lem: Wypędzony z Wysokiego Zamku (2021), as well as Holocaust and the Stars: The Past in the Prose of Stanisław Lem (2022, translated by Katarzyna Gucio) and Hasło: Feminizm (2008). She also served as the editor of a feminist anthology of translations, Teorie wywrotowe (2012), and the co-editor (with Maciej Michalski) of Kultury dziewictwa (2020). Her biography of Lem was shortlisted for the Nike Award and the Jerzy Giedroyc Award, and won the Gdynia Literary Award (2022) and the Kraków Book of the Month Award (2022).